Advice for buying a PIP?

A discount. SKS door lock mode set the way you like it. Don't trade, sell current car. Bring your own financing. Don't get ripped off with an extended warranty. If you must have one, buy it here. You can delay for 3 yrs.
Don't pay a premium above sticker for the car.

 

You can set up SKS yourself with the Plug-in. No dealer assistance needed, but you still need the dealer to disable the reverse beep.

Advice-wise, if you're interested in an extended warranty, get a quote here from the "Dealers and Pricing" section, and see if your dealer will meet it. If he won't, you can buy that warranty from any dealer and often get a much better price for it.

Figure out where you'll plug it in. You should have a dedicated 20 amp outlet for the charger. 15 amp should be fine, as the charger draws 13 amps.

 

Don't have the dealer tint the windows unless they are giving a great deal and are using a ceramic-based tinting material.

You can use a 110 outlet; consider, as time goes on, getting a L2 installed for faster charging.

I like the clear door guards, lower rocker moldings, illuminated door sills, etc., so I think it never hurts to ask a dealer to throw in some stuff, or at least offer it at cost and free install. You can always pick up the extras from Danny here on Priuschat at a great price, but it can't hurt to ask the dealer.

 

I'm referring to a Level 2 'charging' unit - I had the Leviton EVSE installed so I could charge in1.5 hours or less. But you don't have to do this. 110 will charge the PIP - just takes more time.

 

Dont buy any options from the dealer, get them all on here at prius chat shop, much cheaper.

Look at the rear bumper guard instead of the applique. Looks great and great protection.

 

Some advice on that: Plug-in Prius has a control on the dash that lets you set a charge stop or end time. I set mine to end at 6 AM. When I plug in at night, I tap this button, so that the charging will end at 6.

Why? Two reasons:
First, off-peak charging is better for the environment.
Second, the LiOn battery in Plug-in Prius is MUCH happier and lasts longer if it sits depleted, not full. So set it to fill shortly before you drive off in the morning and deplete the battery. No need to be overzealous about it, but the battery pack lasts longest that way.

 

When it is mentioned that LiIon does not like to be stored fully charged, is the time frame days or weeks, or are they saying that there will be significant degradation caused by leaving it fully charged for a couple of hours during the night before using it on the way to work the next morning? Just wondering if the "time it to complete charging 15 minutes before you leave" is really a significant issue, or is it a .001% kind of thing. And the only concern would be if you are are not going to drive it for a few weeks.

 

ALL batteries will degrade over time. At least in California, for PHEVs, the battery gets a 10 year, 150K mile warranty. The advances in a decade should far outweigh any advantage in keeping the first PiP - except maybe as a curiosity.

I would not be surprised if the batteries used in the PiP operate so that it never achieves a complete discharge or a complete charge in normal service. So, even if your battery gauge says 100%, that's probably not 100% of the battery's capacity. And when you tap out, there is probably still a good level of charge remaining, it just is not used, and the system flips over to the smaller traction battery.

 

Others have done measurements; I think the maximum SOC for the PlugIn is around 85%. The minimum is around 15% I think.

And there is only one big battery in the PiP (other than the tiny 12V lead-acid battery for accessories). The prototype had two big batteries (one for plug-in, one for HV), but the production model only has one.

 

I thought there were 4:

Two big ones for EV
One smaller HV
One 12V

 

Either there are more than one batter in the PiP, or the battery is at least sectioned off. When I drain my EV range, my traction battery is typically full and I have used that extensively at 30-35 mph hyper miling after EV range was gone.

 

There is only one battery (plus the 12v accessory battery). The software creates the fiction of a separate HV battery. When the battery gets drained down to certain state of charge, the software switches the HSI display to the non-plug-in Prius format, and manages the battery like a standard Prius, letting the battery charge and discharge in a narrow range. The pre-production plug-in model did have separate plug-in and hybrid batteries, but users complained that there was no way to feed regenerated power back into the plug-in battery, so Toyota combined them into one physical battery, and enhanced the software to make it work right.

 

Hmm, if that is the case, then if I deplete my EV, and I am traveling 75MPH, the engine should recharge enough to add back EV miles (which I have not seen happen) Once EV is depleted, I think the only way to get more EV is to plug in.

Every day on my drive home I will deplete the EV and get to my house with a full traction battery.

While I do agree there is a single Lith battery, I think its a more complicated and may be physically segmented.

 

Once the battery is depleted to the "HV" level, the system will hold it there. That is the signature of "HV" mode. If you have lots of charge left and hit the HV button, the system will hold the charge at the current level within a very narrow range, running the gasoline engine or electric motor as necessary. If the system has switched to HV mode due to a depleted battery, the only way to get charge back is either to plug it in, or go down a long hill and use regeneration; it's not going to use the gasoline engine to do it.

In HV mode a "full" battery display just means that the battery is at the charge level defined by the software to be "full" in HV mode. I think it is actually something like 20%.

 

The battery is made up of many, many cells. These are broken into four parts, and one is used as the HV traction battery and the other 3/4 are used as the EV battery. The HV battery is cycled to even out wear.

Owners here have reported that driving downhill long enough will restore EV range.