Many Prius owners wonder how to improve their driving to get the absolute best miles per gallon. Follow these steps and learn how.
Great Expectations
Let’s start with a quick overview of the hardware: Toyota has just redesigned the Prius for 2016. I won’t re-hash our 2016 Prius review; suffice it to say it’s a much-evolved car, better to drive and (of course) more fuel efficient than the previous-generation Prius. EPA fuel economy estimates are 54 MPG city/50 highway/52 combined. In my experience, the previous-gen Prius, EPA-rated at 50 MPG combined, was good for 48-49 MPG in real-world driving, which is what I and just about everyone I know who has one sees. I figured the new Prius might be good for 50 real-world MPG, but I also noted with interest that there is an Eco version rated at 58 MPG highway/53 MPG city/56 MPG combined.
I vowed I would not “hypermile” but would instead drive like a normal human being. This vow lasted about six minutes. I just can’t help myself: A child of the burgeoning video game era, I’m a sucker for a high score. I know some good hypermiling tricks, but I didn’t go crazy: I engaged the Prius’ Eco mode (as opposed to Normal and Power modes), I drove the speed limit (okay, occasionally slightly below), I accelerated gently, and I planned my braking to maximize battery charging. (Like most hybrids, the Prius charges the battery when you hit the brake, storing energy that is used to power the car. The charging creates enough resistance to slow the car significantly, and as a result, Priuses rarely need brake jobs.)
But to be honest, I spent most of my time with one eye on the Prius’ Eco gauge, a moving bar graph that shows how much power you the car is consuming. This gauge is a model of parsimony: Push the throttle anywhere near the half-way mark and it lights up the red POWER band, implying that by the simple expedient of keeping up with traffic, you are attempting to enrich OPEC.
The Prius' Eco gauge. A bar rises on the graph to show how much power the car is consuming.
More important, I found, is the little “EV” icon, which shows when the Prius is running on pure battery power and when the engine cuts in. (Toyota has smoothed out the drivetrain to the point that it’s difficult to tell from vibration alone.) Using this indicator, one can pretty much turn the engine off at will—if you demand enough power to switch on the gas engine, lifting off and then re-applying the accelerator is enough to force the car back to electric-only mode.
The Traffic Jam Is Your Friend
Another tip: Don’t fear traffic. In a conventionally-powered car, traffic is the Kiss of Fuel Economy Death. Just last week, I drove a Mitsubishi Mirage G4 (for which I accept your condolences gratefully), a car that should have returned 40 MPG. Instead, a couple of Los Angeles traffic jams reduced that to just over 31 MPG.
But to the intrepid Prius driver, traffic is an opportunity. The constant braking recharges the battery, and gentle acceleration lets the gas engine stay dormant. Pay attention, pick the right lane, and you can work your way through a nice long traffic jam with nary an ounce of gasoline consumed.
What Can Normal People Expect?
Now, I don’t expect every Prius driver everywhere to achieve such numbers, but I bet they’ll be close. My ex just got herself a 2016 Prius—a top-of-the-line model, not the Eco version—and she just sent me a screen shot of her car’s dashboard: 49.9 MPG.
“I don’t even try,” she told me. “If I gave it any thought, I could probably get more miles to the gallon. I feel like I hardly ever put gas in it.”*
(* To all those who have commented that I’m no Bob Woodward, I would like to point out that Mr. Woodward has never, to my knowledge, quoted his ex-wife in a story.)
So, that’s the tale of how I squeezed 65 MPG from a Toyota Prius. I don’t expect most Prius owners to see that kind of fuel economy in day-to-day driving, but that’s the best part of this story: With the Prius’ help, they can if they want to.
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