In message

, Steve Firth writes
funkyoldcortina wrote:
[snip]

That's not true for the Prius. You still get better mpg than a
conventional petrol car on motorway trips, as once you're up to speed you
can ease off the pedal and the electric motor does most of the work to
keep you at-speed, requiring much lower power output from the engine.

That's compete ********. The Prius only has one small advantage on the
motorway. Some energy lost when braking can be recovered. That's it. The
electric motor cannot suck energy from thin air.

Most tests of the Prius have shown relatively poor mpg on long runs.

The engine is Atkinson cycle too, so beats a regular petrol engine at
low RPM.

Cobblers. The Atkinson cycle does not improve efficiency at low rpm. It is
designed to maximise efficiency at a given, constant rpm which for the
Pious is IIRC around 3k rpm.

Point of order...

Is the charge performance of a battery the same for all states of
charge? I don't know anything about *electro-chemistry* but wonder if
conversion efficiency varies with the charge level?

Generator efficiency will presumable vary with load and I wonder if the
overall performance tails off as the battery approaches full charge?

regards

--
Tim Lamb