REPORT: 115 Plug-in Toyota Prius test cars fail to crack 50 mpg average in year-long test
When Consumer Reports tested out the Hymotion L5 plug-in Toyota Prius conversion earlier this year, they weren't overwhelmed with the results. Sure, the mileage they observed was boosted to about 67 mpg over the first 35 miles of the drive, but that didn't match the claims of 100 mpg (or more) that Hymotion and A123 Systems make about their product. To be fair to Hymotion, their qualifies mileage talk about their plug-in Prius MPG "that can achieve up to 100 mpg for 30-40 miles" this way:
Hymotion PHEV fuel economy is based on independent testing performed at Argonne National Labs and Idaho National Labs. Actual mileage will vary based on each individual's driving style, route, traffic, climate conditions, terrain and other factors.Unfortunately for Hymotion, there are new results of tests done at the Idaho National Laboratory now available and they might make the company a little less eager to promote the work done by INL. The lab drove two groups of Prius test vehicles (one 40-car fleet and another 75-car fleet) from early 2008 until March 2009 for almost 500,000 miles and found that the average fuel economy tallied 46 and 49 mpg, respectively. As you might expect, driving style and the battery mode (charge sustaining vs. charge depeleting) had a big impact on the figures. You can view the result data in these PDFs: 1, 2. Add it all up, and it sounds like PHEV proponents might want to take former Tesla marketing boss Darryl Siry's advice to electric vehicle manufacturers to heart.
What do you think – are plug-in hybrids the next big thing, an overhyped solution, or something in between? Drop us a line in the comments.
[Sources: Idaho National Laboratory; Hydrogen Car Revolution]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tom 7:37PM (6/15/2009)
Not surprised...... I have seen NUMEROUS third party tests of Priucies and they never get the mpg that is promised.
Not to mention to make one causes more pollution that driving an SUV but that's besides the point isn't it?
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why not the LS2LS7? 7:43PM (6/15/2009)
Unless you crush the car right after you make it, the net damage to the environment from a Prius over its lifetime is much lower than that of an SUV.
Tom 7:48PM (6/15/2009)
Not according to studies I've read. Heck even Top Gear mentioned it too!
why not the LS2LS7? 7:59PM (6/15/2009)
Top Gear is not known for their factual accuracy.
http://de.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080521023725AAUqBJm
9394 3:30AM (6/16/2009)
Tom, you mean you read the marketing research that claims a Prius runs 105,000 miles lifetime while a Hummer runs 300,000 miles liftetime, and the energy to manufacture a Prius is 6 times the energy a Prius consumes in operation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNW_Marketing_Research
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/05/oh-so-a-hummer-is-not-greener-a-prius/
Clay Garland 9:40AM (6/16/2009)
I was always able to get 10+ more mpg from my then girlfriend's civic hybrid than my friends got from a prius.
Clay Garland 9:44AM (6/16/2009)
What I had meant to say was, "www.sadtrombone.com"
why not the LS2LS7? 7:41PM (6/15/2009)
I don't think this condemns all PHEVs. It only condemns vehicles which are converted from parallel hybrids. The problem is these vehicles are not designed to have any useful all-electric range and even after conversion, they still don't. Even though A123 will list specs saying they have, apparently people don't use them in these ranges of speeds, acceleration and distances often enough.
A serial hybrid like the Volt, which some call an ER-EV, has a chance of providing much lower fuel usage (which you can call mpg if you want, but I won't) in real use.
For example, see the trips in the PDFs, only 33% of around-town trips were in EV-only mode. And only 9% of highway trips. Since the average trip distance around town is 3.2 mi and the average highway trip distance is 15.3, both of these figures would rise to well over 50% on an ER-EV with 40 mile all-EV mode like the Volt. Also backing this up is the average distance between charging events of 34.4 miles (40.7 in the other study).
I do agree Darryl was right. It's important to not mislead people about EV (and EV mode) performance, unless you want to turn your customers off.
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tuxchown 7:48PM (6/15/2009)
I predict that Prius will lead the way as people begin to learn the truth about Toyota and revolt against them.
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paul34 12:29AM (6/16/2009)
Why don't you enlighten us with this "truth" about Toyota that you seem to know much about?
Shamdiddly 10:52AM (6/16/2009)
@ Paul:
WRT to Toyota, do some research on the word "Kaizen". It doesn't really mean a process of continual improvement. In all actuality, it means "Eating round-eye children and killing busloads of nuns".
