I drove my first full tank of gas like a hypermiler. My new car is a XLE hybrid. I matched the 803 miles same as I got on a full tank with my '07 TCH. My new car has about 1150 miles on the clock where the '07 was fully broke-in. I did this test with speeds of 44 mph and slower.

Here is a couple pictures of my results. Notice the 803 miles with 5 miles to go on the cruising range warning. The tank mpg meter showing above the 55 mpg mark. The 58 mpg and miles is near the same as I got on my '07 TCH years ago. I'm depending on a big jump in mpg once this new XLE TCH is broke in.

All speeds were 44 mph and slower. Using cruise all the time, even during some 25 mph runs. I also found one night on a lonely paved highway I could drive at 25 still in the ECO mode, it had auto-switched to the EV mode and I drove 8.8 miles before the battery depleted and engine started. I did lots of 39 mph driving so the EV mode would come on more often. I helped it some by pulling down on the cruise control once. No fun driving like this as it's boring and tiring. I simply wanted to see how the new car responded. It really surprised me being so new and so little miles on the clock, less than 1200. I'm now back to normal driving and hoping for 50 mpg combined while driving close to the posted speed limits.

I filled the tank on auto-low setting till the nozzle auto shut-off 'once'. It held 14.961 gallons shown in the picture. Tank size is 17.1 which leaves 2.139 in reserve or below the empty mark. At 58 mpg that would mean another 116 miles to go. No I would not dare do that with worry of burning out the fuel pump in the tank. At least I know the fuel gauge is very accurate down to the E mark. I thought I would never use that last 1/8 tank of gas. Evidently due to the car being so much lighter with the tank so close to empty.

I use phillips 66 regular gas, michelin mxv4 primacy tires aired to 40.5 psi cold. Break-in oil is the factory fill, toyota 0W-20 oil.

Please don't be trying this at home. I live in a desert area where they are a few seldom used paved roads. Even our 8 mile, 4-lane to town don't have that much traffic and has a 55 mph speed limit. It's easy to drive 50 on that one. I'm retired so I have time to do perform a test such as this.

2012RecordTankMay20002.jpg2012RecordTankMay20001.jpg

 

Awesome upper limit for a 2012 HyCam.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

rburt07, how many miles were on your 2007 when you got 59.5mpg in 2009, and what was your mpg reading on the 2007 when it had 1150 miles? You may be able to roughly predict how much better you will do if you know these numbers.

In my Prius, I now have 20K miles, and just recently got my best tank ever (59.9mpg). I attribute this to engine break-in, ideal weather, turn off eco-mode, and experience (although I do not do any hyper-miling). The turning off eco-mode might be a Prius-only phenomena, but unless I am running the AC, I actually do get better mpg in normal-mode. Not sure if this would apply to TCH too. My wife drives our Camry, so I am unable to experiment.

 

The '07 TCH did not fully break till 8300 miles. It was easy to see the 2 1/2 mpg jump in tank to tank mpg. I also noticed the car would coast with engine, similar to being in neutral at 40 mph.

I didn't keep mileage records other than from my memory. I will include a link to the older no more used green hybrid mileage database. Perhaps you can tell by the dates. It's easy to see the around 8300 miles where the mpg jumped from the upper 40's to the lower 50's. If the engines were the same the break-in would be similar. I would not doubt this new 2.5 engine uses improved low friction rings over the earlier hybrids.

I'm looking for 55 combined till it loosens up some. Once fully broke in I hope the XLE TCH would get around 60 mpg by driving 40 to 50 mph. I already put michelin primacy mxv4 93V LRR tires on it to help some with the mpg. Is why I took the time to hypermile out a full tank, and was amazed at the results with the car being just 4 weeks old.

It took me a full near 5 years to learn all the various ways to get the '07 TCH to give me top mileage. A lot of this carried over to the '12 although the EV speeds are higher in the '12. I also see some EV only between 45 and 50 mph where the '07 run engine, with some battery assist. WIth the ECO pressed on, you can take off from a red light along with surrounding traffic, look down and you were running on battery all along.

If I turn off the ECO push-button in this new car and the engines stays on longer, which gives me a lot more power to play with causing loss of mpg. I never mentioned this, but with the ECO off the accelerator becomes sensitive and with lots of added power. With the ECO pressed turned on, the accelerator becomes a little mushy actually helping you to drive for improved mpg.

My advice on your prius is to buy gas from one of these retailers.
http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

Next time, buy quality low rolling resistant tires for improved mpg.

Here below is the outdated mpg database no longer used from greenhybrid.

Place you mouse over the word, More to read the dates, details how I achieved the mpg. The bottom date is Aug 10, 2007 and the top date April 12, 2008. I had around 45 tank fills but somehow the latest ones were deleted. My all time average was 52 mpg on the '07 TCH when I learned to slow down some for max mpg.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/.../car/5583.html

 

Hey Sands... are you here too? Nice!

 

Sands who!! Is really busy working on another 803 tank 803 or higher.

 

Actually my '07 TCH was at 21,000 miles and was when I replaced the original michelin mxv4 "S8" oem tires. The S8 tires were michelins early attempt at low rolling resistant tires. Michelin later came out with the energy saver tire which the LRR was much improved. It was then after 300 miles of braking in the new set that I drove slow to see just how many miles I could get with the fuel gauge needle sitting on empty. With the Camry I understand their is about 2.6 gallons left after the low fuel light comes on. At the empty mark this might leave near 2 gallons in reserve. I was amazed to get near 60 mpg on that tank and ended up with the 803 miles.

I was a little low on the mpg, but did duplicate the miles with my new '12 XLE hybrid. I put michelin primacy tires on it when it was new, which seem to ride better/little quieter than the saver tires. The LRR must be very similar on both tires.

I'm working hard one more time to better the 803 tank maybe tomorrow when I refill. I won't try again till the Fall of the year maybe late September or early October. I find less wind during that time of year and the new '12 XLE will be more broke in. Still can't believe I did so well with that tank and the car only having around 1000 miles on the clock. I think I mentioned earlier I only fill with the nozzle set to low and allow it to auto-shut off once. That's it, no double pumping the nozzle, I know the tank has to vent properly. With the Prius that may be different as it uses a bladder inside the tank.

My advantage is being a hypermiler for 45 years and I live in a very flat, dry desert with little wind.

The 2007 at 1001 miles was getting 48.9 mpg for it's second tank from being new car. At the time I did not know how to drive a hybrid for max mpg by learning to use the EV mode more. I also found driving the '07 at 45 mph using the cruise I could get max mpg from the engine. The EV mode worked best at 38/40 mph always using the cruise, even in town.

This new '12 may drive those same speeds, can't tell about the engine as it's not near broke in. The EV for sure works best at 38/40 mph.

I think I answered your question and a few others that were asked earlier.