Prii People: I've yet to actually purchase a Prius, but I've got my eye on a PHEV. I'm serious enough about it that I've actually read the manual - and came across this: ■Starting the hybrid system in an extremely cold environment When the hybrid battery (traction battery) is extremely cold (below approximately -22°F [-30°C]) under the influence of the outside temperature, it may not be possible to start the hybrid system. In this case, try to start the hybrid system again after the temperature of the hybrid battery increases due to the outside temperature increase etc. =>Sounds like if you overnight it, outdoors, below -22F/-30C you might be walking until it warms up outside? Specific concern: I live in N. Minnesota. Temperatures below -22F/-30C, although not really common, are certainly not rare. -20 to -40F does occur here. I can expect to be in that range at least once - if not more - every winter. Normally over the span of a week or so, the temp will start dropping and bottom there for a day or so, then it will begin to warm up again. Typically, my cars live out doors - and I travel quite a bit, so it's not unusual for me to be at a hotel for a week or so in (potentially) that kind of weather. Is this going to be an issue with the Prius PHEV? I see it does have a battery heater, but the information that I'm finding on that seems to be thin - how it operates, when it operates, what's required for it to operate, and what kind of low temperature that it will function down to - if it even exists to allow the car to function, not just to protect the battery from low temperatures. Any information, advice or anecdotes are welcome - hopefully our Canadian owners have some real-life experiences that they would be willing to share. Thanks-
I'm lucky that I don't have to deal with extreme low temperatures like that. As you stated, there is a battery heater that should keep it operational - as long as it's plugged-in. The traction battery cooling/heating system fan intake is located inside the cabin, so once the engine is started and cabin warms; there shouldn't be an issue. We have a lot of Canadians here; perhaps some of them can pipe-in. I don't believe it's an issue, otherwise there would be lots of post about it. Even the non-PHEVs' work up there. Depending on which flavor of PHEV you purchase, it would be wise to take it to a dealership and default the heater & cooler options to ON position. On really hot days, as I'm exiting the car, the instrument cluster ask me if I would like to pre-cool the car before charging. These defaults may be toggled ON. Hope this helps....
I'm in the Twin Cities, but my coldest experiences have actually been in Wyoming. We'd go out to visit my sister-in-law over the holidays. That meant the car has sat unplugged for several days in temperatures well below 0°F, used randomly. It even endured being parked during a winter storm there. It started fine afterward. Here's a photo from that day.
I investigated this behaviour on this thread: Battery heater not working? | PriusChat Summary of manual and test findings.... The heating element provides two functions. First is the "let it use EV more" function, which lifts the battery temperature up to positive temperatures, if they're somewhere in the -15°C to 0°C range. This is controlled by the "Battery heater" option in the dashboard menu, and remains operational for 3 days after it's plugged in, obeying the charging schedule. That function gives up when the temperature gets below around -15°C - it's an efficiency measure, and presumably they figure it's no longer efficient. The second function is the "keep it operational" function. That kicks in at some point - probably below -20°C - to protect the battery. I don't know how cold it could cope with. It remains operational for 31 days after it's plugged in, and ignores the charging schedule. The manual calls this "Hybrid battery (traction battery) warming control", and says it's a region-specific behaviour (Alaska, Greenland), with no user controls. It's actually just a scantool setting, and dealers are supposed to set it on in those areas as part of the pre-delivery inspection, but anyone can turn it on and off with Techstream.
Loved the supposed to..... As I stated; take it to the dealership or someone with a fully Prius compatible scan tool to make sure those options are defaulted ON. You can also ask them to set the reverse beeper to a single beep too.
The "battery heater" setting is just a manual user setting that sticks. There's nothing the dealer can help you with there. Same for the cooler. The prompt you describe is in the G4, doesn't apply to the G5, which I assume we're talking about here. The "warming control" is a dealer fixed on/off, not a "default". (And the reverse beeper is off by default in the G5, at least in Europe).
Thanks, KMO. I bounced over and read your thread on heaters - Take away seems to be don't worry about it. Frustrating that Toyota doesn't seem to provide information - in-depth information - about cold weather operation. Actually, I'm finding it frustrating that real knowledge on most of the car's systems seems to be hard to find - I'm a fairly tech oriented person (in a previous lives I've been a power plant I&C tech as well as an ASE certified tech) and I'd really like to understand how (and why!) this vehicle works. Thanks, John1701a. I'm 3 hours north of the cities and am probably overthinking possible cold weather issues. I could garage it in extreme cold, but that won't help me if I have to drive it anywhere and park it outside in the extreme cold - Though the consensus seems to be Don't worry about it. Thanks Biomed01 - Though my newly gained understanding (New Traction Battery Video from Dr. Kelly, over on the Tech Discussion forum) is that cabin heat and traction battery temperature are only tangentially related, as the traction battery is isolated under the vehicle and has its own resistance heaters and cooling refrigerant lines. I am making a list of things that require the dealer to set, and will pass them on to the dealer on day one. Traction battery heater (set for the far north) and behavior of the remote buttons (I think they can set all windows down when unlock is pressed and held). There are a surprising number of things that no longer require the dealer to set.
