Xringer's Prius C

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Xringer,

I'd like to know how much of my commute I could do on electricity with a Prius C. If you start with a full charge, how far can you get around town without engaging the gas engine? Rigging up a grid charger should be fairly easy, and developing an engine inhibitor should be possible.

RobertSmalls

The main purpose of the engine inhibitor would be to get the car to move while cold, otherwise I see it moot since you just shift to N and the motor instantly kills.

What I have always wondered is if you try to fully charge the battery does the motor start spinning even with everything else off or does it do so once you start to go?

If after you start to move I think that would be fine, just floor it motor and EV would quickly heat and burn off the charge above 80% and your warmup might be less painfull.

Also driving like a snail with no brakes through town (a rarely traveled set of side streets) I was able to go over a mile on EV (remember I didn't select it, the car did for me) but I was averaging probably 12-15mph in that stretch.

[Xringer]

if I leave that little (triangle) window in the back open, on the highway?

[Slasher]

Originally Posted by Xringer

if I leave that little (triangle) window in the back open, on the highway?

Ouch... a broken window? How'd that happen?

Doesn't look like fun...

[bbennett2]

Originally Posted by Daox

Highway is not where the C shines (not that its bad, just nowhere near your Insight). Wayne said that you're only getting about 60 mpg at 55 mph and it starts tanking once you get up to 65 mph. At 75 I wouldn't be surprised if you were down in the 40s. Its just not aerodynamic enough, and its geared higher than a liftback.

Well I woke up late from my girlfriend's house today, but the good news was I was able to do a real world test of how the prius c does at speed. you can sort of see from the blurry picture that I drove 40 miles at an average speed of 70 mph and was able to get 50.2 mpg. This was on a stretch of 95 between delaware and baltimore....rolling hills the whole time. 50.2 isn't amazing I guess, but I wasn't doing anything to save fuel. I was stepping on the gas to get to work on time. the other thing to note is that I was slowly gaining mpg the whole time. At 30 miles into the trip I was at around 46 mpg. I was driving between 65-80 mph and was continuing to gain mpg the whole time. Not sure where it would have peaked at but I hit a traffic jam before I could find out

[Xringer]

"the Prius c’s EPA-estimated fuel economy ratings of 53/46 mpg city/highway are the highest of all small hybrids, and the 53 mpg city rating is the highest rating for any vehicle without a plug."

Well, that beats the EPA highway 46 MPG number, and then some! Since a lot of folks aren't going to be driving an average of 70 MPH..

Seems like you might be able to do a lot better if you made that trip under the speed limit..
Next time, get up early and set the cruise control to 55..

I see it was warm, did you use the AC at all? And, were you in Eco mode?

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by Slasher

Ouch... a broken window? How'd that happen?

Doesn't look like fun...

I did a double take when I saw that picture. For some reason, the glass was invisible at that angle.. Phantom Glass!

[bbennett2]

yeah, i've done the trip under the speed limit and had much better mpg.. I was just surprised that I still got 50 with the speed I was doing.

I had the ac set to 72, wasn't really doing that much, and yeah I was in Eco mode.

[Xringer]

Since the cd of the 'c' isn't up to normal Pirus standards, it must still be pretty good.
70MPH ave and O% EV, tells us that ICE and the Aero isn't all that bad!!

[Xringer]

Did a fill-up to and got Fuelly..

At 318 miles, it needed 5.5 gallons, giving 57.8 MPG (if the dealer gave us a good fill-up).
The odometer display shows 64.3 MPG. Close to an 11% error..?.
We'll see how close it is, after the 400+ road trip this weekend.
That's going to be 97% highway at 65 ish.. I hope, since I'm not going..

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by Xringer

At 318 miles, it needed 5.5 gallons, giving 57.8 MPG (if the dealer gave us a good fill-up).
The odometer display shows 64.3 MPG. Close to an 11% error..?. (

I would wait for another tank or two before assuming the computer is that far off. If the previous tank was a half gallon short, that would put the mileages pretty close to each other. I would say that that is within the range of a dealer saying it was "full enough".