EV On/Off Charge Depletion Miles and Control Not Making Much Sense

Resetting that stuff isn't going to change your EV. If you want to raise your EV do this. (You will have to sacrifice comfort and time of course. Realize that everyone getting 13+ miles is sacrificing comfort and time)

1. On your next return home. Turn off the A/C, and turn off the blower 5 minutes before you get home. Press "setup", "display" "screen off". Then turn your instrument cluster brightness all the way down to the lowest where it is still on.

2. Drive watching your Hybrid system indicator. Drive extremely gently. You will have people tailgaiting you, maybe honking and passing you (welcome to Prius!). Try not to let the energy bar go beyond where the big "EV" symbol lies. You will accelerate slowly.

3. When going downhill adjust the pressure you put on the break peddle so that the charge bar is at the highest you can get it to.

4. Continue this for 3 days. Your EV range will rise.

 

Who would have thought that the PiP forum would attract all the nuts.

This is what happens when you give the buyer too much choice and control.

 

To the OP, I say just drive it and enjoy it! IMHO, the estimated EV range is going to vary from driver to driver, day to day, and car to car. That's just the way it is. Remember the bit where it says, "Your mileage may vary?"
When this subject first showed up last spring, and PiP owners weighed in on it, I decided to start keeping track of my EV range, writing it down after each full charge. (I have a lot of time on my hands, being mostly retired.) Unfortunately for me, it got to be a habit. So be forewarned! Anyway, I am now one day short of keeping this record for six months. The EV range has varied from 13.6 to 14.6 miles. When I have driven in town enough to run out of EV, I usually have gone somewhere between 14 and 15 miles, with a couple of times going 16. The main reason I sold my '06 Prius in order to get the PiP was the idea of being able to do my in-town mostly on EV. There are members here who regularly exceed the 11 to 15 estimate, and some who report getting less. It has to do with terrain, traffic, and driving style/habits.
I do occasionally make longer trips, and usually manually switch to HV a mile or so before entering the freeway, saving the EV for off-freeway use on the other end. I have kept it in ECO mode the entire time. I now have over 8300 miles, average consumption of 78 mpg, and 24/76% EV to gas usage. I reset trip 'a' with each fueling, and have kept trip 'b' recording since the day I took delivery. My longest non-stop trip is usually around 90 miles, and the final screen on shut off typically reads somewhere in the mid-sixties, sometimes into the low seventies. Much better than either of my previous Prius'.
So, enjoy your trip, and know that you are getting better fuel economy than just about anything else you see on the road!

 

Yes they literally studied and perfected techniques to gain mpg, and most of this is by not using features and accelerating extremely slowly to minimize ICE time. There are threads here about numerous techniques. None of them will make the driver behind you very happy.

And it isnt just the 13 you get in EV, once they go to HV mode they continue with techniques to get 60+, and may be good at harnessing charge on downhills. If I do it right, there is one hill that can get me enough charge to get home from an empty battery.

It doesn't save you that much really, but to some people it is worth it, to each their own.

The 11 miles you saw is from the EPA, where they test the car in what they consider normal conditions. A/C, instrument cluster, regular acceleration, etc. They found 11 miles can be expected.

 

bottom line.....as ive said before,

keep your HSI indicator below 20% at all times, you will get 15EV miles.

What i do is I reset my trip A each day....so when i take off i can watch my EV range and my trip A miles, and i can add them together to see my total as they tick off....when i go above 20% HSI in acceleration, i can see the EV range tick off faster then the miles are adding up. When i keep HSI at 20% or less I can watch the EV range tick off SLOWER then the actual miles ad on.

try this for a few days and you will get into the habit of knowing how to get 15 miles..I do this alot cause my typical drive is exactly 15 miles, and I have to baby it to make it back without ICE starting. Some days I have too many people behind me and i have to speed up just a tad and then my EV runs short.

I reset my ratio trip 1 each FILLUP...and leave ratio trip 2 for lifetime. also leave trip B ODO for lifetime MPG and Im currently at 120mpg at 2000miles total on car with 50/50 ratio EV/HV.

None of this is any different then watching an INSTANT MPG calculator on any car ive had in the past 10 yrs....but it now is amplified due to the fact the "tank size" is so small(meaning your EV tank so to speak) where your fuel tank is larger, so instant MPG doesnt transfer as dramatically in theory.

Dan

 

wasn't the lady who traded in her pip a few months ago because 'toyota said it would go 15 miles on ev' named suzie?

