GameboyRMH said:
stuart in mn said:
The article doesn't mention it, but was this car modified in any way for greater mileage or was it all up to his driving?
I opened the article to see how closely this Prius resembles a landspeed car, but it looks stock. It doesn't even have moon disc hub caps!
C&D did something like 95mpg in an early hybrid (Insight maybe?) for some charity event, Columbus to Detroit. Whoever got the best fuel economy got to donate some amount of funds to some charity.
The rules said drafting was allowed... and there was no limitation to that. So they dug a double rear door Excursion from their test fleet, installed a huge full width mudflap, opened the doors, and followed so closely that the Excursion driver had to use hand signals so the hybrid driver knew lane changes and braking points.
Hitting that fuel economy WITHOUT such shenanigans is amazing.
John Welsh said:
stuart in mn said:
The article doesn't mention it, but was this car modified in any way for greater mileage or was it all up to his driving?
Hypermilling cross country sounds like such torture. That leads me to wonder if he stayed off interstates and took the most god awful, 25 mph route that he could concoct?
An oddity from the article is this pasage:
Gerdes’ journey of 3,211.7 miles across the country took him through a wide variety of terrain as well as unpredictable weather. He drove the Prius up mountain elevations as high as 7,000 feet and through unforgiving places like Mojave Desert where the temperature exceeded 105 degrees. He contended with strong winds coming from the Gulf of Mexico.
When on this trip is he near the Gulf? Was this residual hurricane weather? If so, that would have been East Coast and hardly much windier than a brisk day.
From some experience, you have to drive ABOVE a certain speed to get best economy. It's a balance between covering distance quickly vs. drivetrain efficiencies vs. aerodynamic and friction losses.
My Volvo gets best economy at about 65. I say "about" because you have to drive off of the manifold pressure gauge, collect speed going downhill and let it bleed off going uphill. Done right I have seen well over 33mpg in a car rated for 24 highway.
My carbureted RX-7 will do 30mpg at a 75mph cruise... slower puts the engine in a less efficient region and it gets worse economy. It's kind of weird, it takes less pedal to go 75 than 60.
I am deeply curious about how the hybrid drivetrain plays into that. Certainly he wasn't using the A/C. He may have also taken a more southerly route to avoid mountains?
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/12/24 7:47 p.m.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:
GameboyRMH said:
stuart in mn said:
The article doesn't mention it, but was this car modified in any way for greater mileage or was it all up to his driving?
I opened the article to see how closely this Prius resembles a landspeed car, but it looks stock. It doesn't even have moon disc hub caps!
C&D did something like 95mpg in an early hybrid (Insight maybe?) for some charity event, Columbus to Detroit. Whoever got the best fuel economy got to donate some amount of funds to some charity.
The rules said drafting was allowed... and there was no limitation to that. So they dug a double rear door Excursion from their test fleet, installed a huge full width mudflap, opened the doors, and followed so closely that the Excursion driver had to use hand signals so the hybrid driver knew lane changes and braking points.
Hitting that fuel economy WITHOUT such shenanigans is amazing.
I saw mid40s out of my speed 3 once under similar circumstances. However, tge semi driver was unaware of his participation, and I should be in jail.
J.A. Ackley said:
In reply to stuart in mn :
Good question. I'll ask.
Confirmed. It's stock. That's pure technique there.
Just because I got that N.A.D.D. urge...
Honda article (it was 121mpg)
C&D article, sadly with no pictures
pheller
UltimaDork
9/12/24 8:37 p.m.
Still not sure why Toyota offers the Corolla Hybrid in Sedan form when it would better differentiate the lineup by doing so with the hatchback.
It'd also be sweet if they did the Corolla Hatch Hybrid with optional AWD.
Unfortunately, they know that the Cross Hybrid is a better competitor again Subaru, Honda, and Korean brands.
Still, the Prius reigns supreme as king of the lifetime cost-per-mile. In 10 years it'll be interesting to see how that stat compares against the current crop of PHEV and BEV cars.
1988RedT2 said:
Toyman! said:
93 mph Prius is fairly interesting.
In an era where electric cars use zero gas, a 93 mpg Prius is not.
I find this statement disturbing. Your use of "use zero gas" seems to imply "use zero energy" and we all know that's not the case. We're just pulling energy off the grid, and that energy isn't necessarily any cleaner or more "carbon neutral" than that derived from petrol.
https://www.theclimateapp.earth/post/electric-vehicles-where-does-the-energy-come-from
I would argue that a 93 mpg Prius is pretty darn impressive.
Did you read what I wrote? If so, you shouldn't be disturbed unless you are going off on some tangent.
The word energy was nowhere to be found in my post. I did not use energy, carbon neutral, or any other buzzwords. I didn't even use kWh, Btu, or even Joule. Right there in the title of the article and this thread is MPG. MPG is the discussion, not energy.
The word I specifically used was gas, as in gasoline. In a world where an electric car can go coast to coast using zero gasoline and not have to drive like an ass to do it, 93 mpg isn't that impressive to me.
Edit to add: The impressive part is the cost per mile for fuel. It works out to .0107 gallons per mile, or a touch over 3 cents per mile at $3 per gallon. That's not bad, and it's probably cheaper per mile than an electric could do it.
