My 2011 Gen III is only 3 months old. This week I began to discover that the battery is depleting much faster than before. I used to be able to go full electric for 2 miles while driving 35mph when the battery is about 90% full. Now I could only get 1 mile driving 35mph on the exact same road. I can see the battery level dropping pretty fast, like dropping 1 bar in 10 seconds of driving. Any ideas? George
It's not an EV. Stop doing that. Also the bars aren't linear, so 1 bar doesn't mean the same energy as another. Lots of things contribute to the energy consumption.
The range of EV only varies on many many many factors - outside temp, battery temp to name two. As Toaster said, you really don't want to try and keep the car on electric only (either by selecting EV or by keeping it there by careful accelerator use) as it puts undue strain on the battery, but also reduces your overall mpg's as the lost charge will need putting back. In 95% of cases that involves the engine burning fuel to charge the HV battery. Just let the car sort itself out by driving carefully and gently. If you're after maximum mpg's then try using the 'Eco' mode more often. Any questions, ask away.
Also keep in mind that environmental factors greatly affect vehicle rolling resistance. Low Temperature can double tire rolling resistance and increase air density by 15% or more. Put a little bit of water on the road and resistance skyrockets.
I think I might have misunderstood you folks. I don't switch the car to EV mode. I am always on ECO mode. I am driving while watching the Hybrid System Indicator and see how the car does it thing. (By watching the CHG/ECO/PWR horizontal bar). I realize that when I drive around 35mph, I can actually keep it on the left side of the middle line. The manual says that's how to get most gas mileage. Before I was able to keep that for about 2 miles. Now its just 1 mile. I am new to Prius so I hope I am not doing anything stupid.
Just because the bar is less than half full doesn't mean it's running on electric, and there are many times where it's very difficult or impossible to hear if the engine is running. Especially if it was colder 3 months ago, the engine may have been running to warm up the car, and also keep the battery charged. Now, the engine is warming up faster, and you're seeing how fast the battery depletes when you're actually only using the battery, not both the battery and engine. Toyota suggests that the car can go for 0.5 to 1 mile on only electric power, and that's only at 25 mph. Your car sounds like it's behaving normally.
