Re: The magic of a Prius automobile

On Jul 23, 12:11 pm, Randy Poe <poespam-t...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 23, 11:26 am, Tina <tbaker27...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:



In an article today (7/23) the Raleigh NC News and Observer described
how Prius owners were getting close to 50 mpg on the highway. See

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/traffic/gas/story/646209.html

for details.

Could someone here without a 'Green is Good' agenda explain in small
words why a car hauling around extra batteries and an electric motor
as weight should get better highway milage than a similar car not
carrying around the extra weight?

I can understand energy recovery and engine off stuff in city driving,
but it seems to me the Green' arguement is misplaced here.

Which leads to another question. For driving the stop and go nature
makes a hybred a reasonable choice, but what about for those who live
in small towns or suburbs? Is the milage claim real life meaningful,
or bogus?

I belong to a car-sharing program in Philadelphia and when I
borrow a car from the program, I always take a Prius (originally
that's all they had, but they've since expanded the fleet). I drive
it in the city and on the nearby suburbs and highways, and my
experience is that I get about the same mileage, around 43 mpg,
in both environments. So I wouldn't claim it's bogus.

Unfortunately, I don't typically look at the energy usage
display which shows when the electric or gas engine is being
used, and whether energy is flowing into or out of the batteries.
Next time I take it out, I'll use that display.



What kind of a geek are you??? That's the whole reason
to buy the car :)

-jc





I tend to use a summary mpg display. That feedback does
tend to train you in good habits. Nothing like seeing your
instantaneous mileage go down from 42 to 20 to make you
get your foot off the accelerator. The main good habit that
gets me those numbers outside of the city is to coast when
going downhill, which seems to more than make up for
the cost of going uphill. Strangely, I don't think the mileage
would be nearly as good on level ground.

Could you get the same kind of mileage with the same habits
in a conventional car? Don't know. My usual car is a 2001
Corolla, and on the same route with the same habits,
the best I can achieve seems to be about 33.5

- Randy


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