Zentropy wrote:



Here's what I do on the hiway when the traffic is moving smoothly at the speed limit:
Get up to speed as you normally would on the hiway, let's say 60 mph. Instead of p&g, which in this situation will really annoy other drivers in smoothly moving traffic, I ease off the gas pedal very slowly until I see the mpg meter hit somewhere between 40 and 60, then I freeze the pedal. In this condition, the eCVT seems to find a taller gear, and the elec motor kicks in to assist. Holding this, the elec motor will come on and off, I guess depending on whatever, I don't know. This state bleeds off speed much more slowly than a p&g, even with gentle uphill grades. I can hit this state at 65 or 70 mph, and I can keep this state for several miles until my speed bleeds down to about 55. At this point, I very slowly depress the pedal until the mpg meter hits at or just below 20. In this state, i'm using the ICE, but the HH accelerates very gradually without tanking my avg mpg. Once I'm back up to 65 mph, repeat. Using this technique, I've been able to keep my mpg above 30 so far for my current tank (I'm down to about 1/4 tank having travelled about 370 miles at 31.0 mpg avg). If I can keep this up, this will be my first 30+ tank, on the computer anyway. We'll see what my manual calc says when I fill up.

'Feathering' - BTW yours are excellent results in moderate HWY driving. In a training flyer from Toyota today ( also for customers ) they mention using moderate speeds with a dropoff in FE above 60 mph and a major drop again above 70 mph. Aerodynamics.

'Feathering' combined with P & G it does allow the driver to use the 'biofeedback' of the instantaneous mpg meter to find the sweet spot for the specific vehicle.

I've also noticed that the HH seems to have longer and easier glides than my Prius. I wonder if it's the weight of the vehicle and more momentum. The Prius seems to bleed off faster even while 'feathering the pedal'.

To the original poster:
I also think you will find better results after initial breakin and should again in the 10000 - 20000 mi range.