Toyota VP says no Prius Plug-In MPG is available yet
Toyota's Vice President of communications Irv Miller has published a post on the company blog refuting a recent report that the small fleet of plug-in Priuses is averaging 65 mpg. The small group of converted PHEV Priuses that currently exist in the U.S. are mostly being used for demonstration purposes at auto shows and other events. A few of the cars are being used in university studies including one at University of California-Davis. The current cars all use doubled up nickel metal hydride batteries rather than the lithium ion units that will go into the larger test fleet of 2010 Priuses coming late this year. Miller acknowledges that mileage data is being recorded from the demonstration cars but the results vary too much to be statistically significant. The mileage results of plug-in hybrids are highly dependent on driving cycles and styles. If the driving is kept within the plug-in charge range, the mileage is substantially higher than what can be expected after the charge is depleted. Any meaningful comparisons will require defining some representative test cycles.
[Source: Toyota]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sasparilla 1:47PM (2/11/2009)
Its funny, you would think determining real world mileage for the plug in Prius drive train would be a primary goal of a test like this....sounds like they're either not happy with the results and don't want to admit it - or this is just a PR snow job to allow Toyota not to do much (regarding plug in hybrids) but looking like they are (may be more likely given Toyota's almost constant bad mouthing (till recently) of non hybrid EV technology) - like Ford's pitiful tests of plug in Escapes.
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Dave 4:39PM (2/11/2009)
The Prius PHEVs that Toyota has been testing with the doubled up NiMH packs are extremely limited in capacity - about 1.5 kWh in capacity. Doubling that to 3 kWh would give you a maximum of 15 miles of electric range. In real life, it's probably more like 10-12 miles to preserve the battery.
Just like they said - the fuel economy you'll get will vary significantly depending on how long and how fast your trips are.
Exceed the range of the pack and fuel economy goes back to standard Prius mode - with a slightly penalty due to carrying around the extra battery.
Exceed the maximum speed of the EV components and the engine turns on.
Exceed the maximum power of the EV components and the engine turns on.
Of course, if you stay under all those criteria, you could make all your trips under pure electric power and burn no gas. Or if you significantly exceed those criteria, your fuel economy will only be slightly better than a normal Prius.
Brn 4:39PM (2/11/2009)
I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they don't want to make an MPG claim on something that can be powered from something other than gasoline.
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Brett 6:23PM (2/12/2009)
Please note: as the link to the description of UC Davis's program indicates, the UC Davis study uses ~10 aftermarket conversions, whereas UC Berkeley has a Toyota-converted PHV (plug-in Prius). Go Bears!
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