Do I need to treat the Prime like other EV meaning charge to 80% only? The car has been driven daily from 100% down to HV mode kicks in.
No. Toyota already built a buffer into the Prime. 100% battery meter SOC is approximately 83% true SOC.
You've got a 10yr or 150K mile warranty on that traction battery. Toyota has anticipated that most people don't read the OM, so the system is pretty much plug-n-play. There are issues of the aux. battery draining due to a bad batch of batteries from their vendor and a TSB concerning that, so if you have a problem starting the car or low battery indicator - you can have the dealer check-out those conditions. Using the car as a daily driver and routinely draining the EV portion of the battery is actually good exercise for the pack and the way the car was designed to operate. The real test is to leave the car unattended and not operating for 2 weeks. Hope this helps....
I am moving from a gen 2 chevy volt that was fine to alway charge and leave plugged in when ever its parked. I gather it Is fine to do this with the Prius? Do most of you leave your Prius plugged in to top it up even when the battery is close to full with no worry about battery degradation?
I don’t think you’re supposed to leave the Prius plugged in for more than 3 days . It drains the 12 volt
If your only driving/moving it once or twice a week; You should disconnect the charger after it finishes charging. If it's a daily or every other daily driver - you should be fine. If your leaving for a few weeks vacation - You definitely want to unplug it!! Hope this helps.....
It’s recommended to “Leave the hybrid battery at a low level of charge when leaving the vehicle undriven for a long period of time” from Chapter 2 - the charging section of the manual. There are other recommendations the hint at battery stress when the car is fully charged. Driving the car immediately after charging is recommended. Avoid parking in direct sunlight with high temperatures when the battery is fully charged. It is surprising that no provision for a reduced maximum charge is available. I suppose that the schedule could be used if you have a regular driving and charging routine.
The 100% charge on the display is less than 100% for the cells. Some BEVs allow the setting of charge level, but PHEV manufacturers probably assume it isn't worth having with the smaller battery. They are probably right with the buffers in the charge range in place. Seems this is only an issue for long term storage.
It is important to load it regularly at 100% (not necessary each time), because when you finish the load to go from 90% to 100%, it takes more time because the equilical load controller the voltage of high voltage battery cells. If you always stop the load under 90%, you do not rebalance by the voltage of cells and this will decrease its autonomy and damage the battery in the long run.
I suppose that this need for rebalancing may be the reason Toyota didn’t give us more control over the charging amount.
Good advice. I generally plug it in to charge whenever I get home. It's usually fully charged when I drive it again.
I have a 2024 Prime SE, and have similar questions regarding charging to 100%, discharging to 0%, and some other things. My local dealer where I bought the car, don't have an EV tech so, they are not a very good source of information. Enjoying the car.
Welcome.... I would suggest that you read your 2024 PHEV Operating Manual. The rumors your hearing or reading about applies to gen1 PHEV and NOT a Toyota PHEV. The 2024 PHEV is effectively Toyota's gen3 PHEV. See thread #3. Hope this helps.....
I read somewhere that the Prius hybrid battery is designed to charge to 70%, and discharge to 30% for the purposes of battery longevity. I drove my 2012 Gen 3 for 12 years and only lost about 15% of EV range capacity.
For those who like technical information, the HV battery cells of the Prius Prime 2023-2024-2025 are prismatic cells of Panasonic Li-ion. Generation 3 of the Prius used cilindrical Ni-MH cells which have nothing to do with the Li-ion. The characteristics of these cells are: Manufacturer: Panasonic Capacity: 51 Ah Nominal Voltage: 3.7 V Energy: 188.7 Wh Form Factor: Phev2 Chemistry: NCM 622 (Seeushevs.com/2020/07/03/modern-panasonic-prismatic-battery-cells/) With 96 cells, the real power of the battery HV is: 96 cell x 51 ah x 3.7 v = 18.1 kWh However, Toyota gives a capacity of 13.6 kWh. This is due to the fact that the battery is used at 75% of its maximum capacity. When you believe that it is 100% loaded, in reality, it is 75% loaded. It is the same for the bottom, when it indicates 0%, in reality, it is still 30% for the operation of the hybrid mode. So in summary, there is no need to use the battery between 20 and 80% on the car indicator, because in reality, using it between 0% and 100% corresponds to using it between 30% and 75%. Toyota engineers are not crazy and do not want to change battery before the end of the warranty. Translated by Google, I speak French.
The Prius Plug-in 2012 actually has a 4.4 kWh LI-ION available. But if we will look for the characteristics of the cells, they are 3.6 volts at 21.5 Ah. With 96 cells, the real power of the Battery HV is: 96 cell x 21.5 Ah x 3.6 V = 7.4 kWh In this case, Toyota uses it at 60% of its real capacity and keeps a large margin of safety.
