Already having over 8.5 years and 178,000 miles of Prius driving experience by the time I got my 2010 model, the perspective I saw the technology was obviously quite different from most. I also follow the "just drive it" motto, so there's little effort made to squeeze out extra MPG. I basically just stay attentive. However, I do remember the discoveries of the past. We'd be surprised to undercover something clever about the design over a year after the debut of that generation. And sure enough, there's one for the 2010 too. The EV button is something many had just written off as impractical, often not being available due to temperature or speed. I stumbled across an unexpected situation where it works surprisingly well. It was accidental... I had just went through the drive-thru for breakfast and ended up following someone more concerned about eating his than going fast. We got around the corner and down to the light, which just turned green. I proceeded along with traffic. It wasn't until I got to the other side that I suddenly got the impression I was behind the wheel of the PHV model again. No plug in this Prius, yet the engine hadn't started and the Eco-Meter was in the white zone. Huh? Speed was 23 MPH and the ScanGauge still said 0 RPM. Holy crap! It then hit me that cutoff isn't the end of the green zone when in EV-mode. Whoa! That got me thinking. Right before arriving home in the evening, where that final stoplight requires a hard left turn and climb up a short hill, I can barely get up it in stealth. So, most of the time, I don't bother trying. Sometimes the engine starts. Other times it doesn't. Well, while waiting for the light to turn green, I pushed the EV button. Sure enough. That extra boost of electric power I always needed was suddenly there, readily available. I shot up the hill! It was so sweet, I drove around the block 2 more times to try it again. Wow! Talking about giving you a taste of what the PHV model has to offer. The 2010 has a EV-mode threshold of 24 MPH. So, you're limited to neighborhood exploits like that. But with the plug, it magically transforms the threshold to 62 MPH. Now I yearn for the opportunity to drive the PHV again. To think that Toyota was able to deliver so much for such a competitive price. That 60 kW motor is under-utilized. The EV button clearly demonstrates potential for more. .
Thought this photo would help. Notice the green & white zones... I took full advantage of the EV button this morning... pushing it then dropping the pedal harder than usual in the parking ramp. That makes climbing up in stealth easy for anyone, not just those with a careful foot. It's pretty exciting to discover this ability so late after rollout began. I had a feeling there was more to the new Eco-Meter than the initial impression led us to believe. .
Everything you said is true, and it is fun. I use it around parking lots when the engine is warm. Keep in mind though, that since you can't plug it in, you'll have to put that energy back the next time you run the engine. You might find yourself paying it back from a cold (inefficient) engine, and lose out in the end.
For me, the situation near my home places the Prius near the summit of the valley. The long descent down comes immediately after taking advantage of EV. So, not firing up the engine at all likely works out to being a gain, since the next time it runs would be leaving the garage hours later or the following day. .
Same here. We have 1-mile blocks and it's nice to get up to speed (35~45 mph speed limits) and run on EV. The highest I've ran on EV was 48mph.
Distinguishing the difference between EV and Stealth had always been a tough one, since there really wasn't anything to base them upon other than just the speed threshold... If you weren't traveling faster than 24 MPH with the engine off, it was Stealth. Now we can also point out the Eco-Meter distance. Stealth is only available in the green zone. Exceeding that (entering the white zone) causes the engine to start. For EV, that's not true. You can draw more power without triggering the engine. .
Notice how this display from the PHV model is different... since EV is automatic, rather than requiring you to push a button. Also, there's no white zone. It's all green with the plug! .
full SOC as in 8 battery bars? How did you manage that? I can get 7 bars easily but never 8 bars from normal driving. With 7 bars I've accelerated to 41mph in EV before the the battery dropped to 4 bars and can't accelerate any faster. If you have 8 bars, you should beable to accelerate to 43 or faster. Here's another driving technique I've found. You can activate EV and accelerate to 22-23mph with HSI maxed out on white. This gives you the PHEV acceleration feeling. As you approach 22-23, back off the accelerator pedal so that HSI indicator is in the green bar. By that time you'll hit 26mph and EV will cancel out. You will continue to accelerate at a slower rate but still in EV until your battery pack has depleted. The ICE will not kick on.
We have a righteous hill in town about a mile long and after going down that, the SOC always pegged out. Yeah, if I am going downhill slightly I can reach higher EV speeds but on a flat stretch after the hill, all I can get is about 36mph.
While this is fun, it is detremental to your fuel economy. And 8bars is easily achievable if you have any hill or slowdown with a lot of vitesse like if you slow from 85mph to 0 on an extremely long offramp.
I have a three mile grade down a mountain on every commute I take. (Also have to go up on the way back, ha!) When I hit bottom, there's a very gentle glide down a creek valley for another five miles. That's where I first experienced SHM, or whatever we are calling it, when I go 55-60 MPH and get a pegged MPG meter for a long time. That's a blast, getting 100 MPG at those speeds. Works best at 6-8 battery bars.
And you are probably getting much higher than than 100mpg. I often get ScanGuage reading of 1,560mpg all the way up to 9,999mpg (engine off). Now that is fun to tell the passenger... we are now getting 2,356mpg.
I also have been experimenting with the EV button for roughly 2 to 3 weeks now, trying to replicate what Teesal has been doing, but with minimal use of Power mode. Although I have seen improvement in fuel consumption (dropped from 4.5l/100km to 4.3l/100km), I feel that there are extra strain being put on the battery. E.g. The amount of times the battery discharged to 2 bars are around 4 to 5 times per day, more than the usual twice per day without using EV button at all. One way to get around that is not to use EV when you are down to 4 bars or less. I don't know, but not worth risking shorterning the battery life for 0.2l/100km saving... well it's really upto you really.
