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Help me improve my Hybrid MPG


Nicolai
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Hi all,

Had my Auris TS Hybrid since August 2013 and I really wish the overall MPG was higher.

I should note that my car is for a disabled driver (me), which means that I use the car EVERY time I have to leave my house. In other words. Loads of short runs, could starts etc.

Bassed on Spritmonitor, my overall MPG can be seen here: MPG in detail. I really feel I should get better MPG than I do 😞

I am a slow driver, so deffinately not wasting fuel on that account.

So, today I "Youtubed" "Auris Hybrid driving style" and came across a video in which he makes the points qwhich can be seen in my attached screen shot.

To be honest, the only thing I feel he does different than me is that he uses "B" to maximize his Battery battery use. I NEVER use B As I rerad on here once that it might damage your gears and other things in the long run. I also know there has been quite a lot of debate on this forum as to the correct (time to) use / (of) B. He also mentions N as a way to minimize consumption?

I've read that B is for when going down a long, steep hill in order to avoid overheated / wearing your pads. However, as Denmark is very flat in general, I stay in D and just brake normally trying  to maximize the time the car charges the battery: / that my tacho is in the blue "CHRG" area.

Should I use B? or do anything else different?

As of today, my best ever MPG over a full tank remains from late July last year where I managed to get 62.79 MPG. According to my log on Spritmonitor, I have only managed to get what, by the statistical bars of Spritmonitor,  is labeled as 22 kilometeres pr. liter (converted into 62.14 UK mpg) 3 times during my time of ownership and tracking.

Although I haven't checked them since the car was last serviced (on August 2nd.) I try to stay on top of tyre pressures as well, going by what Toyota labels as "Eco pressure".

My tires are not LRR tires though. Not sure how much such tires would have added to MPG.

Even this crazy hot Danish summer, my MPG hasn't seen the  typical "summer bumb". perhaps it has been too hot (Denmark has been one of if not the hottest country in Europe this summer)?

If anybody would like to see the Video I'm talking about, this is it .

I read someone's friend went from getting 50 mpg in a Yaris Hybrid to 70 MPG after had been shown how to drive the "Hybrid way".

On a final note, I do sometimes see what I would call acceptable MPG (67.8 MPG indicated) on a 71.5 mile trip with motorway, and what English people would probably call "A and B" roads.

Or going from my house to the center of Aarhus, (Denmark's 2nd largest city) a trip of approximately 8.9 miles, I do sometimes get between 68 - 76 MPG (with the later beeing in the case of quite a bit of downhill / EV driving).

So, I guess my car IS capable of delivering nice MPG on single trips. I'm just frustrated that my overall average is not higher.

As a final note, I generally have A/C on for comfort. 20-22 degrees celcius.

Any piece of advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Skærmbillede 2018-08-29 kl. 12.56.36.png

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Lots of short journeys will hurt your long term MPG. Nothing you can do about that but you can relax knowing that you'll never have a clogged DPF to deal with.

Your long term is around 52mpg which is respectable for your driving habits. Agree, no need to use B generally. I tried it once on a 20% descent and found it to be only of slight benefit.

There is a lot to be potentially gained from accelerating to your chosen speed, then throttling right back until the EV light comes on, then coast along just under the mid ECO mark on Battery. You can make a lot of gains that way (subject to enough charge in the Battery, ICE up to temperature and the road conditions not requiring more load).

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27 minutes ago, chrisgeary said:

There is a lot to be potentially gained from accelerating to your chosen speed, then throttling right back until the EV light comes on, then coast along just under the mid ECO mark on battery. You can make a lot of gains that way (subject to enough charge in the battery, ICE up to temperature and the road conditions not requiring more load).

By "accelerating to your chosen speed", do you mean on Battery alone or using the ICE?

That's what I am normally doing (both depending on my desired speed), however, I'm also a little in doubt whether this is right as running on Battery will, naturally, lower the charge. Excuse me for beeing daft but I take it, by "coast you mean:using Battery as sole source of propultiion? 🙂

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I find accelerating just on Battery takes too long, unless its slight or quite downhill. I typically accelerate to about 20mph on Battery (so just under the mid eco point), then push it up to the top of eco to accelerate to 30 or 40mph with ICE help. Once there, if its flat enough, I can drop the throttle almost to nothing, let the EV light go on, and maintain speed with the throttle just below the mid ECO point. The car can often maintain speed just using Battery alone, sometimes for a mile or two. Coast was really the wrong word, sorry.

Also, I never use neutral. That would be counter productive.

I accept that this will run down the battery, but it is balanced out by the need to occasionally use the ICE to bring the speed back up (if battery alone isn't quite enough to maintain speed) or if a slight hill presents itself. The ICE charges the battery back up, as does downhill runs and it all works itself out. I haven't tried just driving without car for the EV light coming on as a comparison, but it feels like I'm using less fuel this way and I like running through town without the ICE running - it just feels good that way.

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I think we are basically doing a lot of the same things 🙂 Do you find it easy to glide in yours? I find the "glide" area on the tacho to be extremely small. (that very narrow spot between chrg and eco. Think it's easier in the Prius do to better aero dynamics. 🙂

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I found pretty early on that I preferred eco mode (the button) as it makes throttle modulation much easier in the lower eco band. But yes, gliding (if thats the tech term for running on Battery alone) seems easy enough if conditions permit.

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1 hour ago, chrisgeary said:

I found pretty early on that I preferred eco mode (the button) as it makes throttle modulation much easier in the lower eco band. But yes, gliding (if thats the tech term for running on battery alone) seems easy enough if conditions permit.

Ah, no:from what I understand, Gliding is the term used when there are no arrows floating to neither the Battery nor the ICE. In other words, the only thing ciloured on your energy monitor is the Battery charge itself (the tourquis colour). 

That's my understanding of gliding, anyway. 😎

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I think your fuel consumption is fine considering the driving conditions, and the TS being slightly heavier and less aerodynamic. I regularly only get around 45-50 MPG on short trips in my Prius (when in hybrid mode, as it's the Plug-in). Cold starts are always going to use a bit more fuel, there's not much that can be done about that.

"Pulse and glide" driving can improve things, but it's not always practical to do so. I don't agree with using B for normal driving - if anything you get less regen as it's using more ICE engine braking. Using N when driving can be dangerous so I do not recommend that at all.

I've had good success with improving economy by blocking the lower radiator grille in my Prius in winter, as the amount of cooling provided by the grille is unnecessary in this climate (blocking the grille also reduces drag at higher speeds). I don't know how the Auris is set up exactly, but you want to keep air flowing to the inverter radiator (as there is no benefit in keeping that warm) which is the small upper grille in the Gen 3 Prius.

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Just as a little follow-up to my own topic:

Trip distance: approximately 66 miles

Eco drive level: 66.2 MPG

Avarege speed: 46 MPH

Miles since last fill up (i.e. untill "click"). 168.4 miles.

45 Miles on Motorway with an indicated 60 MPH (CC).

Rest is A and B roads.

Decent enough?

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Yes indeedy, that's consistent with what I've seen on some of my journeys also 🙂

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Too bad it's just for one trip though. I'd best check tyre pressures. Last was august 2nd when car was serviced. OT: do you have rusty discs? Not surface but spots of deep rust? 

I was told to drive a little with hand brake on....

 

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The discs look normal to me, consistent with other non-hybrid cars I've owned. I don't think using the handbrake will help, in fact the rear wheels have a lot more brake dust on them than the fronts. Is it the rears you are having trouble with?

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Well, I woudn't say "trouble" (as of yet) but yeah, the rears generate a lot more brake dust on mine as well.

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