Hi im new posting here but i spend months reading and checking videos of how Prius works. I plan use it for Uber and also camping on a long road trip. Rigth now I narrow my options to regular 3gen or a PiP. Let say for camping people usually left the car on READY, in the regular prius the ICE just start the engine to topoff the battery while the AC run from the batteries. Will the PiP do the same? or it charge battery from the regenerative or plug-in ONLY? If so, it will topoff the full battery 4kw or just a low % of it? It can be better or worse just not sure about how it will work in that scenario. Also if camping with a 120v is avaliable i can plug it while its in READY using the AC? Or if charge before sleep it will use the full 4.4kw to power the AC or just a %? Now for the work, For uber 10miles look like nothing for the average 200miles that i do daily, so that represent nothing in mpg BUT while driving for hours in the highway with the ICE working, it will charge the battery to the full 4.4kw or it will just charge a %? if so how much is that %? From what i was reading the only way to get a full charge on the PiP is a long hill or plug in it. Weird questions right? I never own a Hybrid before, and now i planning my next few years around one. By the way I'm looking for a price tag under 8k so it will be likely a high mileage one, some batteries concerns but not too much. Any other advice will be welcome and REALLY appreciated. Also thanks in advance for reading the whole stuff, my grammar is far from a good one.
I only had a week of experience but this is what i discovered in my PiP : Set off from home at full charge, hit highway at 90% charge level and switch to HV mode, noticed EV range starts increasing. During downhills, it increases at a faster rate and reached to full charge a few times. Highway ICE charging depends on how much u hypermill, gradient of downslope or upslope affects charging and given correct scenerio, it will eventually charge 4.4kw Li-ion battery to full. As for camping, i have not used to for camping to be honest. But while tinkering with the Japanese infotainment system while plugged in at my garage, i was enjoying the A/C while car is in ready mode. Was installing dash camera, various LED lights, trying to understand the Bluetooth system and hook it up to my phone and trying to configure the speedo cluster for around 1 hour or so and battery was still charging. My cable supports up to 16a at 240v, during that time, i set it at 12a 240v. So i don't see a reason why u cannot blast the A/C while plugged in, while camping. I believe when 4.4kw depletes, it will go into HV battery + ice to sustain the power for A/C Hope this helps
Once it reaches a certain low SOC (state of charge, somewhere around 30%), it will switch to HV (hybrid) mode and will essentially function as a standard Prius, only charging a small portion of the battery from the ICE (something equivalent to the 1.3 kWh of the standard Prius). EV mode will only be available again from plugging it in or from substantial regen (e.g. braking down a long descent). I don't think you can put in "Ready" mode while it's plugged in. In my experience you can only turn on Accessory mode, and it may switch off automatically after 5-10 minutes - I might be wrong though, as it's not something I've tried often. If you switch to HV mode it will mostly maintain your SOC until you engage EV mode again. If you're in EV mode it will deplete the battery until the EV range goes to "0 miles", HV mode will engage and what I said above will happen (it'll work like a normal Prius, smaller portion of battery used). This is usually unlikely to happen unless your destination is at a much lower altitude than where you started and you did a lot of regen. I've gained maybe a mile or so from long descents, but we don't have any real mountains in Ireland It'll only charge at 230V 10A max, about 2.2 kW. As I said I don't believe you can keep it in "Ready" while charging, unless JDM/US models behave differently to mine.
welcome! for your situation, i would recommend a regular prius. for camping, you will have storage under the rear deck, as well as a spare tire. the plug in won't do any of the things you inquired about. the wall charge will give you about 10 miles of ev driving, and then it is the same as a regular prius, and you cannot do anything while it is plugged in except run the a/c for ten minutes. the only caveat being that sometimes, people find a plug in cheaper than they can find a regular prius. in that case, if you don't mind losing the spare tire and storage area, go for it. are you anywhere near tampa? todd at tampa hybrids is a member here, and a great resource. and keep in mind, all gen 3 prius have a serious issue with clogged egr, oil burning and blown head gasket potential. do your research here before proceeding
Hi. Thanks for all your point. I probably never think about the storage space, that may be a huge bummer. Yes I'm about 1 hour from tampa hybrids i will stop there and shake his hand and see what he have, but i saw on internet that he have mind condition cars that came with a high price tag. Im automotive painter and mechanic so im trying to save some buck with an ugly car or a mechanic special that i can fix. Yes no matter wish car i get i will clean the EGR and put a canister, clean the battery fan, replace or at least check the water pump, and if is a regular 3gen i will balance the cells. Not sure if i can balance the PiP model. And off course hope the best about the brake module.
Off topic, How do u jump start someone else in a gen3 or PiP? All videos on youtube only shows hot to Jump a prius. what i want is my prius to JUMP others. Because Prius are so much more reliable than other makes.. haha
Are you already an Uber driver? I'm planning on doing the same thing with a gen4 - at least the camper part. Not sure about Uber yet.
Better not jump any other car with any prius. You can always carry a small jumper box. The new one take no space at all.
Yes i drive for uber but o drive an honda accord. I already find a nice deal on a prius 3gen i got it for 4k but still i like the idea of the plug-in i will keep on the search. No too many here in florida.
I think it would be safe to jump start another Prius or an EV, just nothing with a traditional 12V starter motor.
