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Motorway Driving


Mickfb
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Again to debunk the myth of poor motorway MPG.

I left Bath late yesterday afternoon and got up to the M4 junction with 61.3 MPG on the digital readout.

I arrived home in West London a couple of hours later having driven down the M4 and one junction of the M25. I set the cruise control at 68mph for most of the journey and the digital readout was reading 64.5 MPG

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Hmm.

Filled up at Tesco this morning, bit of faff to get on the A1M, then 15 miles to the office. MPG was 51.7.

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Hmm.

Filled up at Tesco this morning, bit of faff to get on the A1M, then 15 miles to the office. MPG was 51.7.

Engine didn't really get warmed up. The biggest mpg hit is first thing in the morning. But 51.7mpg isn't bad.
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Fair point. The instant mpg graph shows it's slightly more uphill than downhill on the way to the office.

60 miles in and the avg is up to an indicated 53.7.

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Coincidentally I have been doing some motorway driving this week. On Monday I drove from Ampthill in Bedfordshire to Matlock in Derbyshire. Most of the journey was on the M1 where I drove with the cruise control set to 70 mph.

Then it was on through the Peak District to Ashton under Lyne where we stayed overnight. Next morning we drove on to Ambleside in the Lake District, most of the journey on the Motorways around Manchester then the M61 and the M6 again with cruise control set to 70 mph. Finally we drove through the Lake District to Portinscale near Keswick.

The overall mileage for the two day trip is showing as 61.6 mpg. Many five minute sections on the motorways showed as exceeding 75 mpg.

It's very difficult for me to understand where the idea arises that the Prius performs poorly on motorways.

We made the return journey today from Portinscale to Ampthill - A66 to Scotch corner then A1, A1(M) and M1 to home. Driving always at the legal limit with cruise control set, subject only to the usual traffic queueing on the A1. Total miles 276. Overall consumption figure showing for the trip 64.1 mpg.

I know that the real figures will be a bit less than these because the car computer is always optimistic, but I am certainly not complaining.

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A mainly motorway trip today, Liverpool to Harrogate via M62 & M1. Usual crawl on M62 around Warrington and variable speed limits near Leeds. and between them the climb up to the highest bit of motorway in England (372m - 1221feet). Near the end of the journey a lot of slow traffic heading towards the flower show but I only "lost" about a mile from my EV range...

post-84503-0-73583300-1379089573_thumb.j

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one question that comes to mind, is regarding the fuel economy figures achieved is..........

'do folks use the Eco setting for M way trips, or leave it off'??

a second question regarding the Plug In P. is ....'does the ICE top up the large lithium Battery, as it does the smaller Nickel metal hydrid job, or does that only occur from mains charge?

if it does charge up the much larger Battery, it would work well for a drive down to Spain, and not just as charged-up-in-the-drive

motor.............I have often wondered why the basic Prius doesn't have a larger main Battery, (other than weight and cost)

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I don't know about the Prius Plugin stuff, but I personally leave eco mode on permanently in my Auris.

It may be a placebo, but I have started using the seat heaters of a morning and turning the central heating on and I haven't noticed a difference in the mpg so far.

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Hmm.

Filled up at Tesco this morning, bit of faff to get on the A1M, then 15 miles to the office. MPG was 51.7.

Have been noticing my mpgs over the past few days. On the daily commute, my mpg is around the 50mpg mark at 15 miles but has got to the 60s by the end of the journey (20 miles). Last weekend, I did a motorway journey. Nice balmy 9C start and 3 miles to the motorway. After 15 miles, the mpg was 50.1 but after 40 miles (at 70-75mph), mpg hits the 60s. :thumbsup:
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The plug-in does not fully charge the large Battery from the ICE - you have to use the mains cable for that. It does act like an "ordinary" hybrid so once the plug-in charge has been used the ICE maintains a small charge - the charge indicator changes from solid to bars and EV mode is no longer possible but car does not always use ICE

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that sort of defeats the purpose of the large Battery acactus, methinks.......I wonder why the regen. system cant pump out enough e-juice to do more of a top up job on the EV Battery

the car is more tethered to a power point than I thought, and so makes long distance trips (eg Spain) more suited to a basic Prius

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how about just better fuel economy than the non pip car???

basically, what is it (a P.I.P) like fuel wise, if there is no option to use a mains lead...

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I used a Prius plug in for a few trips to Liverpool and back from Chester. I was getting 119 MPG. Thats the difference.

Kingo :thumbsup:

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so the big mileage was totally due to the big Battery being regen'd, Kingo, and not helped by an extra plug in recharge (or 2)???

the car gets the reputation of doing 15miles as an EV, after which you are back to have a normal Prius....and at £5-6k extra, that doesn't seem to add up

but this does not seem to be the case, and Spain would be only 15 gallons, or 2 fill ups???

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