Electric Vehicle Forums - Hypermiling is truly a team effort …

Quote:

Originally Posted by xcel

. . .Carl, a friend of mine from work posted he had found a new route in his Prius II’s tank notes. While heading down the Interstate (I-55 Northbound) the other night, I saw his HID’s lighting up the Frontage Road to the side. I have been traveling this commute for over 6 years and have only been on the Frontage roads for a few minutes and usually when forced onto them because of traffic accidents and such. Anyway, here I am at 60 + mph and the Coolant temp has not even moved off the C pin while receiving maybe 20 mpg at best :( The next evening, I asked him about the new route and how it was helping. Low and behold, there is some help in his Prius as well as my own vehicles now. In the summer, both Carl and I can usually hit the Interstate (~ 1.5 miles away from work) with everything hot and ready to go. In the winter months, not a chance. What he was doing was using (2) slower speed Frontage roads as a spring board to keep his FE up by traveling at 30 - 40 mph during warm up vs. 55 + over ~ 5 miles of Interstate. Low and behold, it works!. . .

Hi Wayne,

Scroll down in my Prius page and you'll see how I've mapped the various routes:

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/

In cold weather, I extend my neighborhood drive to let the car get warmed up. In warmer weather, I don't head over to the 50 MPH road until the cold light goes off. I have a simular route from work to home. That helped but using the same route for "cool down" at the end of the commute helps even more.

I picked this up from a Prius driver in Europe but the trick is to end the last mile or two in EV mode. That means neighborhood streets. I've seen nearly 5 MPG increase in that last mile because of the lower speed and extended electrical power mode.

BTW, I took a screen snapshot of the Google map and put it into PowerPoint on the 'slide master' sheet. Then I could draw my routes and stop lights using 'connectors.' It makes it real easy.

After a couple of months, I've found an optimum route that combines good speed on steady sections and short-cuts to give great MPG and a fairly fast commute. I need to update the map but it can be done and pays dividends. I saw my MPG increase to hypermiler status during this winter. I went hypermiler the end of January.

Bob Wilson