With my 2001 Prius, I've found the outside air temperature to be the biggest factor in my gas mileage. Typical days here are 65-72 degrees. On these days I get about 5-7 mpg below the rated mileage. On 90+ deg days I will often see 20 mpg or more over the rated mileage under identical driving conditions (60 minute commute with 35 min. on the highway, 25 min. on city streets).
After reading multitudes of responses so far, I am surprised there has been no mention of temperature's impact on hybrid mpg.
I am a Prius 2001 owner living on the California central coast which sees very moderate temperatures year round. I normally get only 47 mpg with mixed highway/city driving. An explanation I've heard from other Prius owners is to expect lower mileage in cooler temperatures (indeed southern CA drivers usually report better mpg than me). Until recently I haven't been able to personally confirm it because the temps just don't swing that much here, but a few weeks ago we had an unusual heat wave approaching 100 for a couple of days and my mileage jumped to 65-70mpg during the period. On one 20-minute city errand I managed to hit over 80mpg -- the only other time I'd done that is rolling downhill. This is with the AC off which most drivers wouldn't contemplate at those temps. This all promptly disappeared after the heat wave left.
So where are the EPA tests conducted?
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With my 2001 Prius, I've found the outside air temperature to be the biggest factor in my gas mileage. Typical days here are 65-72 degrees. On these days I get about 5-7 mpg below the rated mileage. On 90+ deg days I will often see 20 mpg or more over the rated mileage under identical driving conditions (60 minute commute with 35 min. on the highway, 25 min. on city streets).
After reading multitudes of responses so far, I am surprised there has been no mention of temperature's impact on hybrid mpg. I am a Prius 2001 owner living on the California central coast which sees very moderate temperatures year round. I normally get only 47 mpg with mixed highway/city driving. An explanation I've heard from other Prius owners is to expect lower mileage in cooler temperatures (indeed southern CA drivers usually report better mpg than me). Until recently I haven't been able to personally confirm it because the temps just don't swing that much here, but a few weeks ago we had an unusual heat wave approaching 100 for a couple of days and my mileage jumped to 65-70mpg during the period. On one 20-minute city errand I managed to hit over 80mpg -- the only other time I'd done that is rolling downhill. This is with the AC off which most drivers wouldn't contemplate at those temps. This all promptly disappeared after the heat wave left. So where are the EPA tests conducted?