Saturday, February 24, 2007

Prius EPA mileage changes

Starting with 2008 model year vehicles, the EPA will change the way it calculates miles per gallon estimates.  The new math is supposed to be more realistic, and from my two months of driving a Prius I believe the new numbers more than the old ones.

  • 2007 Prius, currently rated at 60/51 (city/hwy) will drop to 51/46.
  • 2006 Honda Odyssey, currently 19/26 (city/hwy) will decrease to 17/24.
  • Infiniti G35x goes from 19/25 to 17/23
  • Altima goes from 26/35 to 23/32

Although it sounds like the Prius drops much more than other cars, in fact it amounts to the same absolute amount of gas, since the Prius uses less gas to start with. 

I've been getting in the low 40's overall so far, disappointingly low but explainable because:

  1. The MPG is generally low during the first 5000 miles of "break in"
  2. My commute is only 13 miles, which is not enough time for the engine to warm up.  My MPG is closer to 50 if you start calculating 5 minutes after startup.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Consumer Reports tested a Prius and
got 35 city / and 50 hwy.
which is exactly what i got when i had a Prius for two years.
when i drove in the city and didn't get any hwy driving, i got mid to high 30's mpg.
the more i drove on the interstate,
the better mpg. mid 40's.
EPA estimates are wrong on most city mpg.

Anonymous said...

Can't believe mpg only in the 30's on a Prius. I get around 55 on average...high 50's on some tanks. This is for the second year of ownership, based on 12 months of actual purchases and mileage...not the display, which reads about 6% high on my vehicle.