I'm just wondering what other people's experiences are with going the distance in EV mode alone. Naturally the first thing I did after wiring up EV mode, was to head out to see how far I could get without needing the engine. The problem is, the neighborhod I was in was a hilly one. Every street was either up or down - with very little flat. As a result, I burned off a *lot* of the battery just climbing little hills at 10mph. End result, 1.1 miles. Do folks with flatter areas to putter arround in do better, or is 1.1 miles about the limit? -Ken
That's probably about the limit. 2 miles might be doable from a full charge, very low speed, flat or slightly downhill terrain. You can get further if you're already up to speed as well. The thing is that EV really shouldn't be used for going over ~1/2 mile or so...and if you do you probably shouldn't do it very often. It just puts extra drain on the battery to do so.
The car is designed to take care of the batteries so I don't see any problem with using it as much as the system allows. It knows when to kick out of EV mode. Granted, the more you drain the batteries the longer it will take to top them off again. I figure that on my 30 mile, one-way commute to work I go about 3 miles in EV mode. It's mostly surface streets. Some is downhill, some is through school zones, and some is just in stop-and-go traffic. What's nice about EV is that you can be a lot more aggressive with the throttle when coming up to speed. At work I use EV mode to putter around campus. I use the interstate more on the way home, so less EV until I get into my neighborhood. Then, it's EV all the way to the barn.
nope. not really. the energy is still coming from the same place. BUT, its possible to avoid situations where you might lose energy. remember that the Prius wont allow overcharging. so its possible to hit the max SOC and have the Prius bleed off energy and shutdown regen even if you are coasting down a hill. (that happened to me on my way back from Mt. Saint Helens last year) granted you may not be able to do anything about that if the hill is high enough. if you find yourself at the top of a large hill and the SOC north of say 65% you might want to look at possible near future needs (AC, defrost or other high demand items) if its too late to force EV. there is a Priuschatter here that has a large elevation drop whenever he leaves his house so he tries to make sure that his SOC is as low as possible when he parks his Prius knowing that he will be in regen for the first few miles in the morning when he leaves his house.
I find that when I EV to 2 bars, it disengages and the ICE kicks in. And boy does my mileage suck. The ICE is running to propel the car AND to charge the battery. So the 99.9 mileage I just experienced for the last miles is negated by a mile of 12 - 20 MPG.
Dave, how did you know there was a firmware flash avail?.. did Toyota tell you?.. or did you just find out and approach them? Does the dealer have to do it, or did you have the means to do it yourself?
SSC50P your car already has it. if your car needed it, you received a letter. it has to be done at the dealership
After the software flash my SOC reaches to 45 and the ICE kicks on, on a full SOC charge (68 to 45) I average 1.3 ML every time and I drive, easy .. 8 to 12ML on EV mode on a daily basis with out the help of any extra batteries.
i don't like to do more than half a mile in EV. if i do, the ICE kicks in to recharge the battery and i lose what i gained, like what Tony was saying. typically i'll use it to get up the block to the insanely long stoplight and wait till it turns green, then kick out of EV. i just don't want to be going through warmup for 3-5 minutes at that stupid light in the mornings. also good for a lap or 2 around the parking lot to find a good parking spot in the AM.
