I'm curious if anyone knows.. In my Leaf I can turn on the A/C or heater while the car is still plugged in and it will draw that power from the mains. That means less battery usage to get the interior temperature comfortable once I'm off driving. Being the smaller battery size in the Prius PHV, I would think this feature would be even more important. Anyone know if it has this ability?
Yep. Cooling is also a remote function via key fob. I'm pretty sure heating is too. Of course my insulated garage will moderate the cold temps quite a bit especially if I fire up the wood stove.
The battery has quite a bit of mass. It would take quite a while for even the car heater to warm this up. Just how powerful are these electric heaters? Big consideration particularly since the Plug-in can recharge in 90 -180 minutes. Less if you're just topping off. Personally I want a warm start but by the time I get to work, I want the windshield cold during the winter.
The thing is, the demo car had an elaborate heat pump type setup in it which was powered off it being plugged in for heating the interior. It did quite a great job, but like I said it was quite elaborate, trust me. If it and all the associated equipment will make it to production is to be seen...
So from you're description of the heat pump they can both cool and heat the battery with it. Makes sense. Well designed heat pump systems can provide both heating and cooling. I might take advantage of the precooling but I think I prefer my garage during the heating season which heats up the entire car. Of course this is all conjecture until the final specs are released by Toyota.