 

According to Toyota's Plug-in site, the car gets approx 11mi. on a full charge.
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid

 

Don't obsess over the EV estimate. I'm pretty sure it takes the average of many many previous miles so one day of really good driving isn't going to upgrade your estimate much. My display was showing as high as 15.9 two months ago and now i've leveled off at 13.3 but I know the actual miles i'm getting per charge hasn't change. Once you get a hang of the car you'll know better how much EV range you have left than the guess-o-meter on the MFD. It'll come with experience when you approach a hill, you'll be able to size it up and say, "hmm...that's going take 0.6 to climb" or "this off ramp is going to give me back 0.4"

You'd be surprised! Oregon is very EV friendly I hear, and California too! Use smartphone apps and find charging stations along the way. Out East we have Plugshare and ChargePoint and it's really useful/fun to plan trips around charging stops. There are more places out there where you can charge than you think!

Municipal buildings like court houses and EPA offices sometimes have free L2 chargers. Lowe's stores generally have 120V outlets outside (look for where the rental tools are plugged in to charge outside). Kohl's stores are adding high speed charging stations. Chase Bank locations out here often have outlets by the drive-thru ATM's. Walmart, Pathmark Supermarkets, and Whole Foods usually have outlets up front but some may be in a no parking zone or near the shopping cart stalls so beware of people pushing their carts over your cord every other minute. I've found most places if you ask the manager politely he or she will, after giving you a look like you just stepped out of a spaceship that just crash-landed on Earth, let you use their outlets to charge.

A typical Sunday for my family: we head out in the morning, eat breakfast (charge 1 hr), stop to do some shopping (charge 1-2hrs), lunch (charge 1 hr), beach (3 hr), stop at Home Depot (1 hr) Depending on whether high speed chargers are available, we can charge anywhere from 20-50 miles of EV over the course of an outing. Throw in the 15 miles we have in the batt before we leave and we do more than half our driving in EV.

I'm not saying go out of your way to eat, play, and spend time around charging stations, but there are opportunities for your car to recharge while it waits for you. Good luck on that road trip, sounds like a lot of fun.

 

How do you get HUD on you
Base Pip?

 

TY Paradox, there is a big Difference between them. I wish people would use the right terminologies.

 

never saw one before, thanks mark!

 

cool, so that's why my pip bleeds off ~1mi EV when i switch to HV mode as soon as i hit first stretch of freeway (recovering a third when i decel on exit ramp)

 

i don't see that. ^ when i take a long hv trip, i start with about 14.5 miles ev range. over the course of 30 miles or so, i'm down to 11 miles or so. it never comes back.

 

Hey, Susan, great to hear from another Oregonian. I live in the Willamette Valley. I have almost 3,000 miles on the PIP. This summer I was averaging estimated EV in the high 12's or low 13's. My EV/HV ratio was close to 50/50. I put the PIP in HV going up hills or whenever I go over 50 mpg and travel more than 12 miles. I try to plug in at least once per trip. I drive it like I would be biking, accelerating a little as a go up gentle hills and coasting down. We have gentle hills around here and not much level ground. I also live in the country, so don't do a lot of stop and go unless I am in Portland. My average was around 100 mpg.

Then my husband came home from camp hosting in LaPine and we took a trip to Couer d'Alene, round trip of about 900 miles. I charged up before the trip and didn't charge again until getting home, about 5 days. We had about 8 miles left on EV until we came to a rest stop and forgot to put it in HV upon returning to the freeway. This bleed all of the EV miles before reaching Couer d'Alene. Though EV kicked in a few times while tooling around Cour d'Alene, most of the trip was 50mph or above. Getting home, we averaged 50 mpg.

Since that trip, my estimated EV range has been in the low 12's but I have noticed that I am still getting almost 14 EV miles still when I am on strictly surface streets and my speed is between 20 and 45. This is slightly less than at the beginning of the summer when I got almost 15. I haven't been able to get the estimate back to the high 12's and I think there are a couple of reasons:

1. According to one post, it takes many more trips to build the estimate back up, not just a few trips since this is an average of your driving habits.
2. The temperatures are now in the 50's and 60's and mpg, particularly EV does seem to be better at warmer temps.
3. My husband does not "baby" the car like I do. He has a lead foot and accelerates and breaks quickly and hard.

I think the important thing is the actual EV you are getting, not so much the estimate. Central Oregon is much colder than it is here so that may be what you will see until it starts warming up again. Also, I would be interested in hearing what your estimate is after your long trip.