The point of travel isn't to get the best fuel economy, but to arrive at the destination, the sooner the better.
The Prius is a fantastic vehicle; very practical and fuel efficient. There's not much point in pushing the efficiency further because of the law of diminishing returns.
Toyota once set a goal of improving efficiency 10% with each generation of Prius, but they hardly improved it at all from 3rd to 4th. It was foolish to make such a goal considering diminishing returns makes each 10% improvement much more difficult than the preceding improvement.
I can do that with my leaf.
The energy economy just about doubles at 35mph compared to 65mph.
So I'm looking at way over 200mpg equivalent if I slow down to Sunday driver speed.
But ain't nobody got time for that.
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1984 chevy suburban, custom made 6.5L diesel turbocharged with a Garrett T76 and Holset HE351VE, 22:1 compression 13psi of intercooled boost.
1989 firebird mostly stock. Aside from the 6-speed manual trans, corvette gen 5 front brakes, 1LE drive shaft, 4th Gen disc brake fbody rear end.
2011 leaf SL, white, portable 240v CHAdeMO, trailer hitch, new batt as of 2014.
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The point of travel isn't to get the best fuel economy, but to arrive at the destination, the sooner the better.
The Prius is a fantastic vehicle; very practical and fuel efficient. There's not much point in pushing the efficiency further because of the law of diminishing returns.
Toyota once set a goal of improving efficiency 10% with each generation of Prius, but they hardly improved it at all from 3rd to 4th. It was foolish to make such a goal considering diminishing returns makes each 10% improvement much more difficult than the preceding improvement.
I did that for about a year in my Leaf. Seriously I did. After we got it our circumstances changed a couple months later and we had to drive 70 miles one way and back twice a week. There was no place to charge in between, only at the destination, so I'd hypermile, going between 25 and 35mph for the first half of the return leg. It was a 2,000ft climb. We usually made it home with about 10 miles or less of range.
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Sometimes when I look at the power and torque ratings of newer 1.0L engines in my country, and got remembering the days they felt more underpowered than now, it does surprise me how the average Joe is fooled into believing power to be always more important than torque.
It was an Aygo.
However it didn't feel that underpowered as it was like 700-800 kg.
Also torque doesn't matter, torque curve shape, power and gearing do.
The little 1KR-FE had 80% torque at 1800 rpm and was happy to rev all the way to the limiter.
Toyota once set a goal of improving efficiency 10% with each generation of Prius, but they hardly improved it at all from 3rd to 4th. It was foolish to make such a goal considering diminishing returns makes each 10% improvement much more difficult than the preceding improvement.
Gen IV Prius is significantly more efficient than Gen III. I haven't seen evidence of a Gen 3 Prius getting 100+ mpg, most report getting around 40 mpg. Gen 4 Prius, with a full car and air conditioner running, is still capable of about 60 MPG at even at 70-72 MPH highway speed, which is quite impressive at significantly over a 10% improvement:
Last edited by Galvatron1; 05-18-2021 at 05:14 AM..
Gen IV Prius is significantly more efficient than Gen III. I haven't seen evidence of a Gen 3 Prius getting 100+ mpg, most report getting around 40 mpg. Gen 4 Prius, with a full car and air conditioner running, is still capable of about 60 MPG at even at 70-72 MPH highway speed, which is quite impressive at significantly over a 10% improvement:
The Gen IV is significantly more efficient, technically, but not substantially [subjective] more fuel efficient. Perhaps there are people hypermiling them to great effect, and perhaps the newer design lends itself more readily to it, but Toyota's own reported fuel economy says they improved it only 4% from the previous generation. Toyota improved 11% from Gen I to Gen II, then 8% Gen II to Gen III, then 4% Gen III to Gen IV.
For them to achieve 10% better fuel economy in the Gen V, they would need it to get 6 MPG better fuel economy. I suspect Toyota will focus on making the car trendier than emphasising the environmental aspects since it's easier to engineer sentiment than to engineer a 10% improvement in fuel economy.
Not just conspicuous consumption, but as Carl Sagan says,
“...adolescent young men, who need to have extremely rapid acceleration for psychological reasons of their own.
For all practical purposes, much greater fuel efficiency in automobiles is perfectly possible.”
Profound.
I'd love to see Carl Sagan's house at the time. Methinks he might have something larger than the necessary 500 sqft of living space for psychological reasons of his own.
Profundity apparently only applies lifestyles to other people.
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1984 chevy suburban, custom made 6.5L diesel turbocharged with a Garrett T76 and Holset HE351VE, 22:1 compression 13psi of intercooled boost.
1989 firebird mostly stock. Aside from the 6-speed manual trans, corvette gen 5 front brakes, 1LE drive shaft, 4th Gen disc brake fbody rear end.
2011 leaf SL, white, portable 240v CHAdeMO, trailer hitch, new batt as of 2014.
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