FEB 03

If you use the 2009 EPA figures, the Prius is at 46 mpg combined. Forty-six increased to 65 represents a 19 mpg gain, or over 40 percent. Forty percent better fuel economy than the current leader among production vehicles (not to mention this in a utilitarian four-passenger family car) is a stunning accomplishment in my book.

I assume Toyota is working on one, but I don't think I'm alone in wanting a completely electric vehicle. Get rid of the gas already! Won't it actually make the vehicle a lot simpler to manufacture and maintain? Aptera is predicting that their electric drivetrain will be several thousand dollars cheaper than the hybrid version of their vehicle. I don't know why Toyota, Honda, etc., cannot just get rid of the gas engine and related components and replace them with batteries to arrive at a similar price point.

measuring the efficiency of a plug-in vehicle in MPGs makes no sense anyway, so there is no point getting excited or disappointed over that figure.

the plug-in aptera gets "300 MPG", the plug-in prius gets "65 MPG", who cares, both these figures are meaningless.

I don't know why Toyota, Honda, etc., cannot just get rid of the gas engine and related components and replace them with batteries to arrive at a similar price point.

Because there is currently no way to quickly recharge a battery of the required size in under 20 minutes.

To measure relative efficiency, you need to use gpm not mpg, e.g. gallons/1000-miles. The current Prius EPA test is about 22 gal/K-mi vs 15 for the plug-in or about 30% less (not 40), a savings of 635 gal over 100K miles (only ~$2K gas savings depending on gas price).

Is this an EPA test, or real-life measure? (Where is the reference?) I'm wondering if people might get much better mileage in practice than the EPA tests measure. Right now, the engine needs to switch on for all but near-zero acceleration. With 2 battery packs, there is 2X the power (the current battery can only produce half the electric motor power-- the other half comes from the engine/generator) so there would probably be enough acceleration for a soft-footed driver,fast enough so the guy behind won't honk. Also, with a 2X battery, more regenerated energy from braking could be captured.

I would guess the distance driven would matter a lot as well. If I just drive to the store and back, I get lousy mileage because the engine runs all the time to warm up the emissions control on these short trips. If the engine can stay off there would be a double bonus.

I get fantastic mileage on the freeway in stop-and-go traffic, but then the engine needs to kick in at freeway speed. The 2X battery should be able to sustain freeway speed without the gas motor. The standard EPA test probably wouldn't account for details like this.

OK, I found a closer source on this story via google, and looks like this is a real world test. The 2010 Prius gets 50mpg EPA, so 65mpg is only 25% less fuel. I don't know if the test quoted was a version with 2 NiMH packs (previously reported) or is a Li-Ion pack.

Please, someone from ecogeek justify how you can rate a car in MPG when it has two power sources.

And Carl, MPG or GPM, it's really the same number, it's just how you want to use the data to analyze fuel efficieny, but I agree there is some usefulness to it. It might make a little more sense to consumers if there was an expected gasoline use over a 100k life of the car.

The content you have provided is pretty interesting and useful and I will surely take note of the point you have made in the blog.

A few days back I was browsing the Internet as I was worried about my car performance and wanted a product that could restore the MPG to what it was when I bought my car. I found this great site power enhancer which sells a variety of automotive products to boost vehicle performance. I found exactly what I was looking for and saw great results with their product. I was also very happy with the quick delivery of the product.

I thought this information might be useful for anyone looking to boost their vehicle performance and restore the lost power and MPG.

Also, with a 2X battery, more regenerated energy from braking could be captured.

Carl, with current tech Prius, is there electric energy converted from braking and NOT stored into the battery?

using MPG it's easier to calculate the driving distance. That's why this metric system was originally established, I suppose.
In Europe for example, using lt/100Km (like G per Mile) focuses on the actual fuel efficiency.

Surely the real saving to be made are by drivers trading up to already available technology, whether that be the Prius or other efficient vehicles.

The benefit of shifting from a gas guzzler to a Prius is far bigger than the shit from a Prius to a plugin.

At least it's a step in the right direction. I'd love to see a car that doesn't use any gas but any steo in the right direction can't be a negative thing.
I heard that Pirus and a few other cars will be on display at UK AWARE so i wonder what they will be showing off

Hyperspaced - Yes in the current Prius there are limits to how much current the battery pack will take. Basically the battery management system reports on the vehicles computer network how much current it can handle (as a maximum) based on current state of charge of the batteries, the temperature of the pack etc. The main motor controller then substitutes more or less friction braking to make up the same amount of braking after regenerative braking has done it's job.

All other things being equal two battery packs should be able to absorb twice the current of one battery pack.

As far as the whole l/100km thing, I find it generally easy to work with (maybe through familiarity). Normally I know roughly how many 100km units there are to a destination (100km is roughly an hours travel at our highway speeds). So if I know it's 3 and a half hours to the destination, and my car gets 10l/100km I should use 35 litres.

Let's say this Prius will go 30 miles on the batteries alone. And you ONLY use it to go to work and/or school and/or anywhere else that's less that 15 miles away from home (or any other charge point), then you may not be burning Any gas at all.
And if 80% of cars are driven 30 miles or less per day, then that could eventually mean millions of gallons saved every day.

At least it's a step in the right direction. I'd love to see a car that doesn't use any gas but any steo in the right direction can't be a negative thing.
I heard that Pirus and a few other cars will be on display at UK AWARE so i wonder what they will be showing off

Let's move away from MPG to GPM