I have had a Prime for 1 month now and like it alot. However, I get confused with the EV mode in the Prius. I have noticed 2 things : 1) When I turn on the Front Window defrost, the engine comes on? I get that it may just be to save the battery, but can't find anywhere that states this as expected behavior. 2) Once I am driving in HV mode, if I hit the EV button, the car takes quite a long time to switch over. Sometimes it takes so long that I actually restart the car and it drops back to EV mode. Are these normal? Thanks M
#1 is in the manual. That’s normal. #2. If you recently switched over or the engine is cold, the engine will run until it surpasses a minimum temperature threshold to reduce emissions before it shuts off. (E.g. you press front defrost and then realise you don’t need it 10 secs later, the engine will complete its warmup cycle before shutting off.
1) this is a lawyer safety device, so one can't claim they couldn't see the semi coming due to poor defrost method 2) haven't heard this before. pip switches immediately
Great - Wow - thanks for the answers. Makes total sense. Mystery solved. Next one - i need to understand all the icons and the ratings it keeps giving me. I've not searched this form yet for that, but I will! Matt
I find with our 2010 regular Prius, if I'm stopped at a red light, with partially warmed-up engine, I can reliably get the engine to turn on/off, by raising/lowering the cabin temperature setting. The car is monitoring your "comfort" demands, and changing behavior accordingly.
Glad you found answers. The manual is the best ref for most questions you have. As for "the rating", if you are talking about Eco score, if you start the car and drive, you will get less than 97 on Eco score. I have never achieved elusive 100/100 shown in the manual to date. I sometimes get below 40 when I had to do sudden stop to avoid an accident. Yeah, I'd rather fail that Eco score than hitting something.
