This is my first winter with my Prius V and it feels that hybrid batteries and cold weather do not get along too good. In the morning it takes longer to be able to drive in EV mode. Also at the end of day I always cruised in EV mode the last five blocks before reaching my home. With this cold weather, I am out of juice by the third block. Is this normal?
Longer than what? What did you drive before? My '12 v in ECO and AUTO modes starts. Several seconds later it turns on the ICE as I back out of the garage. It runs the ICE to warm the cockpit to the selected temperature (68F cabin at 20-30F outside). Several miles later the ICE has warmed the heating system and the operation of the car is then normal. I see the MPG display go to 99.9 when decelerating or even just going down a hill so I know the controller is shifting to battery mode. Before the car is warm I don't want nor expect the car to run in battery mode.
Living in Minnesota it's been very cold lately (below freezing since Dec 22 until a couple of days ago). Things I've observed: - Until HV battery temp gets up near 30F it is harder to get into EV mode and stay there - My average MPG is down about 10 MPG from summer time (<40 vs ~50) - It takes 1/2 hour or more of driving to get it to act like 'normal' EV operation. Everything is cold and stiff, expect lower mpg, longer warmup times and reduced EV operation.
None of those things have much to do with battery performance. Its the same as any car, it takes far more energy to move the thing down the road in cold temps. So its not that your battery has less energy, its that you're using more.
Exactly...ICE cars also get progressively poorer MPGs the colder it gets. It all has to do with frozen components (and frozen humans) and how long it takes those components (and humans) to warm up. Part of the reason they added a heat pump to the Prius Prime. However, the Prime's heat pump only operates down to temps 'as low as' 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
