Should Dianne Charge my PiP to only 1/2 for shipment to me???

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

Why wouldn't I charge every car fully?

Make you a deal. If you prefer it half empty, I'll send it with no fuel and use your gas for my own car!

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

Because Toyota says in the Owners Manual to "Use the charging timer function as much as possible in order to fully charge the hybrid battery (traction battery) IMMEDIATELY BEFORE STARTING OFF" (emphasis added). See page 93.

If a car is being shipped, I believe Toyota is saying to wait on charging until the car is put in use by the new owner.

I have asked for Toyota to tell me if the reason for avoiding EV speed near the maximum of 62 MPH, another point made on page 93, is to prevent degredation, or long term weakening, of the traction battery, but have not yet received a reply.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

It's better for longevity to allow the battery to "cold soak" before recharging. In other words, let it rest after usage. The timer makes that easy to accomodate.

And for those of us in the north, we'll benefit from the little bit of warmth recharging causes rather than starting totally cold.
.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

Oh wow! I thought it meant Diane is only charging 1/2 commission. I would have said sign me up!

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

And here I thought shes only charging half of the MSRP.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

You PiP battery should be fine.. Hopefully it is like my Volt, and 100% charge is not "100%" of the batteries total capacity... That is the one thing you should think about in terms of the battery.. It is not 0-100% like you would think.. In the Volt 0% displayed is really 40%, and 100% displayed is really only 80% of the batteries capacity... I am sure the PiP operates the same way to prolong the batteries life..

This is the reason Nissan tells you not to charge the Leaf to 100% all the time unless you truly need it as it shortens battery life. Because on the Leaf 0% displayed is really 22% , and 100% displayed is really 100%.. So they recommend if you don't need it to only charge to 80% capacity to extend battery life.. Tesla also has similar recommendations on the Roadster. Those are full EV's though, so the same rules should not apply to you.

 

I think it'll be fine to charge it full and then ship if it's going to a northern state in the (still) winter. Toyota is more clearly concerned if it's summer and the battery is fully charged and not being used.

 

As I've mentioned elsewhere, my Tesla owner's manual says to use "Storage" mode (where the battery is kept below 1/2 SoC) if the car will not be driven for more than 2 weeks.

Assuming similar protocols, your PiP should be fine with a normal charge for the week it takes to reach you.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

Maybe not. If the truck is moving (as it likely will be) there will be highway-speed wind flowing around it. This will help cool it, preventing the car from getting much hotter than the ambient air. A parked car in the sun can get much hotter than ambient.

But I wonder if the shipper (Dianne, in this case) can request a lower-level position for the car.

Tesla shipped my car to me in an enclosed transport. It had a fancy hydraulic lift to allow cars to be raised to and lowered from the upper level. But of course Tesla is a classy company.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

John

This post and the one following by Evan raise an interesting and perhaps important issue. If I always plug in (and charge) when I get home from my usual short trip is that good? Or should I wait until night to charge and risk the possibility of a deep discharge in the process? I tend to worry more about the possibility of a deep discharge which could result from several short trips in a day without charging. But the battery management system of the car may prevent that so what is the best habit to get into considering that frequent charging is much better for a battery?

I am inclined to plug in when I get home every time. But an alternative is to always set an hour delay for charging to cool the battery. I note that my '06 always charges on the fly without any pre cooling. Are we "picking nits" here? (I did read page 93 of the PiP Manual)

Allan

 

Deep discharge only happens when you force the charge-level beyond Toyota's automatic protection. Pretty much the only way to do that is to drive without any gas in the tank, intentionally disregarding the system warnings. In other words, you have nothing to worry about.

Drive & Plug all you want. I certainly will be plugging in as soon as I get home if I know I'll be going back out again.

Waiting is better, but by no means necessary. The system isn't that stressful on the pack anyway. The engine will kick in when tolerances are approached, just like they do now in extreme heat. It's not a big deal.
.

 

Re: Dianne Charging Only 1/2???

Mark

Thank you for your response. My four years of recent experience with EVs was with lead/acid battery packs. This will be my first Li Ion pack. My six years with a Prius have taught me that Toyota tries very hard to make the Prius as user friendly as possible for the average driver. That explains my use of the term "picking nit". Toyota does not expect us to treat this like a high strung European sports car. They basically expect us to drive the car. But we want to do the best for the car and its traction battery, of course. Not everyone reads the owner's manual and not all who do understand all of it. But there is a very lot of information, there.

The trick is to do what us sensible, be regular about it and don't worry if I am following your thinking.