I've backed out of my garage the last few mornings and attempted to use the EV mode and have had a message on the display that reads "EV mode is unavailable at this time" or something to that effect. Hmmm! Anyone have an explanation ? BTW, the traction battery is at normal charge, about 62%. ????
68F (20C) is the breakpoint on mine. 69 and up, EV is available. 67 and lower, not available. I have never seen 68 itself appear on my ScanGauge, so cannot say what happens right at the point. But I have turned on EV at 69, and sat long enough for the temp to step directly down to 67 and cancel EV mode.
That is because you live in a warm place. If you lived up here, the nighttime temperatures would cause it to fail about 350 mornings per year.
In our area, summer, odds are pretty good I'll get EV, say if I need to just back it out of the garage. Spring and fall, the odds fall below 50/50. Winter, rarely if ever. You have a 20 second window of EV whenever you start it up, so if you get on it fast, as soon as it boots up, you can sometimes avoid a start up. Actually, a really good "firmware" update, Toyota: increase that 20 seconds to 60 seconds?
I just read that Ford has a voluntary software update for the C-Max/Fusion that, among other things, shuts of the ICE quicker and allows speeds of up to 85mph in EV. It would be nice if Toyota could change the ICE start-up when cold function to allow a longer period of EV only when the system senses little demand such as garage egress and driveway dancing even in cold weather if sufficient battery charge is available.
Local climatologists suggest that this area will be lagging, we'll still have some snow for skiing while most others are baking. Your garage must be warmer than mine. For the first morning startup, my likelihood of EV is 0% from September through June. But the engine cooldown time is long enough that the likelihood at additional starts is very good. And my EV window is only 10 seconds.
I believe Toyota does this outside the U.S. / North America market where the traction battery warranty is shorter.
Thanks for that info. Seems that it's a real drain on the HV battery then and would not make much sense. I guess the savings would be little to none for most of us. Though it might help with the engine rattle from a quick ICE start/stop in my scenario.
More likely I was just being optimistic. I don't try it that much, but yeah, that sounds about right. If it was just possible to slip the transaxle into "neutral" without start up, I could exit the garage in FF mode. (Fred Flintstone)
I guess when the weather gets cold, I'll have to park my car on my ramps so I can roll out of the garage in "G" (Gravity) mode.
I would think with the 120v engine warmer and the fact that reverse is electric not ice, you might get away with a no ice start up, and a much shorter ice warm up.
Unfortunately you can't: any time the car is off, it's in Park, ie: the transaxle won't allow the front wheels to rotate.
Ramps might still work... In N, the ICE keeps doing what it was doing before you shifted in (ie either it stays running or it stays off), as long as you shift to N before the ICE starts at the ~12 second mark after power on, you could continue to roll out of the garage.
