The Toyota Prius Delivers 93 MPG, Setting New Guinness World Record

Would you be impressed by a car that gets 93 mpg? If the answer is yes, then you’re going to be impressed by the current Toyota Prius. While the current Prius may be EPA-rated for a “lowly” 57 mpg, it just completed a cross-country drive, from Los Angeles’ City Hall to New York’s City Hall, while averaging 93.1 MPG. That’s a 3,200-mile trip, so unlike a lot of fuel efficiency tests that take place over a few dozen or a few hundred miles, this one took place between two of America’s biggest cites, one on each coast. And yes, that’s a new fuel-efficiency world record, certified by Guinness.

How does a Toyota Prius nearly double its certified fuel efficiency? The single biggest factor is how it’s driven, or in this case, who is doing the driving. This hyper-efficient Prius owes its record-setting run to a gentleman named Wayne Gerdes, who publishes a website called CleanMPG.com and has a long history of setting efficiency records. The last time Wayne drove across the country, in a Kia Niro hybrid in 2016, he achieved a then-record 76.6 MPG. Wayne has also set records for driving a Volkswagen Passat TDI through all 48 contiguous states while averaging 68 MPG.

So Wayne Gerdes likes to break automotive efficiency records. And this time he chose the current Toyota Prius, which has already won a long list of accolades, including my personal assessment as the best car you can buy today, at least if you’re looking for the best combination of value, reliability, performance, safety, styling, and yes, fuel efficiency. So it didn’t surprise me to see Wayne pair up with the current Prius to break another record. Still, getting an average of 93 mpg out of the car while crossing the U.S. is truly impressive.

Think about this — if Wayne was averaging 93 MPG, that means half the time he was doing better than that. It’s safe to assume he was seeing over 100 MPG on long stretches of road, and not just when going down hill. This is the ultimate form of hypermiling, which is what Wayne specializes in. If you read past accounts of how Wayne drives a car you hear about the usual tactics, like being super-light on the throttle, keeping the vehicle’s speed down, and trying to time his arrival at stop lights so they’re green.

But to break records Wayne goes several steps further, including no use of fat-cat, fuel-sucking climate control systems, keeping the windows up for better aerodynamics, and putting the wheels on the crown of the road, outside the usual two-tracks that are worn down in a given lane. The latter means the tires ride on smoother pavement while avoiding potholes and any residue of energy-sapping water that accumulates on the lower levels of pavement. It’s extreme stuff for sure, but you can’t deny the results.

I can see fuel-conscious drivers following Wayne’s lead on lighter throttle application and lower speeds. But no A/C? With the windows up? That’s not going to happen for people living U.S. southern states between May and September. However, if you’re willing to go that far in your quest for fuel efficiency, the current Toyota Prius can realistically deliver close to double its EPA-rated fuel efficiency. Not bad for a car I was already impressive with.