One of my pet peeves about the Prius Plug-in is that the car won't stay in full electric mode under hard acceleration. Any mods to keep the car in pure electric propulsion?
View 19 RepliesJust curious, is the low speed electric acceleration in *hybrid mode* generally, seat of the pants, noticeably more robust than that of the 'regular', 3rd gen Prius? By low speed, I mean starting off from stop lights in normal driving.
Why do I ask? In 3rd gen Prius, electric acceleration lasts only a few seconds from a stop, maybe up to about 15 MPG roughly with light acceleration. With heavy throttle, gas engine comes on about right away.
How does the PiP behave under moderate acceleration from stop in hybrid mode? Could we say PiP accelerates on electric drive in HV about 6 MPH per second +/-x up to 25 MPH +/- x on level ground, etc....?
I'm confused about my PIP. Every night, I charge my battery fully and have 11-12 miles of charge to consume during the day. However, I've noticed that at least 10-25% of the time I'm driving in EV mode, the EV indicator goes off and my gas engine just runs. It's not because I'm driving the car hard - it even does it when stopped at a light.
My only guess is that either Toyota wants the gas engine to run once in a while or else it's trying to charge the Hybrid battery (even though I'm not using it at that time). It's a really bummer because even though I'm rarely out of EV mode, I'm burning what seems like a fair bit of gas - after 300 miles of mostly EV, I'm down to half a tank of gas?
When driving, when I hit a medium- light bump in the road and slightly jar the car, I hear a beep and the car goes into EV mode. This means the rpm's drop to zero, the gas engine shuts off and the car goes electric only. This is a problem because the state of charge then runs the bars on the multi-function-display down to the purple bar level.
View 13 RepliesI don't plug my PiP in often due to the cost of electricity here, but what I have noticed that when it has a full charge, around 13Miles, it will quickly drop down to 7-8, even when not using EV. Meaning, I start up car, turn off EV and the motor gets warm. Engine shuts off and I drive normally using the ICE. Over the course of a few miles, I'd say about 10, that EV range slowly drops down to 7-8 and then maintains itself around there. Pretty much the whole time I would have been using the ICE to maintain ~70MPH on the highway, not climbing, just flat.
View 6 RepliesAny additional scenarios that can kick EV mode off? (I have read if the traction motor is above 104 degrees, EV mode is kicked off.)
Could too much (Enginer) power being dumped onto the HV buss (with a fully charged NiMH battery) also kick EB mode off?
Yesterday my NiMH battery was fully charged, all bars greed (don't know SOC because ScanGauge was set to AMPs). Three hours after a lengthy drive on a 70 degree day when I did have difficulty entering EV mode, I started the car, successfully engaged EV mode and the Enginer Kit, was backing out, and the engine immediately started. (No beeps indicating EV mode was turned off.)
My guess would be that after 3 hours of sitting in a shaded and cool garage that the traction motor would not be 104 degrees.
Could too many AMPs going into the PRIUS (not Enginer) DC-to-DC converter with a FULL NiMH battery cause the engine to start to somehow cool the Prius Converter? (It does have a cooling system, right?).
I have noticed that when driving in EV mode when the car switches over to HV mode the Eco icon always lights up! Of course you can select Eco, or Power mode manually, but when it does this automatically, after the EV battery charge is used up, it keeps showing the Eco icon being lite not HV.
View 1 RepliesReally starting to get a little frustrated and would love input.....
Owned our PIP for almost a month now. First week, fully charged EV miles were showing around 13.7. 2nd Week, around 12.2, 3rd week, 10.5 and now this week it's gone from 9.6 to 9.1???
My wife plugged in to the EV charging station at work for the first time today. She was supposed to receive an email when the charge finished but wasn't notified because there was a still a trickle charge being registered by the EV station even though the battery was full.
View 13 RepliesWhen the gas tank is full, it makes an audible sloshing noise when coming to a stop or going into a parking lot ramp. For a few days, I thought that something was loose in the rear suspension or trunk, then realized it was the fluid in the gas tank. Of course, I generally notice it only when the radio is off or low and I'm performing the above tasks and the ICE isn't running.
