Driving a 430,000 miles, Gen 3, 2010 Prius

by | Nov 18, 2015 | Prius performance

Round trip from Bakersfield, California, to Flagstaff, Arizona.

Day 1:
Driving a Gen three Prius. It has 429,000 miles on it and a refurbished battery. Drove from Bakersfield to Kingman, Arizona, at 67 mph. 323 miles put in 6.044 gallons. That’s 53.44 miles per gallon! Have uphill to Flagstaff. Excited to see what it does for this leg of the trip.

Day 2:
The second leg of the trip was from Havasu to Flagstaff and back again. 429,000 miles (refurbished HV battery), 2010, Gen 3 Prius. 382 miles, 7.831 gallons, 48.78 mpg. Cruise control at 67 miles per hour, no AC, all freeway driving.

Day 3:

The final leg of the trip from Havasu to Bakersfield is telling. I was impatient and bumped up my speed to 72 and turned on AC for 60 miles (93 degrees). 321 miles, 72 mph, AC on for 60 miles, 7.149 gallons, 44.9 mpg.

  • That tells me my speed increase and AC cost me a 5 miles per gallon or an average of one mile per gallon for every mile increase in speed.
  • This further tells me there is an optimum speed for a Prius. It’s not 72 for sure, but I doubt it’s 67 either.

I doubt I will make that same run with the same battery in this car again. But it would be interesting if I did to see where this car’s optimum speed is.

Final numbers, analysis, and application in the next post.