Question: What are the long-term effects of using mostly only the electric motor system day after day? Does Toyota not recommend this or is it ok? As of writing this, I just traded in a 2007 Prius for a 2022 Prius Prime plug-in. I drive to work 5 days per week, 21 miles one way, with 85-90% highway (65 mph speed limit). Some hills, but nothing major. There is a L2 charger at work, and an L1 charger at home. Side trips during the days have so far been w/in the capabilities of the Lion battery pack. Car is set for ECO mode and EV or EV Auto. I understand that the more you use something the sooner it will break. Trying to drive to get better gas mileage. Given this, I can literally choose to run the new car as an EV, with charging the battery twice a day, but is this wise to do for the long run? Thanks
Biggest issue for me is preventing gas from going stale. I try to burn a tank a year. If you go too long without adding gas you’ll get a warning pop up. Or so I’m told.
Other than stale gas and infrequent engine use, you are fine. The battery is warranted for 10 years 150K miles. You might be shortening the life of the battery compared to someone who does the charging cycle less often, but even without charging, the battery will degrade with age somewhat. IMHO, making the most use out of the traction battery is the smart thing to do.
i'm at 20k hv, and 60k ev after 10 years, with no known ill effects, and prime battery is much advanced.
And during a very cold winter day, your engine will come on when it is super cold or when it is cold and you accelerate hard, even with the battery charged.
The biggest issue, probably, is figuring out what to do with all that gas money you don't need anymore.
Thanks for everyone's responses. I am more at ease now. Even with the car not having enough electricity when I first picked it up to drive in EV mode, it is currently at 308.5 mpg over 328 miles (651.5 mpg over 276.5 miles since the first charge). No, I haven't gone on a long trip yet, but these mpg #s are way above my expectations. Again, thanks for the responses.
FWIW, I mostly drove in EV during my 3ish years of Prime ownership. I topped up the tank once a year during covid (still doing 13,000 miles a year) and during the first year of its life, once every 4-6 months (mostly due to road trips). For this reason, I wasn’t too worried about using fuel during the winter months as I had to burn it off anyway. Just remember to run it a bit more often or for longer given the cold temperatures- the engine will take longer to get up to operating temperature.
@Tideland Prius Those are some really nice mpg #s you are able to get. I hope to get similar #s someday. Thanks for the information especially about winter driving.
You'll be impressed with the hybrid-only mpg - it's better than the regular Gen 4 (I have the Gen 4 and had the Prime so I could compare). At 50-60mph, 60mpg is possible in the summer.
I also have both and observe the same. In fact, the Prime gets well over 60 at 50 mph while the Prius is right at 60.
