In cold temps, ICE turns on at the begining of a trip when I have plenty EV. Why?

Agreed, you won't find me installing an electric blanket on my battery only for it to catch fire

 

the blanket, the car then the house UGHH!

 

nope, not here. car's in an open parking lot, far away from the apartment, pity the cars next to me tho

 

And the trophy to the poster being most quoted in the thread goes to...

 

well......this morning I went to the barbershop (1/2 mile away, too cold to walk!) My PIP is outside in open parking lot, no insulation, no garage heat. Temperature on dashboard 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Proceeded to drive to barbershop at 8 MPH. so far so good. ( seat heater not on, my winter coat keeps me plenty warm) Finished at barbershop, went to Meijers (2 miles away) Increased my speed to 15 MPH so far so good. Went home all EV no ICE.

 

oops, yeah, I forgot. I charged the battery last night, no timer. Unplugged PIP at 7:00 PM last night.

 

Update from Wisconsin: yesterday while at work my PiP was sitting outside in about 5-10°F temps for 8+ hours. I powered it on with ~10 miles EV range, and the engine started instantly (first time this has happened to me at all). I drove to the end of the driveway, and decided to try a shutdown and restart. Lo and behold, on that second power-up, it stayed in EV mode, and I drove 3 miles home uphill (35MPH max) and it never kicked the engine on again. Very strange... but at least I now know to try that when it decides to randomly turn on the engine in the extreme cold!

 

But then it may not be good for the battery. I doubt it is some "random" ICE starts. I think it is done for a reason.

Until we understand the parameters and the reason behind it, I would not go crazy using what seems to be an exploit.

 

Yep, I agree! I have always said the car has a mind of it's own.
If the car starts, I let it go thru it's warm up cycle. I figure it is starting for a reason.

 

iluvmacs did say it was 5-10 F and Toyota says ICE will start if outside temps is 14 f or below. Not that hard to understand.

 

But not always, twice this week I went to coffee 2.7 miles, 4 degrees f going, three hours later back home 2.7 miles, 8 degrees f, all EV no ice start both days! I do leave from 45 degree heated garage.

 

ah.....the key word here.......45 degree heated garage, so battery at 45 degrees not 5-10 degrees

 

also, it takes the battery with a mass of 100 lbs a long time to warm up to garage temperature and a long time to go to 5-10 degrees temperature once you leave the confines of your "warm garage"

 

Yes but, 3 hours later sitting out side at 8 degrees, then went home all EV. Maybe battery has not cooled down enough to set of ice?

 

And yet, today I came out from work (9.5 hours sitting in 10-15°F, 10° by the dash at time of startup), and it didn't start the engine at all. Only reached 9 total miles on EV today (unsurprisingly) and pulled back into the garage at home with 0.2 miles remaining!

 

I am pretty sure the manual said the gas engine MAY start. Which is why I was wondering about the inner workings.

 

Yeah.......MAY start.....Like Electrical vamps. bringing down battery voltage while car is "off" (keyless entry system, and the trip odo, eco data thingy) Also whether you have headlights on or off, seat heater on or off. And how long it's been since last charging session. condition of 12 volt battery since 12 volt battery is charged by the lithium ion pack.

 

8 MPH ?!
I run faster than that ! brought to mind a funny pic of a pack of runners passing a PiP

Love my PiP and I go gentle to max my EV but this is more fuel for the anti PiP crowd

 

Lol, yeah I'm just a big chicken and didn't want to push it, besides no one's behind me

SGH-M919 ?

 

I've observed at temps below freezing (with car cold soak outside 8-10+ hrs) that speeds above 22-23mph trigger the ICE firing up when the battery is still near full capacity right out of the driveway. As I drive a bit more at 20mph and the batt is now down 10-15% from the top I can hit speeds in the mid 30's mph without triggering the ICE. Once the batt is down to maybe 75% remaining charge I can go up to 62-64mph without the ICE firing up.
So the trick is to start off from your driveway at a very slow speed (below 22mph) to burn off some charge, then increase to mid 30mph to burn off some more charge, once 25% charge has burned off... OK for 62mph.

It's a PITA... but it works.