2012 Prius Plug-In Window Sticker

What is blended mode? Electricity + gas? When would that happen, at 65 mph? It sounds like hybrid mode, but that doesn't make sense because hybrid mode is 'gasoline only' mode on the sticker.

 

As the good doctor pointed out, you can't just compare the PiP's 29 kWh with gasoline assist to the Volt's 36 kWh electric-only. Without gas (with a stronger battery) the PiP would probably be around 31-32 kWh / 100 miles CD.

Minor correction, but the Volt is 94 MPGe vs 95 MPGe.

37 vs 50 MPG comb CS but most gas miles on Volt tend to be highway miles at 40 MPG CS.

All that aside, I think the PiP numbers are very good. It will be fun to see what kinds of results individual owners will get under various driving patterns.

 

Driving 3rd gen in city is a repeat of electric drive when light turns green, then ICE chimes in at 10 MPH or so. It's almost like a shift of gears in an automatic. But, with a PiP with range, no more ice kicking on in city, right? Sound nice if want to give up more cash for the electric experience. I suppose a big motivator for getting PiP is to get the coveted HOV lane stickers ...

 

Time will tell. But IMO most of Prius PHV owners will get 14-15 miles of pure EV in city driving, as I believe the clever PHV driver will force HV mode at 55+ mph highway driving saving the EV for city where it is really needed.
All-in-all it is a balanced midsize PHEV that will sell well, and sales is the ultimate acid test to any manufacturer.

 

With the full sticker data, we can now look at the total GHG emissions of the Pruis PHV as a function of local grid GHG intensity and as compared to the Volt with Prius G3 as a baseline. Total emissions include up-stream (WTW).

The Prius PHV is cleaner than the Volt. Local grid used should be about 320-380 gCO2(e)/kWh (including up-stream emissions) for the Volt to break even with the Prius PHV.
(Chart is based on EPA data)

 

Blended mode = CD mode in a car that can't do all the tests purely on the battery. It's not just at speed, it's also under heavy acceleration or when the engine runs to provide heat (there's a cold city test).

 

Its not, just that critical information was not available until the window sticker was.

Depends on the point of time from which you start measuring when the info was available. GM did not leak information slowly. A month before deliveries people could see the sticker. Since the PiP was announced in Early 2010, toyota has witheld EV for even longer -- two years.

For EREV/EV you use kWh to radically boost MPG, and make gas less relevant.

Maybe it is because EV, EREV owners are focused on reducing use of oil?
Maybe it is because EV/EREV allow owners to shift to renewable energy.
The overall MPG of a vehicle is much better if its EV range is enough to do most people or all people daily commute.

Of course MPG is a partial measure. We could look at MPGe. Oh wait, we cannot because Toyota has not stated that yet. Since we still don't know the overall MPGe of the PHV, but it seems unlikely its as good as let alone much better than the volt, and not close to any BEV. Part of me was hoping that Toyota, would want reclaim the crown of most efficient, to keep the pressure on GM .. Guess I was expecting too much.

 

I am not aware of any aftermarket plugin kit that already went through the EPA test to get a comparable MPGe rating. How did you calculate that 90+ MPGe? What was the kWh/100mi and gal/100mi consumption breakdown?

6 miles AER was due to the second hill on the highway test cycle forcing the gas engine to run. Unless Enginer kit or Plugin Supply kit can supply more than 38 kW, the gas engine will kick in on that second hill and would be rated AER=6 miles as well.

Have those kits measure the tailpipe emission due to the installation? Argonne reports have shown the increase in tailpipe emission with the aftermarket plugin conversions for Gen II Prius but I have not seen it for Gen III.

Another dimension is the warranty. Do any of the aftermarket kits have 10 years / 150,000 miles warranty?

 

Why would you torture yourself like that? I know anticipation is half the fun, but good gawd... If I were in your shoes I would use fresh bath towels, blankets and even ask the dealership for some plastic seat covers (the same ones they use to protect your seats while detail+maintenance your car ). But then again I'm the kind of guy that sleeps/wakes up in my brand spankin new car prying my face and drool off the owners manual.

Congrats to you! :rockon: ...a few envious readers like myself want your first impression!