Wyoming here, with a 2019 (Gen 4) Prime that's even the same color as @john1701a. I also have a regular type 2011 (Gen 3) and used to own a 2009 (Gen 2). We've probably got 200K miles on our Prii, a lot of that in the Wyoming winters. The only time I've had any issues with starting was shortly after I got the 2011. It had a chewed-up cable going to one of the O2 sensors. Once I replaced that, our cars have started up without issue, even in the coldest weather (around -30 F is the coldest I remember). We're high desert here, so the weather may be a bit different than where you are. Typically, we get a week or two of subzero weather, but at that temperature, it's usually too dry to get all that much snow out of those weeks. We also get hit with the occasional deep snow, but that's usually when it's a bit warmer. This is a dry climate, so when we get hit with a cold blast, it usually warms up a couple days later so it's not a really sustained cold (usually). With our Prime, the charging is usually done in the garage, so it's going to be less cold when my wife starts up the car in the morning. Since she's got a 50-mile (one way) drive, she uses the ICE to get the car warm before switching to the EV for part of her trip. Between the snow tires (studded), the cold, the wind, and the fact that her miles are mostly on 80 and 70 MPH highways, the EV range is down to less than 20. That said, most of our cold weather difficulties with the Prii in the winter come from the lack of ground clearance. It's no different than any other of the cars these days. As winter progresses, I notice more things dangling from under everyone's vehicles, including the later model pickups and SUVs. I'm sure it's the same there, or maybe a bit worse perhaps. Other than that, we've had a lot less trouble getting them going in the cold than our previous ICE vehicles (including the 4x4 pickup truck). I suppose if you wanted to be extra sure, you could put the car in CHG mode for the last few miles before you shut it down the day before to put a bit more energy in the traction battery (and you're not going to be hooking it up to a charger overnight). We've never found that to be necessary, though.
The regular HEV Prius has the same section in the owner's manual. I'm pretty close to you in southern North Dakota and had no issues this winter except for the 12V battery which had to be replaced. And my car spent the entire winter outside, so the battery got all the way down to ambient temps during those nasty cold stretches we had this winter.
We are still new to the PHEV game but have many years experience on gen 2 and 3 Prius and a gen 4 Camry. Never had issue with starting or operating the HEV's at -30C. Fuel economy takes a big hit because the gas engine runs more to get up to temperature before the hybrid kicks in. We got our gen 5 PHEV Prime this January to replace the gen 3 Prius. Went from filling the tank every 1.5 weeks at ~500km to going 3 weeks on the PHEV in January at 1100km. Coldest was -20C this winter. Getting over 6 weeks now on a tank, last fill up was at 2400km. We can do a round trip to work now in the warmer temps without the gas motor kicking in.
I had a similar experience moving from my 2012 Prius C to my current gen4 Prime. I don't take such a severe hit in the winter time; but mpgs definitely goes down in the winter - add to that the winter blend of gasoline.
Probably worth you getting a short-term subscription to Toyota's tech docs site, and having a read through the "New Car Features", and maybe even the real service manual. Lots of stuff in there. (Although probably still not as much as you want.) Everything Biomed01 said was based around the G4 (possibly because that's what you have in your profile setting). Everything before the G5 PHEV had the battery in the cabin. There is plenty of real carry-over (and sometimes the New Car Features have imaginary copy-and-paste carry-overs...), but the G4's "air conditioning the cabin to cool the battery" has indeed gone.
Yes; gen5 is a different heating and cool architecture for the traction battery pack. This started with the 2023 model year, so two winters and no complaints; other than 12V aux battery prematurely dying. So if your going to buy a gen5, you better also get a jump pack and find the jump point. Your probably going to need it for those harsh winters. Again; once the ICE is started - the onboard ECUs will take care of everything else.
The Prius V is currently the 'other' car in the household - we picked it up last year to replace an elderly Matrix. I'll be replacing my current daily (a Subaru BRZ) with the Prius PHEV, and at that time will update my profile. FWIW, the V behaved admirably while being parked outside in the winter.
Its normally in my garage when plugged in at home, but here in Ottawa Canada, my wife would drive it to work and park outside in winter, and even when it was really cold and down to -30C or colder with wind chill (rare of course), it was fine. I wouldn't worry about it in minnesota. Maybe if you were in Regina SK, or Winterpeg MB, it could be a concern. In some cities here - especially north. , people don't turn their cars off when they stop to go the store, and they use block heaters religiously when parked for long periods of time, otherwise the car won't turn back on. But I doubt you have to deal with that kind of thing.
Here in Quebec, the Prius automatically starts the heat engine when the temperature is under the least 10 degree Celcius. When the heat engine is hot, the Prius falls into hybrid mode. When the temperature is between 4 degrees Celcius and minus 10 degrees Celcius, if you want to use the electric mode, keep the heating of the active cabin and connect it 30 minutes before departure to preheat the high voltage battery. The main problem with cold is the oil that becomes milky because of condensation in the engine if the routes are short. This can cause OBD2 error code.
