First of all, what a great forum. I am a student doing research on Toyota Prius and am trying to find information on any conditions/events that would require ICE to kick in. I have a fair understanding of the PSD (thanks to john1701a) and ofcourse some of the trival conditions that would force the ICE to kick in, i.e. Heating requirement, speeding etc. However, my goal is compile a comprehensive list of these conditions/events and reference them in my paper. Furthermore, I have tried talking to Toyota dealership and hotline but they are not able to provide any literature or more information then the ones listed above. Cheers
1) Heating the catalytic converter. 2) Heating the cabin. 3) Recharging the HV battery. 4) Power demand. 5) Preventing overspeed of MG1. 6) Compression braking. Note that 5 & 6 do not require the ICE to burn fuel, but do require it to spin. Tom
Thanks for prompt response. This might be a silly question, but is it possible to get sources for the listed events/conditions, not that I don't believe you, its just that I would like to get more detail on each one. Furthermore, I am also interested in the effect of temperature in starting the ICE, i.e. the coolant temperature, cold/warm start and so on. I have read the Toyota service manuals as well as manuals from john's site and forum threads but I cant seem to find anything concrete. Again thank you very much. Cheers
7) Heating the engine coolant. 8) Preventing overcharging of the HV battery. 9) Discharging the overcharged HV battery. 10) Idling check in S3. I've never seen any official documents from Toyota. Regarding to warming up, please refer to following thread. http://priuschat.com/forums/knowled...perating-mode-availability-reference-aid.html Ken@Japan
How about the collective experience of thousands of Prius owners documented in tens of thousands (or more) of PriusChat posts? Seriously, you'll get far more from this forum, including links to other primary sources, than any official publication, though admittedly a complete subject-specific search can be tedious. The site-specific Google search may be more useful to you than the forum's built-in search function. Also take a look at Hobbit's Prius articles.
Most importantly: 0. To make the car move/go. The Prius is fueled by gasoline, converted to motive power by the ICE. ONLY! We don't yet have a "plug-in" Prius from Toyota (but soon!). All electrical energy is generated by the ICE. Some is stored in the traction battery for a time. But all of it originally comes from the ICE.
Again thank you very much for all the responses. I have noticed on Page 6 of Prius Manual (under sub-heading: Heater) posted on John's website that ICE will turn on if the coolant temperature drops below 62.8 C, (If I am not mistaken). Is it possible to get more detail on this and other temperature affects. Since Toyota in their email reply said: “Our research indicates the gasoline engine is not regulated by temperature but rather by the hybrid battery capacity. For example, when the hybrid battery is low the gasoline engine is turned on. Also, when there is a heavy load in the vehicle the gasoline engine turns on automatically.†Cheers Sasonion
Interesting that Toyota doesn't acknowledge the effect of temperature. Maybe they were thinking outside air temperature, which indeed has no effect except to the extent it affects battery temperature and how quickly the engine reaches and stays at operating temp. But engine temperature's effect on whether the engine runs is well documented in the Prius community. Ken's link will help, but you might take a look at this too. It's another of Hobbit's pages, though the content is from PC member Daniel. It can be found via Ken's link with a little digging, but this should save you some time.
