I'm having visions of driving around Los Angeles wanting to maximize MPG and constantly pushing the EV button every time I'm below 25. I wonder why they didn't make it a traffic mode button. Even on the 405 or 10 at the worst times you get over 25 for a seond then you're out of EV mode. And you're on the brakes so much I would think it could stay in electric mode quite a while. Maybe this could be hacked? I see myself with a new appendage to push the EV button constantly.
You people have to understand that using the EV button is BAD for your consumption/mileage! There are only a couple of occasions when you can effectively gain a bit from using the EV mode. 99% of time EV mode is bad for you. I guess you will discover it as soon as you have access to it...
Hi sshaw10, Just lift the gas pedal way back. Then the engine will cutout and you can go into EV mode without pushing the button. At least as long as the car is warmed up, and the SOC is up above 5 bars. The EV mode is really not for rapid stop and go. Its for cresting hills, and then gliding down the backside all at about the same speed you accellerated up to. Once up to speed the engine would be at such a low power, it would be inefficient in a normal car. With the Prius the car kills the engine and you can proceed along at the same speed electrically. The way the 2nd Gen Prius pedal works is that if you keep it near the accelleration positon, but at a constant speed operation, the car keeps itself ready to reaccellerate. Unless you lift way back on the pedal, the 2nd Gen Prius does not get the message to reconfigure into high efficiency mode. The Prius is not a full EV. It does not have a low enough battery resistance and big enough motors to regularly be used as an EV starting up.
Driving in NYC traffic on the bqe daily, I've never used my EV mode mod... No reason to. The car will jsut stay in electric most if not all the time in traffic unless the battery gets low enough. This EV mode is going to drive people nuts unless they understand it is really just for quietly pulling out of your driveway, shuffling the car around a parking lot etc... I mean there are other circumstances it is good for but don't rely on it thinking it is a way to drive the car like a plug in would be driven...
Don't use EV Drive Mode. Just lift off, let the engine shut off and then use that EV mode. You'll just have to accelerate lighter than with EV Drive Mode engaged but the speed limit is higher.
Hmm, I wonder what the original origin of the word peddle was? Peddling is the operation of a foot-driven device. It seems likely that only later on when there were pedal driven carts, and those cars were used to carry wares was it the sales activities meaning invented.
Interesting diversion for this thread . . . Pedalling is the foot-driven operation activity. Peddling is the selling of things. Unless I've been misled for years, that is. In that case, then, I'll simply back-pedal . . .
In defense of the OP, (s)he was speculating on the possible use of an EV switch. Just for the record, EV mode drops out at 34 MPH. Losing EV mode at 25 MPH would occur due to high a rate of acceleration, or HV battery too low (2 magenta bars). Otherwise, I agree with the other posters who say traveling at any speed or over any great distance in EV mode is very inefficient. It is best used to supress ICE-ON before the car is fully warmed up. As an example, coolant temps only 100 degF, closing in on a red light, shifting to EV mode might get you 5 or 6 seconds of ICE-OFF as you coast up to the light. And if you mistime the approach, ICE will remain off while you're stopped. Get out of EV to accelerate from the light. I almost forgot, as a precondition to using an EV switch to suppress ICE-ON, you cannot be using either of the front or rear window defogger/deicer -- buttons on the lower row on the Climate screen. You can however use the combo defogger/upper cabin button on the upper right of the Climate screen. [Edit] Another precondition to EV mode is the HV battery temp needs to be above something like 40 degF in my experience. [2nd Edit] I have found that EV mode will also be prohibited, or terminated, if the HV battery is "full," that is, eight green bars. I think this has to with the HSD reserving the right to spin the ICE to keep the HV battery charge within its preset limits -- you can get regen in EV mode.
Yeah, the EV mode is a gimmick. I use it for manoeuvring my car in the company car park - there's so little space that we have to block each other in. No point wasting petrol if the car will be on for 30 seconds. The only other use I have for it was experimenting with the idea of leaving the battery a bit discharged before parking overnight, so that the energy generated by running the engine during warmup had somewhere to go. It's hard to say whether this really has much benefit. In the UK, the EV mode switch is factory-fit; the speed limit is 29mph. Toyota document it as a way to start off or arrive quietly without disturbing your neighbours - but I'd think the door-slam would do that quite nicely!
If by that you are suggesting it has no real value or fuel economy benefit, I disagree. There is significant benefit under the right conditions and if used properly, which, as Rokeby suggests, is to force ICE shutdown when the driver's foot is off the go-pedal before warmup is complete. See this for more. I do agree that forced EV propulsion generally will hurt rather than help fuel economy except for things like the short hops around driveways and parking lots.
Mike, I'm not sure that I'd go so far as to say that EV mode is a "gimmick." I would readily admit that EV mode has very limited usefulness. In my experience, using it efficiently requires great self discipline and attentiveness, which I sometimes lack. Any one 5 or 6 second drift in EV mode does not contribute significantly to better FE. But the sum of 8 or 10 drifts can net an MPG or two. I've got one and use it daily, very carefully for ICE-ON supression -- but it is really cool to silently ghost around in EV mode to the neighbors' great puzzlement. Damned ego, that'll cost me an MPG or two to recharge the HV battery.
EV does have some usefullness. I used it today to position my car in the hanger after pulling a plane out, then again to move the car out when it was time to put the plane away. I do this in my drive way as well. Same goes @ work, if I have to go somewhere outside at the other end of our 500,000 sq ft building, I hop in the car and hit the EV switch. I wouldn't be able to use it to go to the grocery store and back using this, nor would I want to.