View 19 RepliesSince purchase, I've had one gas fill up at 694 miles. That was four or five weeks ago and it's still full. My EV ratio is 65% (1100 miles) and will continue to increase. I realize I'm carrying a lot of dead weigh for weeks. For those with high EV mode use, what's your recommendation with gas fill ups? I'm thinking no more than fives gallons for daily commute and around town.
View 14 RepliesCan you drive in EV mode with the A/C or heater running to keep you cool in summer and warm in winter? If so, how much does it change the range from the normal 13-14 miles of EV?
I'm trying to determine how short of a commute I would need to have to not use gas while still driving normally and not giving up climate control use.
I live in NJ and in summer I am getting a full charge of 8.1 miles. In winter i used to get almost 11 miles. I thought in summer the charge will be even more?.
View 5 RepliesYou can put your car in drive, but also, you can put it in the "B" position. What does that do? How do you best use it? And what does "B" stand for anyway?
View 7 RepliesOn a long downhill, with EV mode selected, the car goes out of EV mode when one surpasses 65. When slowing down from 70, the car will not go into EV mode until one is down to 62. THen it stays there until one exceeds 65. I wonder if there is any difference in what is happening when one is going downhill at 66 vs 61? Both are using 0 gas. But one counts as an EV mile and the other does not. Here in high Colorado, this sort of thing makes the EV ratio somewhat meaningless.
View 17 RepliesOn occasion - not frequently - I'll notice the gasoline engine kicking in when I'm in ECO/EV mode with plenty of EV battery left. Today it happened on a relatively flat street, going maybe 30 mph, without the a/c or anything else on, and about 7 miles left on the EV battery indicator. In less than 30 seconds it went back to pure EV and the gasoline engine never kicked in again.
View 2 RepliesToday I drove my Prius Plug-in from my home almost to the highway in EV mode. When about one minute from the highway, I pushed the PWR mode button twice, on and off, and the ice came on for warmup. All the green symbols above the speedometer were cleared. I then again pressed ECO to bring back that mode.
I believe the vehicle was in what I think of as blended HV mode. This mode blends the extra battery capacity of the Plug in with the ICE. After a 40 mile trip, the available EV miles dropped from 13.9 to 1.2, and the trip meter registered 76 MPG. I went up and down a serious hill which probably reduced the mileage.
Is there a difference between full EV mode and the early HV mode where you are in EV (left half of the indicator on the HSI screen)? Aren't you in full electric in both situations? If so, then why would you need to manually toggle between the two modes?
View 3 RepliesI've noticed occasionally my music goes silent for a second or so when the iPod is plugged into the USB port. But then it will play without missing a beat for long periods. what could be wrong? No skips when using the aux plug.
View 19 RepliesI'm convinced this is a real problem with my 3-month-old 2013. When I bring it in for the 5K service, soon, this will be my No.1 issue. When running in EV mode, if you happen to start the ICE it will continue to run when you stop. In fact, it races - it doesn't just idle. I've tested this by being stationery for up to 5 minutes. This occurs not just the first time the ICE cycles on and off - it's every time. It only stops while driving (or by powering off).
View 17 RepliesI had my brand new plug in prius for 6 whole days before my house was hit by lightening, while the car was charging. The car has been in the shop for 3 weeks since that has happened and they eventually replaced the "electric vehicle recharge unit". But it still doesn't seem right to me. one of the things that is happening is that the EV switch is not operating while I'm driving.
For instance: I'm driving locally on EV and then get on the highway and when I get to the point that the engine kicks on, I hit the EV switch to turn it off and move to hybrid mode. However, even though the EV light is off, the battery continues to discharge and will eventually completely discharge. To prevent this I do a number of maneuvers like hit the brakes repeatedly or hit every button the dash (EV, ECO) until it stops!
This cannot be normal but then again I only drove the car for 6 days before lightening struck. It also happens the other way. If I'm driving on the highway and get off and then hit the EV switch to turn the electric back on, the electric motor doesn't kick in.Am I imagining this? Is there some fancy way to switch EV and back on the fly?