Has any used the feature to charge the care while driving? I haven't figured out "why" you would do this. Figured I was missing the purpose.
I use that feature. In about 30 miles of CHG'ing I get about 15 miles worth of charge in the battery From a full charge I can go 20 miles on EV. Then if I do 30 miles using CHG, I can follow it with 15 on EV again. That means for every 45 miles I drive I can get 15 on EV.
Our very own Prius Guru posted a nice video with ensuing discussion here: Prius Prime: detail about Charge-Mode | PriusChat
I think our engineer friends would say you would lose energy in the conversion. In my view, it is for those who must use EV in city traffic. I used to micromanage EV/HV driving. In comparison with my wife's driving who just drive our Prime, I was not doing better, sometimes even worse (e.g., she's got 101.7 MPG driving about 170 miles mostly on HWY 99 with one charge at home). So, I just drive now. I would do CHG mode just to drive in the city or just for fun. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
i have no doubt that there is a loss of efficiency. but if you are driving a phev, you have already conceded that point. the only question then is, are there times when it is a useful feature? according to those here who have done it, long mountain climbs in a areas with low battery can be difficult to maintain speed. are there any area's of the u.s. where driving is restricted to ev only?
I use it to charge my battery on the highway before I hit the city. I get better gas mileage that way. I'll lose about .2-.5 MPG then gain about .4mpg+ while driving in the city. Most likely my lead foot but this way works for me. Nexus 6P ?
Not in the US yet, and perhaps never will. Yes. When you arrive at a summit with empty battery, you will have more capacity to charge the battery, which also assists you in controlling the descent speed. This goes back to the point of saying just drive. With small usable battery capacity of Prime (relative to some other cars like Volt), you will be out of charge within the first 35-40 miles the way I drive in the areas I drive. Surprisingly, the car switches from gas engine to electric motor and vice versa much better (compared to Prius Plug-in), and dose it better than I do. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I've only used it a couple of times to increase my battery so I can drive on ev miles in the city. However the only time I really needed it is when I was coming back home on a trip had maybe a gallon and a half of gas left. I wanted to see how far I can go so I charge the battery for 30 minutes and I was able to make it home on a gallon and a half plus the EV miles I had gained. The total miles to my destination was 70. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Smart! I think this is what Mr Bob Wilson recommends to do based on his run-out-of-gas experiments. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
