On my way home tonight, I ran out of gas in the Prius. When I left Orange County (23 miles away from LA), I was on one bar, but just didn’t feel like stopping. Anyway, so all these lights came on in the dash, and when I pushed on the gas it didn’t go very fast.

I deduced that it was still running, but just using the electric mode. Luckily I had just passed a Shell station, so I whipped around and went back for it. The only thing I was now worried about was my battery dying since I wasn’t sure my car would start back up after I put gas in.

Anyway, I made it to the Shell, and it worked fine.

Now I know that my car can go approximately 20 miles AFTER I get the low fuel warning light. And I know that the electric mode will work by itself for about a mile (that is all I tested it for).