In article ,
Adrian wrote:
"Doctor Drivel" gurgled happily, sounding much

Battery for town, petrol for longer.

Woo. Two mile range at a pace an out-of-tune 2cv could beat, then the
petrol engine's needed to charge your Pious up again.

That's missing the point really. It's true that a Prius has a 2 mile
range if you run it as an electric vehicle (unless you've done the
large battery conversion which allows mains charging and a 30 mile
range), but the EV mode is really only a gimick (and indeed, it's not
even fitted on US models).

The way it actually tends to work, assuming the engine is warm (if
it's not, it'll run it to make sure it stays warm, so lots of very
short trips will damage fuel economy a bit) is that it'll use the
engine to assist in accelerating away from traffic lights, etc., and
then switch it off when you're cruising along at 30mph, or
whatever. Engine on for applying power, off for cruising (up to about
50 mph), deceleration and sitting in stationary traffic. This is where
it manages to get upwards of 50mpg in the urban cycle, as well as
avoiding crawling along in slow moving traffic along, e.g. Mill Road,
where the lack of fumes is possibly appreciated by nearby pedestrians.