Best prius highway driving technique
 

I know that p&g is best for large hills, but what is best for a prius on small hills
at highway speeds? (55mph)

Its been proven the prius is best to use gas to accelerate and electric to maintain speed and extend coasting. Hills are a fustercluck. Some just accelerate up to the base of the hill, then let the speed bleed off as you climb it, then reaccelerate on the down side. Some accelerate up the hill and coast down.

Thanks! I have been using DWL, but the engine is always on when doing this, so
P&EVG it is.

There is a "sweet spot" where you have neither engine or electric motor providing power in your Prius.

The best hill strategy is to either maintain your speed uphill or let it gradually drop as you climb the hill. On very slight uphill grades you can store energy in the mass of the vehicle with very little loss in MPG. Then on the downhill grade you can travel a considerable distance without any consumption of fuel or electricity.

Your goal is to optimize the 0 consumption time periods, while minimizing the energy cost of the climb portion of the scenario.

Very slight grades can actually give you better average MPG that flat conditions (0 grades).

No matter how you accelerate uphill (withing reasonable limits) the longer you can maintain the 0 energy coasts the better your mileage will be. There are factors that will affect that mileage, like traffic, and the amount of the grade and adjustments to your technique will improve the mileage even further.

regards
mech

I know that prii absolutely love big hills, as i recently got 63.7mpg in my grandparents 3rd gen., over 87 miles.

I'm still in the process of collecting/analyzing our FE, but (so far) I've been leaving the Prius in Cruise-Control going UP hills then "coasting" (trans in Neutral) whenever possible.

My (yet to be proven) thought-process is: (a) let the ECU software optimize engine/battery usage going UP hill and then (b) let the vehicle inertia "coast" for as long as possible going DOWN hill with NEITHER battery NOR ICE usage...and sparingly use the regeneration-braking to maintain velocity within posted-speed limit.

I am not a fan of cruise control, it's good for tests, but I can't stand inst. mpg of 15 up a small hill just to hold speed!:eek:

...ah, but the people behind you on the public roads don't care.

On my visits home to northern Utah from El Paso, I just set the cruise to a little above the speed limit and let the car handle the go pedal. Still gives me high 40's with about 50/50 65MPH and 75MPH speed limits and many hills. Only mod on those trips was 51PSI in LRR tires. For local trips I don't use cruise and go as fast as traffic on the freeway.

On long car trips using Cruise Control makes driving extremely boring. Typically whenever I get bored of driving around the speed limit on the interstate, I floor it and see how fast I can/want to go without killing myself or wasting too much gas, the DFCO back to 65. As for hills, I just let my speed go down about 5 MPH then get it back up during the downhill.