Spontaneous loss of EV (indicated) range

That sounds good.

All it takes is one lapse on your part, say a dome light left on, door ajar. Or some sort of parasitic drain. The Prius battery is small, easily killed by one or two such incidents, regarless of age.

One thing, there's a lot of posts regarding wierd symptoms and warning lights, that end up being due to failing 12 volt. You'd think with all the smarts in the car IT should be able to diagnose this properly, once in a while...

 

I had something interesting today. My ev range has been dropping steadily or rather it has been dropping in steps. I was getting 11.5 miles then it dropped to 11.1 miles then to 10.7 miles and now it's down to 10.3 miles. Each time it stays around the same level for a few weeks then takes a dive down to the next lower level. I also noticed that the amount it was taking to charge the batteries seems to be dropping too. I decided to do a test today and so waited until the car switched to HEV then headed to a Chargepoint charger to get a full charge. I returned after about an hour and 40 minutes and the car showed a full charge and 10.3 miles of range. I went to check chargepoint and it says I used .124 KWhrs of energy. I know that can't be right because I've driven more that 124 watt hours would take me and I'm still showing lots of range on the estimated range.

I live in SoCal so it's not like I have to deal with cold weather. I drive a short distances in stop and go traffic and hardly every use heat or AC. Last time I tracked I found my actual miles were pretty close to estimated. I guess the fall off in range could be an Aux battery issue but the energy usage reported by Chargepoint just looks weird.

 

get thee to the dealer, and all the best.

 

The rest voltage should be no lower than 12.3 volts. If it's that or lower the battery is starved for power, and if it's below 12.5 it's still undercharged.

 

12-volt battery Open voltage at 68 °F (20 °C): Manual page 567
12.6 - 12.8 V Fully charged
12.2 - 12.4 V Half charged
11. 5 - 11.9 V Discharged
(Voltage is checked 20 minutes after the hysystem and all lights are turned off.)

 

Yesterday I drove home about .9 miles and today I drove 1.1 miles using .9 miles of the indicated range. That tells me the power used report from Chargepoint is not correct. I reported the issue to them but not sure if anything will come of it.

I was going to check my battery voltage but my Multi-meter is kaput so I will need to get a new one before I can do that.

 

Today I had a few spare minutes so I went back and checked my chargepoint reports. In January 2013 I was using around 2.8-2.9 KWhrs for a full charge. Around July this dropped down into the 2.7-2.8 range. Since november it appear to have been taking 2.6-2.7 Kwhrs although it did take 2.845 on Dec 4, My last full charge was recorded at 2.691 Yesterday. That was with battery depleted and HEV indicator showing seven bars out of 8 so almost full. I know there are several people who track energy usage so how does this compare to what you are seeing?

 

That's kinda scary! That shows a pretty marked decline. Do you take many measures to protect the longevity of the battery?

 

can you clarify? i'm not sure what you're saying here.

 

What I am saying is I drove a lot further than would be possible on the kilowatt hours reported by chargepoin

 

I don't do anything special but the car is rarely left parked in the sun and not often parked with the battery fully charged

 

you think driving 1.1 miles on .9 miles indicated is unusual?

 

How far into the HSI bar do you go when accelerating usually? And do you have to regen a ton when braking? What are your EV MPGe numbers like?

 

Sounds to me as problems in charging station reports rather than battery deterioration.
Do you have any means of comparing actual EV range these days compared to January 2013?
In regular trips, I can predict quite accurately when EV range is depleted or how much residual estimate will remain at end of trip.
If at all, I would expect longer actual EV range today compared to a year ago when car was new (breaking-in etc.)

 

What I think is unusual is driving 2 miles on .124 Kwhrs that chargepoint reported as how much energy my charge haf used. My whole point was that the chargepoint report was screwy.

 

I asked what others had seen since it does look like the chargepoint reports might be wrong. I have seen a drop in actual miles driven too and the estimates and actual have been pretty close most of the tim.

 

How close do you get to the power zone on the HSI while in EV? And do you brake pretty hard sometimes?