Hey! Just drove a Prius for the first time- I've had my HCH for 6 months now.
I have a friend who I was raving to last spring about my hybrid civic, and when their lease ran out on their volvo last month, they got a Prius. saw her in the school parking lot at soccer pickup and right away came over and started exclaiming over it.
anyway-
went out for a drive with my friend today to show her some mileage techniques. (we had wanted to test drive a prius when we got the honda, but none were availible at local dealers) She told me they had been getting around 45. I was interested in trying the neutral energy mode. So we went out and right away, I told her about accelerating more gently and coasting as much as possible. took us a while to get the screen to a guage that I could recognize- and then a little longer to figure out trip meter and reset it. but I ended up getting 72mpg on a fairly flat suburban loop, 30-40mph, where I usually get 60ish in my HCH. (when I reset the guage it was at 36mpg) not bad for driving distracted and talking alot. I did like playing with the P&G technique of getting it into "neutral energy" zone (no arrows either way) I didn't like haveing to toggle back and forth between screens, to get the guages I'm used to using all the time available. the colored arrow thing is cute, but I wish there was a simpler way to give you the energy flow information on the same screen with current trip mpg & fuel consumption. I really don't like the touch screen in the center- I'm old fashioned- I'd prefer analog or bar guages like my honda.
Guess it's all a personal design taste thing- but I did have fun driving the car and was impressed with the mileage. I could see getting 80mpg on that car easily with regular practise. I know, I know- they did over 100mpg on the great prius challenge- but I'm talking pretty amazing mileage without alot of extensive technique.
anyway- had to drop a note, since it was such fun.
calm winds and down hills!
Kate

KLC
2005 HCH CVT 'Verdigeek'

Hey Kate, that's pretty darn good after never having driven one before !! I did not quite so well in my first Prius drive, only in the 50s or so. But that was before the P&G became famous - I think I could do better now. But you did great !! Congrats !!

What did your friend think/say after you smoked her by 27 MPG on your first drive?

Hi Kate,

Very impressive, hitting 70 mpg on your first drive !

I used to think that the 40 mph barrier in Prius P&G was quite a limiting factor, but it is actually enough for most of my city driving, and the 20 kW electric motor is enough for all but accelarations from standing. I'm pretty excited about the possibility of modding the car to a plug-in come 2010.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."

Hi KLCarch:

___Thanks for the write up on your first time behind the Prius II’s windscreen.

___The most important thing you have achieved imho is teaching your friend not only what is possible but the multiple techniques to maintain/improve upon her own FE throughout the test drive. With the basics, we can only hope she will use some or all to maintain the excellent FE you achieved in your first time out. It is really sad that so few others including many Prius II pilots around the country do not know what the Prius II is actually capable of when driven in a particular manner by a knowledgeable person such as yourself. I know there are 2 more individuals that have been properly educated in the ways of the Prius II in the last 24 hours Nice job indeed!

___Keep us informed of her progress or maybe have her post tank over tank details here. When a brand new driver is taught how to achieve fantastic FE, it usually leads to a hypermiler in very short order …

PS: I see you are still moving up the HCH list no matter how hard you try not too

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

thanks guys-
it was fun driving her car and trying a different hybrid- but I doubt we have another hypermiler here. most of the people I meet & talk to/have hybrids don't seem to be as interested (fanatical) as we here at greenhybrid are. my friend was interested to see that it was possible, and how I did it- but I got the distinct impression that she wasn't interested in "changing driving habits". Seems like the majority of people are happy to be getting twice the mileage they used to (something like 20mpg to 40), and a car is just an unconsious part of their daily routine- like tieing their shoes or something. They don't think about it, and can't be bothered to work at it.
I find that same attitude with any kind of energy savings: insulate your house better, don't cut down the shade tree, why do you need 5000 sq ft for 4 people etc etc - but that's another rant

KLC

KLC
2005 HCH CVT 'Verdigeek'

yep.

And that is where the mark of better engineering comes in to play- make it better yet still appealing despite the apathy/ignorance of the average user. Sort of sneak it in under their nose, or mix the medicine in with the applesause.

{This train of thought assumes that the behavior of the population as a whole cannot be changed all that much. That assumption is not necessarily rock-solid- behaviors DO change, especially if Xcel has anyhting to do with it But all things being equal...}

WE know the Prius can get >>60mpg...but if it only gets 40 as driven by the guy who would otherwise have gotten 15 or 20 in anything else, isn't that a net positive? Good things add in series, even when not optimized.

Any 'good' product will do the job reasonably well when operated by the Lowest Common Denominator. A 'very good' product will do the same job at least as well, only more efficiently. To the LCD, the only part that usually matters is "at least as well." "Do it better" is preferable, as long as it too is still more efficient than what would otherwise be in its place.

For vehicles that means same acceleration/luxury/# of cupholders/asthetics. For refrigerators that means water&ice dispensers, slide-out shelves and stainless doors...nevermind the fact that it uses 1/3 the energy and no ozone depletion of the equivalent lux model from 20 years ago.

Upsetting as it is to we here at GH, I've decided that is the reality from my perspective. So while I'd rather see all of us taking electric mass transit and living in at-grade ranchers with PV electric and geothermal heat, I'll accept Joe neighbor in the HiHy (or myself in a HAH) for now. He would've bought basically the same thing anyway, so at least its better than what he would've been driving.

disclaimer as a HAH driver: Part of the reason I went with the HAH was specifically to prove to others, on my small scale, that it IS possible to be more efficient without lowering expectations or changing 'comfort levels.' Not perfect, but it gets them thinking about looking at alternatives.