Hi all, As a Gen II owner, I got the opportunity to get a PiP loaner while my dented doors (own fault ) are being fixed. So far, I am not won over yet. (1) it won't go into EV, I've searched and supposedly the battery needs to be "solid" instead of just 7 bars. I like the way this works, bars is when the battery acts like a normal Prius and solid when it has some 'spare' PiP battery capacity. But it is something you have to know... (2) the magazines in the Netherlands are always complaining about the large turning-cycle of the GenIII. The specs say it is (virtually) the same. I definately think it is considerably larger than the GenII. (I have the 16" alloys on my GenII, the PiP has only 15 I think: I mention this because my Volvo with 17" has different wheelstops which make the turningcircle larger (think Boeing-747-in-flight territory...) than the 15 or 16"). (3) I like the regenerating part of the power-useage meter. At least you know now when going over the regenerating capacity. How does this compare to the GenII Prius? I hope it has about the same possibility for regenerating (same 'charge current' into the batterypack), as it is quite easy to hit max. regen. If the GenII is cosiderably less, then I am wasting a lot of energy , if it is about the same, then my 'gut-feeling' is quite accurate. Also all the bad visibility through the A-pillars and the horizontal divide in the rear hatch are just as horrible as the GenII. Last point for now: it only came with a 7 pin plug (iirc), how do I hack it to charge from my (230V~ 16A) sockets? (I'll ask the wife to take it to work to charge there (Owners are supposedly getting Model S's, so charging facilities are available already). Any pointers? Just make sure the timer is OFF and plug in, that's all, correct?)
1) If you don't plug it in, it'll be hard to go into EV mode. You'll need a pretty steep hill to regen the battery into a solid block. 2) I also went from Gen2 to PiP. I did not notice any turning circle. But then, I don't do u-turn that often and streets over here are pretty wide. 3) PiP can regen more than Gen2 due to the battery size. Not only it can store more energy but also at faster rate.
i went from gen II to pip and love it. but you seem more concerned with gen III issues than pip issues (especially since you haven't even charged it yet which is the whole point) the only genIII issue i was concerned about is the flying bridge, but it's no big deal. i hope you have it long enough to plug in and really test, it's a fantastic machine!
That's not going to happen in the "Nether"lands with out highest hill being around 1000ft and local hills not even reaching 100ft. Hmmm, any numbers? The GenII can charge with 100A at 200V, so 20kW iirc. But I can't say that I feel I can regen-brake harder with the PiP than I can accelerate with my own GenII in EV. But maybe my seat-of-pants-accelerometer isn't very accurate... Plugging in: they only supplied the 'industrial' plug... Which my wife should be able to use at work, but she says she needs a swipe-type-card (that wasn't supplied and I don't have). And she says it's free to charge. I think it is probably one or the other... But the Toyota dealer has found a normal 230V~ lead (our standard voltage), so as soon as I pick that up, I can finally charge it in a normal socket. When calling Toyota, they said: "oh, but you don't have to charge it". To which I replied, "but that was the whole point of waiting with repairing my Prius until you had the PiP available as a loaner!!!" I don't want to know how a GenIII drives, I want to drive a PiP... I have to return it with a full tank, so I might as well use as much EV as possible
You can search my previous post with a graph of the data recorded with the Torque app. If I recall, I have seen more than 150A and the battery voltage is higher. 30+kW regen. For propulsion, I have seen as high as 41kW discharge.
i have found that the pip, without any wall charge, provides about a 10% increase in mpg's, due to litium and tech advances i suspect.
I get a similar boost in mpg especially where there are hills as the regeneration easily adds to the available EV miles. On the flatland for stop and go traffic there seems to be a minor advantage, on the flat freeway not so much.
Driven for two days purely electric. Ideal for short runs in town (2-3miles max.) Charger is a regular 230V~ plug that seems to charge at 10A. My voltage in the shed where I plug it is drops to 220V~ and the charging is 2200W (Powerfactor 1.00 to 0.99). It's a standard plug, a 10x3x3" box with an LED and a reset button and then a bigger cable (more wires due to the communication-pins I guess) to the 7-pin (or 8?) charging plug. Two things: when I had just picked it up, it gave a dual-beep during normal driving. No indication on the dash whatsoever. Bit creepy, the beeps were obviously a way to get my attention (it happened twice with 10 seconds between them), but I don't have a clue for what. Second thing is the engine kicked in the morning after I had fully charged it. Immediateely after pushing the start button. It never did this again until I pressed the accelerator quite hard and the ICE helped out for a second or two. No further ICE running since then (as far as I know). The kids love it more than I do
Sorry, bit late now, but... The beeps would probably be the nav system warning you of the presence of speed cameras. In the European version, the other beep we get in normal driving is EV City cancelling over 85km/h, but that only happens once and you get a notification on the display. ICE starting immediately is because either heating or AC have been left on; turn them off when you stop. You can turn the fan on at the lowest setting without triggering the ICE. Also, again for the European model, engaging EV City before starting makes it extremely unlikely that you will turn the ICE on through acceleration.
