Hybrid Cars...

[pipelineaudio]

what has to warm up? Not the electricals certainly???

And with hypereutectic pistons, tolerances are so close, I could pull a wheelie by the time I backed out onto the street at room temperature

 

[69dodge]

weird law of diminishing returns I see by reading this thread

Its almost a no brainer to make a 400 horsepower 25 mpg motor these days

But a lower weight car with around 200 horsepower isnt getting 50mpg, its usually high 20's or low 30's

Now I see it takes going to an almost suicidal 77 hp to get around 55?

Would the 400 hp car get 25 mpg running flat out? It's called a 400 hp car, but that's just the maximum it can put out. In normal driving, it puts out much less on average.

 

[pipelineaudio]

I wonder, since then it would be cooking, if correctly geared, but wind and rolling resistance would likely take away a lot. Wouldnt a motor make peak mileage around its peak power? maybe not...

 

[kevin]

I have a 2003 Prius, this was (i believe) either the 2nd or 3rd year for the car to be out. I bought mine in Dec 2002, way before the current gas price rise. It is different from the current Prius mainly in that it's smaller (including smaller battery pack.)

I currently get 40MPG, mostly because I live so close to work (more on this in a bit.) I'm not a huge driver (only 20,000 miles currently on a 3 1/2 year old car).

I paid less than sticker (actually hard to do on hybrids these days) but not as low as I could have (if the salesman accepts your offer immediately you've offered too much).

When I purchased my car I looked at disels vs. hybrid and went hybrid because:
a) diesels at that time put out more emissions, mainly in particulate pollution (this is compared to the Prius which is engineered differently than the Honda's, the Prius has a better emissions rating than the Honda Civic (not sure on the insight))
b) while getting diesel gas isn't hard, isn't automatically at every pump
c) if i run out of gas I can drive on my batteries (yes I've done this)
d) I'm a gadget kind of guy, hybrids are just cooler than old technology diesel

I proved two weekends ago, when running very late for my sister's wedding, that a Prius will do 95 miles/hour. It even occasionally gets 50mpg when doing this (going down hill....)

The Prius will run the motor, when first turned on, continuously in order to warm up the engine, oil and catalytic converter. On cold winters days this takes longer, hence the lower gas milage for stop and go driving in winter (highway gas milage should be about the same in winter, except for an issue noted below). I live close to work, the motor, except on very warm days runs pretty much all the way to work. This sucks for my gas milage. If I were to move a few miles more away it would actually improve my mpg.

When driving at lower speeds the Prius will run the motor at the more efficient higher RPM that it is tuned for. The extra RPMs are used to charge the batteries and the energy is stored for later use when the motor isn't needed. I'm not sure the Honda Civic or Insight do this.

Having the radio, headlights, etc... will not make the engine run in stop and go traffic. The engine will still shut itself off.

Having the compressor (A/C or defroster) will cause the engine to run. The engine will shut down for a few seconds then come back on. Turn your A/C or defroster off when stopped as much as you can tolerate. Also use the Auto setting and set a reasonable tempature on the dial to reduce the A/C load. Both of these steps will improve mpg.

Couple of other tips I've noticed:
a) check tire pressure. True in any car, this has a big effect on mpg on my hybrid too.

b) the dashboards outgas, this builds up a deposit on the inside of the windows that fogs up very fast in the winter, and unfogs very slowly. Cleaning the inside of my windows with glass cleaner each winter reduces the amount of fogging, which reduces the amount I need the defroster, which reduces the amount I need the compressor, which takes load of the engine and lets it run more efficiently. This helps my winter mpg.

 

[69dodge]

I wonder, since then it would be cooking, if correctly geared, but wind and rolling resistance would likely take away a lot. Wouldnt a motor make peak mileage around its peak power? maybe not...

I guess you're thinking about something like a drag race? If it's travelling at a steady speed, wind and rolling resistance take away everything; that's where all the power goes.

At WOT, it might be most efficient in the sense of using the least gas for the amount of power it's producing. But going fast takes a lot more power than going slow, because of air resistance. So overall it would still tend to use more gas per mile when going fast.

 

[69dodge]

I proved two weekends ago, when running very late for my sister's wedding, that a Prius will do 95 miles/hour. It even occasionally gets 50mpg when doing this (going down hill....)

How about not downill?

Pretty impressive, anyway, I must say.

Not loud enough, though. Engines are supposed to be loud. When I occasionally drive a modern car, I can hardly even tell it's on.

 

[kevin]

How about not downill?

Pretty impressive, anyway, I must say.

Not loud enough, though. Engines are supposed to be loud. When I occasionally drive a modern car, I can hardly even tell it's on.

I think I averaged about 25mpg driving for an hour doing between 70 and 95 (mostly I did around 85). This was in Missouri hills and the trip there is roughly uphill more than down. Drive back was done at a far more sedate speed and the slight downhill got my mpg back around my overall average of 40mpg.

Yes, loud. It's loud (tolerably loud) at my more typical highway driving speeds of 70-75 (you may read stories about how hybrid drivers are annoyingly slow drivers, that ain't me -- I've got a lead foot). This is why there is a volume knob on the radio

Of course the engine usually doesn't run when you're doing under 10mph so in parking lots it can be dead quite.

 

[Geckko]

These are unrealistic numbers resulting from unrealistic driving conditions. For instance, the Prius has to warmup before it achieves max efficiency. That's why it doesn't do as well on short commutes / first drive of the day.

I realise that. It is the relative numbers that is important. Drawing both sets from manufacturers (as opposed to one from manufacturer and one from a road test) they should be comparable at least.

 

[Terry]

I realise that. It is the relative numbers that is important. Drawing both sets from manufacturers (as opposed to one from manufacturer and one from a road test) they should be comparable at least.

But the Prius has far more power available for acceleration, since it kicks in the electric motors for that. So it's probably peppier.