Feature Story
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Hybrids: His & Hers
Mae, Charlie & Wylie with Priuses
Mae Schrey, co-owner of the Weinhard Café, commutes from her home in Prescott to work at the Dayton restaurant five days a week. For you out-of-towners, that's 36 miles a day, or roughly 800 miles a month.
Every 400 miles or so, Mae fills up her tank. How much does it take, you ask? "Oh, eight or nine gallons," she says. The next time she fills up, it may be on the high side of that range. "On the current tank of gas I'm only getting 47 or 48." That's miles per gallon, folks. "I've gotten as high as 57," she says. Mae blames the wind this spring for the slight reduction in mileage.
Mae and her husband, Charlie Schorner, each drive a 2005 Toyota Prius. Charlie drives his Prius daily to his job at Key Technology in Walla Walla. He's getting about 52 mpg on his current tank of gas. "Charlie's a little more careful in his driving than I am," says Mae.
The cars were purchased new at Abajian Toyota in Walla Walla – Charlie's in September 2004 and Mae's in May 2005. Charlie did a lot of research before he purchased his car, and that research came in handy the day he picked it up. "I had to show the salesman how to start the car and put it in gear," he says.
In the salesman's defense, not many Priuses were sold then. And besides, a Prius operates a little differently than other cars. To begin with, it has a "Power On" button, similar to a computer, only a bit larger. That's appropriate, since this car is sort of like a rolling computer. (More on that in a minute.)
The Prius also doesn't have a conventional transmission. With a small knob on the dashboard, the driver can select neutral, drive or reverse. A separate button is pressed to put the car in park.
For those readers who have been asleep for the past decade, a Toyota Prius is a "hybrid" vehicle. It has both a conventional gas engine (1.5 liter four-cylinder, with just under 100 horsepower, for you gearheads) as well as an electric motor and a large battery. Depending on driving conditions, the front-wheel-drive car can be powered by the electric motor, the gas engine, or both simultaneously.
Which brings us to the computer. Toyota engineers developed software that determines which of those three modes the car operates in. "When I'm just driving slowly around town, the car often runs on the electric motor only," says Charlie. "But when you need a lot of power, both motors work together."
Charlie says his Prius accelerates surprisingly well, considering its size and the size of the gas engine. "With the gas and electric motors working together, this car has strong acceleration," he says.
"My Prius accelerates faster than any car I've ever owned," says Mae, though admitting that she's always owned small economy cars.
Another important function of the car's computer is determining when the battery needs a charge. Most of the charging is provided by the gas engine. But when light braking is needed, the computer will allow the resistance of the electric motor to help slow the car down. This also allows the electric motor to act as a generator, providing power to the batteries.
On the dashboard of the Prius is a large (for a car) color screen. During a short drive, Charlie demonstrated the wide variety of information that can be displayed on the screen. His car is Bluetooth compatible, and the address book from his cell phone is loaded into the car's computer. So, using the car's built-in microphone and speakers, he can make calls without pulling the phone out of his pocket.
More importantly, the screen can show very detailed information about the operation of the car. The "energy monitor" screen shows what's happening with the two motors and the battery. Colored arrows represent the flow of power to (or from) the front wheels, as well as between the motors and the battery. The "consumption" screen shows detailed information about gasoline consumption, including real time mileage as well as mileage over a set period of time. Charlie's car has a GPS navigation system, so he can call up a map on the screen, showing the car's current location, and providing directions, as necessary.
When we first asked Mae if she and Charlie would be interested in talking to us for this article, she said: "Sure. We love our Priuses and we love talking about them." How many other modern cars have you ever heard their owners say that about?