Are You A REAL Prius Owner?

The other day I was following behind a Prius on the Ventura Freeway. The highway was four lanes wide at that point and traffic was pretty light. For some reason the driver kept putting on their brakes. They weren't really trying to stop since they barely slowed down each time they tapped the brake pedal.

I have driven a Prius and I know what a thrill it is to watch the video screen which shows the driver which way the electricity is flowing and whether the engine is running or if it is just running off the battery. Then there is the average MPG numbers as well as the instantaneous MPG reading. Now that is the impressive number! The instantaneous miles per gallon! When you let off the gas you often exceed 100 MPG, much like you get when you drive down a hill. I also like the screen which shows you the battery charge. It is a bar graph which depicts how much power is stored inside the battery. The bar changes length when you draw current from the battery and when you generate electricity with the gasoline engine or with regenerative braking.

There is a term that you don't hear everyday...."Regenerative Braking". What it means is that when you apply your brakes you run the motor backwards and generate electricity that would normally be lost to heat from brake friction. It is perhaps the single most important aspect of an electric or hybrid car. Without regenerative braking, there is basically no benefit to an electric car and especially to a hybrid car. All the energy in a hybrid car comes from the gasoline engine with all the efficiency losses of the engine as well as the generator and the electric motor.

With my short driving experience in a Prius I finally figured out why the guy in front of me kept putting on his brakes. You guessed it!!!

USING REGENERATIVE BRAKING HE WAS PRODUCING ELECTRICITY TO KEEP HIS BATTERY TOPPED OFF!

Now is that a Prius driver or is that a REAL Prius driver?