Well I just got back from a road trip, Edmonton to Vancouver and back. Took the Coquihalla From Kamloops to the coast, notorius for some very long steep grades. So I've heard rumors of the battery being drained when climbing steep hills and I was curious to see this for myself, being my first venture outside of the prairies with my new prius. On the way home the roads were clear and dry so I set the cruise on 120kmh all the way back to Kamloops. On some of the steep climbs i took a glance at the energy indicator and noticed that most of the time on the really steep climbs the cruise had no trouble maintaining my desired speed and rather than pulling power from the battery to assist the ICE on the climbs, the ICE was charging the battery 90% of the time while still pulling me and my luggage at a steady 120kmh up the mountain. At the same time I had instant fuel economy displaying on the HUD and it rarely showed more than 15l per 100km in fuel consumption on the steep climbs. The Battery never lost more than 3 bars on the display from full. It actually went to full charge more often on the long descents. So what is this battery drain that some speak of? Is it only at very low speed on steep grades? From what i've seen, even driving up some of the steep hills around vancouver the ICE appears to do the majority of the work, powering the electric motor and charging the battery at the same time as needed to keep an optimal charge level.
I will watch ours as we will be driving close to Vegas next week. I will watch it going up Deadmans Pass in Or. IIRC. it is about a 8 degree pull about 10 miles long.
Just got back from a trip edmonton to vancouver. Lots of mountain climbing along the way. I found if I drove 70+ mph on cruise up a steep grade the ICE would charge the battery while maintaining cruise speed. If I kept my cruise speed at 60 mph climbing those same grades the battery would switch more often to assisting the ICE. In all cases the battery level never drops below halfway on a climb no matter how steep it is and how hard you floor it. From what I've read the battery drain was a problem on the gen 2 prius. The software has been improved for gen 3 which eliminates the battery drain under heavy load. The more powerful 1.8l engine probably helps too. It seems quite capable of pulling the car up the steepest grades on its own if it has to.
As you have since found, this appears to be more of a problem with Gen2 than Gen3. The 20 additional HP helped a lot. Though even on Gen2, not all Colorado mountain drivers had this problem, so driving style may have played a factor.
Having just recently moved to Vancouver I can confirm hill climbing has nil effect on battery SOC. the 1.8 seems to have enough grunt to haul itself up the north shore mountains without hardly any battery assist. What I do notice is rush hour traffic really drains the battery more than anything! Got stuck in some traffic yesterday evening on my way home from downtown. driving in normal mode, the car insisted on using up the battery till it got down to 2 bars, at that point I was back on the highway for a bit so it charged back up. Little concerned this may shorten battery life, yet not much I can do about it I suppose besides avoiding heavy traffic areas when possible. Wish the toyota nav had a traffic avoidance feature!
My v model 3 nav has a color coded display where red is really bad traffic, orange no so bad, etc. I think it gets its data from my cell phone. I've even used the nav on local display and the phone on wide area simultaneously to allow my navigator to figure out the best strategy where a better route would be available.
jonb505: Don't worry about battery drain on steep hills. Your V will automatically charge or boost the ICE as need arrises........just drive and enjoy!
I am continually amazed at this car and how everything works together so smoothly and efficiently, despite all the electronic wizardry going on under the hood as you drive along. The beauty of it all is as you say, the driver does not have to worry about any of it, the car does what it needs to take care of itself, just drive. I like that.
Ah I believe you are in the US where Toyota has Entune with traffic alerts? No such thing on Canadian vehicles. I suppose I can just use my iphone or garmin unit for nav which has traffic. Just would be nice to have the function in the built in unit as its otherwise pretty nice to use. I notice there is a traffic function displayed in the options in my display audio nav but it is greyed out. Maybe a future option Toyota Canada may implement?
You are correct an 8% grade, I didn't notice any drain on the battery infact ICE was on the whole time and the traction battery was down two bars. This was at 65 mph.
Dead Mans Pass is the name of the Rest Area at the top. http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/MCT/docs/EmigrantHill.pdf?ga=t Crawford Hill, Cabbage Hill, and Emigrant Hill are other names. 6 miles of 6 percent, for a 2000 foot drop (or climb) Blue Mountains - Backroads in Oregon
Thanks Lol, I stand corrected, in the dark and when blizzardy it sure feels more that 6 % grade I was guessing and it felt more than 9.6 kilometers long. We went up it in early November also during a storm, we could only drive 50 km/hr about 30m/hr and it seemed to take forever to get ut to the top. The big rigs were only idleing going up and they all had to put chains on. A dangerous pass.
Sorry, didn't mean to be such a nit-picker. My day job is Engineering Checker and I've heard my share of 45 degree driveway stories. For some reason we all have trouble perceiving angles of grades.
It is more than 6 miles long, but 'only' 6 miles is a 6% grade before and after that it tapers down. You start climbing in Pendleton and are still climbing past the rest area, just not 6%. Many is the time I could get north to have Thanksgiving with the family, then not be able to get south to get home. (I lived in Elko NV for 14 years)
I am glad you corrected me now we all nkow the real story behind Deadmans pass aka Emigrant hill. Thanks Jimbo for all the info. We have gone home via hwy 95 through Lewiston and the I-84 is the lesser of two evils. I wish Hwy 95 was an Interstate from Eastport Idaho to Yuma Az....I could only hope.
As a Highway 95 native, I'm glad that the Lewiston and Whitebird switchback hills were replaced by nice roads, but am glad it isn't an Interstate.
Here is a pic of old 95, is this the Whitebird switchbach hills. We drove on it twice, once up and once down, and I agree the new part of 95 is much better. We live just off the 95 but on the Canadian side.
Ah, that brings back memories of many rides on that hill. Including repeated car sickness in the hot dusty back seat of the '47 Chevy. The timber on the horizon just behind also marks the far bounds of my youthful hunting grounds, hiking from the other side. While it was much too far away to bag and haul back a deer or elk, it was good for grouse hunting, general hiking and exploring, and a great spot to sit down for lunch and take in the view for a while. Some day I need to go back for the annual bicycle ride up and down the Hill. Video: Old White Bird Hill - Just for the Hill of it Challenge - 2012 White Bird Grade Longer clip from motorcycle: Descent Old Whitebird Hill
Same hill, as seen from the opposite direction. I didn't pedal the whole thing, just the upper portion of it.