Quite scary, if you stop to think about it.
tuxchown 12:04PM (6/16/2009)
http://blogs.internetautoguide.com/6533826/auto-recalls/toyota-rust-recall-maybe-coming-due-to-rusty-tacoma-and-tundra-truck-frames/index.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota_tundra_brakes.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toyota_tundra_engine.html
tuxchown 12:06PM (6/16/2009)
http://www.lemonlawclaims.com/toyota_avalon__problems_lemon.htm
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/01/toyota_sludge_settlement.html
Enlightened yet?
Randy 1:23PM (6/16/2009)
I think the truth about Toyota is this.
1. They are based in Japan
2. Entered the US Auto Market with ZERO legacy costs which enabled them to move quickly while US companies had hundreds of giant factories to retrofit at a time of about 3 + year each (plus costs)
3. Benefited from the USA not imposing equal trade costs tariffs and taxes on their autos.
4. Took existing designs from Ford, GM and Chrysler and tweaked them to make them better. As would ANY AND EVERY new competitor.
5. Took 20+ years to actually get better (only started in the 80s
6. Promoted the hell out of their "quality"
7. Caused US manufacturers to cut corners to match prices of imports (again caused by lack of USA imposing tariffs and taxes for equal fair trade)
8. Ran with the perception of Godly quality.
9. Just got a reality check when US companies shed their legacy costs and the playing field FINALLY became even. (20+ years later).
10. Are going to be fine but know that Ford is the big game in town now! Across the board!!!
And let me add, and I quote "The Tundra is an embarrassment to Toyota Motor Company" - Katsuaki Watanabe (President of Toyota)
How's that for reality!
Val 8:15PM (6/16/2009)
I guess small businesses and construction workers aligned better with the big three and Govt, when they imposed huge taxes on the import of pick-up trucks... No such people cared to make any moves against the imports of small economical cars (aka joke cars)... but guess what, turns out those small cars can also make a profit. And turns out EVERY japanese company, as well as the koreans, make cars in america that are suited to the local market, and not anywhere else. How many models are they importing, and how many imported cars do they sell, compared to local US and Canadian production (ok, prius comes to mind, as well as mazda 3 and 6, but a prat of corporate profits for mazda also goes to ford in the us) ?
Oh, and advertising quality without any backing would have run them in the ground, now it is too late, even of they slip on quality and domestic cars make huge leaps. Whose fault is that they bet on the quality card while GM was betting on the SUV card? At least japanese cannot build trucks, that is a huge consolation. Coz let me tell you, this is like Ford, GM and Chrysler trying to build kei-cars and ricers to sell in japan... imagine the ridicule, even if it was possible.
mcampasini 7:53PM (6/15/2009)
this is kinda messed up considering my c5 vette got 32mpg on the highway.
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evilspoons 8:25PM (6/15/2009)
Yeah, but drive it in the city the way these Priuses were and you'd probably get 10 mpg.
Anyway, this entire study is essentially worthless without a non-plug-in (regular Prius) base to compare to.
Christian de Saint Preux 3:28AM (6/16/2009)
sorry but no... my c5 z06 gives me around town 24mpg... 36 highway... measured at the pump...
Mike 9:54AM (6/16/2009)
Christian,
Please enlighten me where you drive! Around town doesn't mean a small town with 1 stop sign and 45mph speed limits.
(I owned a C5 for a few years) When I drove into Philadelphia (and drive SLOW) I get about 14-15 mpg. If punching it, it would drop the tank to 10-11mpg.
As soon as I hit the highway I would see the average over my entire trip to jump to 18-19. If on the highway for an extended period (at 70mph) I can regularly see 26-30mpg.
I have never gotten 36mpg on an ENTIRE tank! I've seen 33 over a shore drive back and forth (with no traffic and staying NEAR the speed limits).
I've also seen Prius' get 100mpg in short internals and the wife got 58mpg on a few complete tanks.
BTW The Prius will haul 5 and luggage. The vette, well it was tons of fun but not practical by any means.
This just goes to show that Toyota picked the correct size battery for the car for efficiency etc. Prius' regularly get 46-49mpg average. So even with double the size battery it got no better. Toyota must have figured out some engineering (which isn't surprising that a small company can't out engineer a large corporation).
You can equate this to when Performance companies put 600hp into a mustang but it gets slower around a track because of grip. Ford tested the HP/grip and figured a good combination. A small company comes along, adds a bunch of HP and no faster.. except for top gear acceleration. Just like a Prius would only be better under light load city driving with the battery charged.
merlot066 3:05PM (6/16/2009)
Well Mike, you must drive with your foot on the brake. My uncle has an 05, idk what model, it has a 5.7L engine. In central jersey city driving he averages around 29-30 and on the highway he gets 35-38.