I just got a 2013 (base) PiP (shipped from Seattle since they are not on sale here in Colorado). I have had a 2005 Prius. Some questions: 1. The gas tank in the 2005 "shrinks" in cold weather as it is some sort of rubber bladder. Does anyone know whether this is still the case in the 2013 PiP? 2. I saw the comment on this forum that Toyota does not recommend using an extension cord (I saw nothing in the manual about this). Yet some users are using one. I would like to use a short extension cord to make the garage situation more friendly. Is that reasonable? 3. Now a tough one: Every time I leave my house I descend 800 feet (in 2 miles). That was enough to give a full charge to the 2005 Prius. So what is optimal for the 2013? Charge it fully at home, and will it be able to gain anything from that downhill? Or should I try (not so easy on a daily basis) to charge it, say, 95% full. It is not crystal clear how one would determine that.... It would be nice if I could charge it fully at home, and then gain 800-feet worth of more power. Perhaps if the charge is not truly "full" this is possible? Anyway, so far I love the vehicle. I can easily get 10-13 mi, including 6 freeway miles, on electric only. I need to use up a backlog (stored with the utility) of about 8000 kwH generated over 5 years. So at 5 kwH per day (is that right?) it will take a few years.... Optimizing use of the HV/EV switch seems pretty tricky.
No, the Gen III Prius, plug in or not, has no more bladder. The PiP has a 10.6 gallon tank compared to the life backs 11.9 Many have used an extension cord no problem, make sure the gauge of the cord is appropriate. 12 gauge I think people go with. If you have a full charge and go down a long hill, it may start the engine. Not sure though for. Certain as I have no hills right as I left my house to go down after a charge. If it would start the engine in your situation I'd maybe try and be a little heavier on the throttle before getting to the hill rather thego through the trouble of 95% charging. Try it first though, play around with the car and your driving situations.
check out the sticky faq at the top of this forum. also, there is at least one thread on the ice starting when going down a large hill right after a full charge. you could plug the evse into a timer and with a little trial and error, come up with the amount of time to charge leaving enough space for the hill to fill.
So far: the engine will not start on the downhill. Aside: the "B" mode is much different here than in 2005. For the 2005 car, I rarely touched the brake. Here, touching the brake seems to trigger a strong charge (even if one has already put it in B). So it seems the idea is that one should drive it more like a traditional car, using the pedal instead of B. Also when coming down from the 11000 foot tunnel to town (8700), the old Prius would reach full-charge fairly quickly. I am hoping the 2013 PiP will be able to recover more, since there is more capacity. Seems obvious that it will. The manual says that the car puts out some sort of sound at low speeds... I have not yet listened for that. I had the dealer disable the continuous beeping in reverse. Is there a way to disable the single beep it gives when one goes into reverse? This is not terribly important I guess. One design flaw: If the passenger turns the heated seats on (we got a foot of snow here yesterday) and does not turn it off, it will stay on...forever... even if no one is in the seat, and there are no warning lights to indicate it is on. So one must remember to turn these things off.
1. This is no longer the case, the change was in MY 2010. 2. So long as you do not value the garage, structures attached to the garage, or it's contents, go for it!. Need advice - Outlet caught fire | PriusChat 3. If left to charge until full, it is full and will use engine braking to dissipate energy going downhill. Spme owners are very depressed by this. How to stop Engine from turning on? | PriusChat
If you actually read that thread, you'll see the issue for that particular person was their home's old aluminum wiring, IIRC. I, as well as many others here and on the Volt forum, have and/or continue to use extension cords with their EVSE with no ill effects. Just be sure to use a heavy duty (12 gauge) extension cord and keep the length to a minimum (mine is 25 feet).
Yes, a perfect storm of ancient GFI, aluminum wiring, an extension cord, and an owner who did not understand that his garage plugs were wired to his bathroom circuit. I am not sure that all were needed to set fire to his house, but I am sure more than one was. Some part of his problem was the distance between the causes at his car and the effects in his bathroom.
Congrats on the new PiP. I try to maintain a sticky thread with state incentives for PiP. I'd like to add Colorado, if you have a chance. I heard CO has a new incentive program pending in the state legislature so perhaps you do not know yet how it is working.
wjtracy: Info on the Colo rebate is at XXX or XXX It is a Category 3 vehicle, so the credit is a whopping 35% of the difference in price to a base Prius. I have only 3 posts here so I am not allowed to post links... so I deleted the ://.. will that fool the censor? Nope, it does not fool the censor which accused me of putting in a sneaky URL. So send a private message to me at my surname.macalester.edu and I will send you the links.... You can deduce my surname from my username. Now, you refer to a new pending program, which I had not heard of. But I believe the above info is what applies to purchases in 2013. Other matters: Duh: A friend was over and said: Why don't you just plug it in there?... pointing to the outlet near the garage door opener on the ceiling. That turns out to be very easy (I had overlooked (underlooked?) it), and now the gadget hangs just where one wants it to. Of course, if one is disconnecting it to use remote plug-in stations that would be a pain, but such use would be quite rare here (tho I hear the Vail parking lot has public outlets for this). So the only thing currently bugging me is that with sunglasses on I cannot read the display, and it is as bright as possible.
To address your hill problem, I would suggest setting your charge timer for 2 hours and 10 minutes. When you go down your hill see how much regeneration you get. You don't want your ICE to turn on while going down your hill. If it does, simply reduce your charging time accordingly. Btw, have you driven at night yet? Do you have the TLE (Triple Light Enhancement) technology on your front windshield? New PiP owners: Please check your front windshields for the night time "ghosting" issue | PriusChat
Another question: Suppose one is going down a hill in neutral. Is that counted in the %age of EV vs HV? If so, which?
CoolJW: But how will I know if I am regenerating when I go down the hill? Right now I charge it to full. It says, say 13.2 miles. When I go down the hill now, it rises to 13.4 miles. This seems to contradict a previous poster's comment that "when it is full it is full". If he is right, then this bump is because the computer is detecting the downhill driving and adjusting capacity accordingly. If he is wrong, then I can regenerate even from a full battery. So in short, the question is: how do I tell if I am getting true increase in storage as I go down the hill from my house? Night driving is rare for us.... But indeed, in my 2005 I did notice that at night the ghosting problem occurs -- the reflection of the speedometer in the windshield. Dimming was an adequate solution.
After a full charge your battery is actually only about 80% full (80% SOC). This is to protect the battery’s longevity. So while going down your hill you are definitely adding more charge to it. You just want to avoid adding too much charge, in which case your engine will turn on and go into the engine breaking mode – which would be a waste of gas for you. The front windshield ghosting issue has nothing to do with lights reflecting from your dashboard. Please watch the TV report which explains the problem clearly: ABC 7 - Potential safety hazard in popular car... | PriusChat
Thanks for that 80% comment. I was aware that that applied to the classic Prius situation -- and was hoping it would apply here. I watched the video. Interesting. I will of course check it out on my first drive -- in the hope that 2013 is improved. Thanks....
If you are down hill as soon as you leave your house, then it is a little tough to keep the engine off. If you could use about .7 EV miles by taking a little diffrent way to the hill then that would solve your problem I think!
cooljw: Had the car (2013) out tonight and all the lights of other cars or house lights appeared correct through the windshield. Good.
OK good for you. As folks have mentioned before it is encouraging that there are people who don't have the problem - i.e. it can be fixed.
