Gen 3 EV Mode question

Mine maxes out at 47kmh then ice kicks in. 60kmh would have been nice but its the way its been configured from factory. This is an aussie speced vehicle not sure about yours.
Regards

 

The car needs to be fully warmed up and the battery with 5-6 lines or more to get max speed. Even then you can not accelerate to fast
Danny

 

As vday stated, the car must warm up before allowing EV at higher speeds.

When the engine coolant is below 68F, it won't go into EV at all.

 

EV mode is only good for up to 25mph if your engine is warmed up and you have 4-8 bars. You can accelerate to 25mph in EV if your HSI stays with in ECO bar. You can accelerate to 40+mph in Normal mode or ECO mode if your engine is fully warmed up and have 6-8 bars without turning on the ICE. The HSI may not pass the halfway point. Once you pass those points, it will kick you out of EV and the ICE will kick on. The best electric acceleration I did was when the battery had 7 bars. I got up to 42mph in .4 miles before I couldn't accelerate faster. I was down to 4 bars. On a side note, When you have 6 or more bars, you can maintain 40-43mph in electric only while the ICE is off for at least 1 mile. The longest electric distance I've driven is 2.7 miles.

 

Strange i can put mine in ev mode straight away from cold. Will try it again in the morning and re confirm..

 

If you press EV fast (after the ready light goes on) it will go in even when the engine is cold - It will stay in EV at very low speeds

 

I can confirm this is correct. I did it this morning when i left for work with a cold engine and again in the afternoon heading home.
Hit the start button to go to ready status then press ev mode button and your done.

 

I note that these reports, and other similar ones (e.g. Kithmo in Can you put a Prius in Neutral without turning it on?), come from non-U.S. models.

U.S. models seem to be different. See my several posts in Can I start and move in EV mode? (that series ran over 100 tests) and EV cancelled due to high speed while doing single digits MPH?

 

As someone has already stated, EV mode is more restrictive on the US spec cars compared to the Euro, Jap or Aussie spec models.

I think this is due to differing emissions legislation. Also, US spec cars seem to display the correct speed on their speedo whereas Euro cars for example will overread by about 5 mph or so. Eg my car switches EV off at an indicated speed of 31 mph whereas the US posters indicate that EV switches off at 25 mph. Presumably the same speed in reality.

 

I think US models are restricted more to prevent wearing out batteries during the 8 year warranty period! In any case, if you drain the battery the engine is just gonna have to work harder to recharge it, negating any savings you got running that mile in EV! Of course, if you got a big hill to regen on at the end of the EV cruise, go for it!

 

We have 8 year warranty on the HV batteries here in the UK plus the 'normal' warranty on the car is 5 years/100k miles.

I understood your restrictive EV use is due to emissions in that the car must warm up the emissions systems earlier than required here and also keep emissions lower when switching on the petrol engine when the car kicks out of EV mode (ie excessive speed).

I could be wrong though -

 

My experience is with my 2004 Prius, but I imagine it's probably similar:

EV mode does not allow hard acceleration. To accelerate to maximum allowable speed you must do so VERY gently. Merely maintaining speed up a hill can be too much for EV mode, and the engine will kick in.

When you turn the car on, the engine does not start immediately unless you hit the pedal to accelerate immediately. In my 2004 the delay is about 10 seconds. During that ten-second period you can put the car in EV mode, and as long as you accelerate gently enough, you can drive in EV mode until the battery reaches a set level. This allows the car to be moved short distances, or driven out of a residential area without running the engine.

However, once the engine starts, it will go through a warm-up period before EV can be engaged.

Note that under most circumstances it is inefficient to drive more than a short distance in EV mode, since the engine must recharge he battery later. An exception would be if you are approaching a long downhill. In extreme cold weather, when the car is reluctant to stop the engine, and the battery becomes full, you can use EV mode to draw it down a little, but you should not draw it down much before allowing the car to regulate itself again.

 

As I stated on an earlier thread, I haven't found the EV mode to useful in any way---except if you want to sneak up on your neighbor's cat....and the tire noise always gives you away, so it's not much good for that either.

I guess if you wanted to move the car w/o starting the ICE (for whatever reason) it's OK for that, but I've read posts from the hypermilers that pretty much poo-poo EV mode for increasing your lifetime fuel economy. It was cool to try to play with for about 30-seconds, but then I got over it.

 

I find EV very useful to go in and out garage without unnecessary engine starts and wasting fuel to warm it up for nothing. Too bad this feature works only during summer here in US.

 

It is now, as from June 2010, but prior to that from the UK launch in 2009 to end of May 2010, it was 3 years normal warranty (car) and only 5 years on the hybrid system, which is what I have, as I bought mine in May 2010

 

Not sure if somebody said this already...but as per my scan gauge, EV mode will stick up to 24 mph with your foot on the accelerator past the midpoint on the HSI, as long as the engine coolant is at 159F or so...OTW, it drops out at 10 mph. ICE kicks on past 44 mph no matter what. Heavy acceleration will kick the ICE on at any temp or speed.

Gen 3 of course.

 

All of you that are realy interested in warm-up stages, just read the first sticky thread (by Ken@Japan) of this forum!

Giora.