 

In blended mode, the gas engine won't be used to recharge the battery (to maintain the original state of charge before gas engine started). In hybrid mode, the battery SOC will be maintained.

I think, you'll have to be in the EV mode and have the gas engine come on, to be in blended mode. The battery will continue to drain even with the gas engine assisting.

 

Thanks for updating. However you show the Volt at its expected Utility factor (67% EV), and 125% of its UF (85% EV), while you only show the PiP at 150% of UF (35%EV) and 250% of UF (55% EV).

If you want to draw a meaningful conclusion you need to balance the UF (UF for 11miles CD range is about 22 miles).

 

Just want to correct myself. I can use the EPA figure to derive the available energy from the PHV battery.

Per EPA label, the blended range is 11 miles. Electricity consumption during that range is 29 kWh/100 miles so it is 290 Wh/mile.

290 Wh/mile x 11 miles = 3,190 Wh = 3.2 kWh

EPA electricity measurements are from the wall so 3.2 kWh is the amount of electricity required to fully charge the battery.

 

I don't think you guys are being fair to the Pip, harping on the 6 miles of stated AER is kind of pointless when the whole "blended" run only consumes .022 gallons of gas. It makes much more sense to just look at the blended range and recognize minute amounts of petrol will be burned to help get there (sometimes).

These are also just EPA test results, YMMV.

Even talk of using hold mold to preserve EV range isn't recognizing that after the couple of seconds the ICE ran on that second hill, the car likely finished most of the rest of the run in EV only. If that hill had been the first mile of the test the AER would be one mile, if it were the last mile it would be 11 miles, citing only the AER does not recognize most of that run is in EV, and really the whole point of this design is to get some help from the ICE when it is prudent to do so.

I love my Volt and driving electrically. I bet many Pip owners will also love driving electrically and get to do it at least 10 miles a day on a single charge.

 

35% EV is my expectation for the average Prius PHV driver,as compared to 67% for the Volt (EPA even says 64% for the Volt).
55% EV for the Prius PHV is my expectation for high UF driver, compared to 85% on the Volt.
We do not have field data for the Prius yet, so have to assume.

Cannot follow your 'percent increase' logic...

 

Using some gas to keep the electricity consumption low and provide cabin heat is awesome since you have both fuels on board.

Volt uses 24% more electricity per mile despite being a compact. Leaf uses 17% more.

We can calculate the amount of gas used to achieve that level of low electricity consumption. 0.2 gallon/100 mile translates to 0.002 gallon/mile. For the blended 11 miles, it would consume 0.022 gallon. That's about 2.8 oz of gas.

TSA allows only 3.4 oz of fluid for airline carry-on, so that's the frame of reference.

 

EPA rounds miles to the nearest integer so range could be anywhere from 10.5 to 11.49 so power to charge could be anywhere from 3.045kw to 3.332kw

 

Exactly. Really appreciate it, coming from a Volt owner (prior Prius owner).

EPA test requires AER to be continuous. In reality, owners will be switching between EV and HV mode so EV miles will be disjointed. Picking the electric miles on slower low power situations would increase the "total" EV miles. They may not be continuous but when added together the total will be greater.

 

Utility factors are how the EPA combines CD and CS energy estimates.
Pretty well described in this paper

Based on statistical data is estimates what fraction of the time users will spend in CD mode.

There will eventually be an EPA estimate of CD usage for the Prius (its factored into how the get the 1000 per year), and its will be in the 21-24 range (hard to estimate given the rounding errors and limited resolution in the plots I have).

Precent increase was 85%/67%, or 125% of the Volts UF. (If its 64 from EPA, then it would be a tad higher.. I did not go look it up.)

 

The total range on the sticker is 540 miles, does that assume 11 miles EV and 529 miles HV? I thought the gas tank was smaller, does that mean about a 10.5 gallon fuel tank?

If you only drove 11 miles a day, and happened to get the same EPA results everyday (burning .022 gallons every 11 miles), you would drive about 5,250 miles between fill ups (assuming the system wouldn't use the gas for some other purpose during the 16 months it would take to do it).

 

According to eGRID 2010 report, the current grid CO2e emission is 590 gram/kWh.

Prius PHV is much cleaner when you consider both vehicle and fuel production efficiency (well-to-wheel).