The one and only Prius Plug-in FAQ!

Perhaps. It's the warmer weather, too. See photo. I've finally crested the 400 mile per tank / 50 MPG per tank threshold a few times. Late March-Early April vacation was a blip on the screen. I like that if the EV is drained, I now can still drive without ICE, but I need to treat the gas pedal like it's an injured butterfly. NOT the way I'm accustomed to driving, but there's a payoff!

 

Great! Wait till it gets warmer!

 

apologize if this has been discussed but today while driving fairly slow, not up a hill, no heat or defrost on and only EV lit - my PiP used 2miles worth of gas - added it to that reading.

I think I read that every couple hundred miles this could happen if you haven't been out of EV mode ?
anyone ?

 

every 126 miles or something. it should be above in the faq. did you hear the ice fire or the mpg's go down? or see the lit ev become an outline only?

 

I saw reddish lines on the fake fuel diagram - no sound that I noticed and EV stayed lit.
That explains why I've added a few gas miles when I've still had EV power. I'll be interested in calcing my mpg when I finally do need a fill-up

 

Looking at your monthly averages, it doesn't look like you charge your PiP at all. Correct?

 

This is a potentially very stupid question and I'm sure it has been answered a ton of times on this site, but I can't find it:

So the hybrid/traction battery on the PiP is warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles correct? And I assume that is just total failure, not degradation?

 

it probably says in the warranty manual, but i think you're right, or perhaps if it throws a code.

 

The FAQ only mentioned that the warranty is longer in CA. I don't think it said anything else.

 

Battery warranty in Oregon is 150,000 miles. I believe its not pro rated, so if your battery becomes defective
at 145,000 miles you will get a free replacement from Toyota.

 

i think mark's question is more related to 'how does toyota determine battery failure' than he is with how long the warranty is.

 

agreed!

 

In the battery industry, there are standard norms for battery failure. It is expressed as percent of nameplate capacity, typically 50% to 70% of initial (nameplate) capacity. Since the Prius PHV has 4.4 kWh, the end-of-life would be 2.2 or 3.1kWh, depending on what the guarantee is. The life time of a battery is usually roughly defined by the number of charge/discharge cycles. The conventional car battery, lead-acid type, will lose capacity quite rapidly after a few thousand cycles. However, one of the strengths of lithium-ion batteries is that they lose capacity only gradually, and there is no big drop-off that signals end-of-life. I am certain that Toyota would employ the tire warrantee model. If you drive for 15,000 miles on tires that have 30,000 warrantee, you will not get new tires for free if they fail. The replacements would be prorated and you'd get half off.

 

I think what you're saying (in essence) is that your capacity is the thing that goes away with battery usage/age. So if you get 12 miles of range - once you loose 20% capacity, your range is 2.4 miles less miles ... or 9.6 miles of range remaining. As to lithium capacity loss ... it's not that lithium chemistry batteries loose range gradually (putting lithium battery loss on a linear graph) but rather lithium capacity loss comes more "up front". Once its initial capacity loss happens, it slows. So if you were to graph that, rather than a steady line - the graph would look more like a hockey stick ... dropping ... then following a much slower drop. So ... the REAL question is ... WHAT capacity loss does Toyota consider to be sufficient to deal with you the customer. Is it 20% after 10 years? 50% ... 10% after 5 years? Obviously you don't wake up some day with a dead traction pack. In stead, you have some significant percentage of range loss that is unacceptable. I can't find that percentage in writing any where. Has anyone found that info?
.

 

no. and it's going to get interesting at some point, but probably not for awhile.

 

Don't know whether this is the right thread for it, but didn't want to start one specially.

In the UK we have 240 volt 13 amp supply, so volts x amps says it should be over 3kw. In fact, the PiP screen shows it charging at about 1.9kw. I've just got some information from the supplier of a cable I need for public stations, who explains that the EVSE brick in the lead Toyota supply in the UK, with a domestic 3 pin plug, reduces the amperage to 10 amps for safety. That still means 1.9 looks low, and maybe it draws 2.4 but the loss means it only puts 1.9 in the car? But either way, it makes me a lot more relaxed about using a (heavy duty) extension lead - although my external chargepoint is being fitted as I speak.

 

the battery charges at different rates, faster in the beginning, and slower as it tops up. there is a thread here with some pretty good graph's, from priuskitty i think.