EV Up Hill

Do you know where the bar is on the HSI screen while you are traveling up these grades at a comfortable speed? Are you in the PWR zone 100%, etc? That might give PIP owners who've owned a Gen III a better reference point.

 

It's very different in EV with a PiP. EV mode lasts until the power band, and even then you're in EV-assist mode. That means your ICE is only picking up the slack. I've driven at 75 mph uphill getting 50+ MPG in EV-assist mode.

I've found that your speed doesn't make a large difference when climbing a hill. It seems like it takes about as much power to go 40 mph up a steep hill as it does to go 60. The thing that kills you is trying to accelerate up a hill.

 

If you are familiar with the stretch of I-80 between Loomis and Newcastle then you'll know it is a fairly steep grade. On the steep parts I don't think I can stay in EV Mode and maintain 62mph. On the less steep sections between Newcastle and Auburn I can stay in EV Mode at 60mph. There is a very steep part of Nevada Street between I-80 and Fullweiler in Auburn that I tackle in EV Mode just fine at 30+mph. My Three couldn't do that stretch of road in EV Mode without crawling so slow I become a road block and use up SOC like mad.

 

you will use a lot of kwh to make that last mile uphill, so, depending on how much you've used up beforehand, you may or may not have enought to get all the way home. long test drive with a full charge is a great idea.

 

sounds like we have a new member!

 

I was almost a proud member today when I made my first real EV trip from Woodland to UC Davis. I made it to the parking garage with .8 miles to spare. I pulled into an EV charging station and noticed there was only one charger and the PIP that was plugged in was done charging. So I decided to unplug it and carefully closed its charge door. I have never used a charging station before so I was confused when after plugging in my car it didn't immediately start charging. I fiddled with the machine for a bit then realized this ChargePoint station requires a car or a special credit car to used. When I hung up the charger, it locked into place and I couldn't remove it to plug it back into the other PIP just in case. Uggggggg

So I got in my car and parked it very far away! LOL

I had to to drive in HV mode back to Woodland. I felt like an EV failure.

 

argh! i hate driving in hv. this high tech stuff has a learning curve.

 

I can accelerate from a red light up a 6% grade and keep up with other cars. Maintaining 40 mph would be no problem, perhaps use half the HSI bar in PiP EV mode.

Another reference point, if I switch from half HSI bar in EV mode to HV mode, the HSI bar jumped into PWR region.

To put it in quantitative numbers, PiP PHV battery can output about 40 kW. A regular Prius HV battery has a threshold of 10 kW before ICE kicking in. So you get about 4x more power to play with.

 

Free charging will be or is a thing of the past.

 

You can sign up to get an RFID card on the ChargePoint website. They used to charge a nominal fee for the card but I know it has also sometimes been free. You only have to give them your credit card number if you want to use the card with stations that cost money. At least around the SF Bay Area there are still many free ChargePoint stations -- mostly in city parking garages.

If you don't have a card yet, there should be a 1-800 number posted on the charging station that you can call instead and ask an operator at ChargePoint to unlock the handle.