First congratulations for your new Prius. Welcome aboard you have joined the family of Prius owners. I wish you good luck with your new car.
Here's what I did when I bought my Prius;
1. Changed Plugs; You local Toyota dealer or a well reputed parts workshop in your area must have these compatible plugs.
2. Oil & Oil Filter plus Air filter change; Toyota recommends oil change at every 5000km. Use imported filter and oil 5-30 Slightly expensive but peace of mind (your fuel savings will compensate more than this cost). Since Prius is a series parallel hybrid. So it operates with battery only, battery+engine and engine only modes. That is why engine runs less than a conventional gasoline so you can change engine oil at 5000km rather than 3000 or 4000km.
3. EV button; Electric vehicle mode. This mode allows you to drive Prius in electric mode only. However the battery must be charged to use this feature. Please note battery is charged with engine when you accelerating and with braking system when you apply brakes. In Prius all operations are controlled by a computer and it is programmed in a way to give best efficiency and performance when needed. For Prius 2nd generation models till April 2009, EV button allows 3km traveling under 57km/h speed with full battery charge. As soon as you reach 58km/h speed or battery charge drops to 20% the EV mode will turn off and engine kicks in to power the car. However, I have learned some tricks in a period of 1 month, now I am able to drive my Prius on battery for speeds upto 80km/h without using EV mode. As you continue drive Prius and get experienced , you will learn how to utilize the batteries to get maximum fuel average.
Driving within city: Its not that hard. Just like any other car. Just follow the traffic flow. Avoid sudden accelerate or braking. Keep your eyes on traffic. If there is a red light or congestion ahead lift your foot from accelerator and let car glide through, that will save lot of fuel and you will see your fuel average graph going up. Like in my home town, I know the traffic flow on each road. So, I maintain my speeds accordingly that helps me achieve more than 23km/L within city.
Driving on highway: Personally I believe that Pakistani roads are not built of high speeds. Traveling at 150km/h or more you have to hit the brakes harder. So, if you drive within posted speeds 120km/h or less. You end up with better average and you do not have to hit brakes that hard. Again, it saves car brake pads as well. Anyhow, I have already posted my driving averages here at PW, here's again.
Most recent 10km driving experiment at various speeds;
85km/h - Fuel average 31km/L
95km/h - Fuel average 29km/L
110km/h - Fuel average 28km/L
120km/h - Fuel average 26km/L
160km/h - Fuel average 15km/L (please do not drive at such high speeds, it was for testing purpose only)
These are results from my Prius. Your average may differ depending on the condition of the car.
I hope this information is helpful.
Just a note for all readers; I am looking for the Prius owner who has been using this car for more than 2 years. Anyone please send a PM message. Thank you.