Wish list for next generation Prius Plug-in

The remote A/C only requires that the traction battery not be depleted, and that the temperature in the car be above the A/C temperature setting. I think that the idea is that if you expect to be back to your car in a few minutes and want to cool it down, you can use this feature.

What does "IoT mantra" mean? Sorry, I am not up on all of these shorthands.

 

Entune is not available in EU models.

 

Sorry, talking shop. Internet of Things. The idea that increasingly, things will have IP addresses and communicate with other things. It is a trend that started long ago:

I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20 years ago. When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, "Where are they all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!"
Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors.
There was a computer in every doorknob.
- Danny Hillis

Today, the darlings are Nest and dropcam, but the basic idea is that there are real advantages to having "smart" devices. The energy savings of a Prius is dwarfed by having lights that aren't on when they aren't needed and cooling systems that don't push heat the wrong way. It trades on the 'network effect' -- that having devices able to talk to each other provides emergent properties that one couldn't have predicted from the individual elements. Having more information available about my car means I might figure out new things to do with it -- from helping me understand how the engine works and improving efficiency, to helping me plan maintenance efforts, to even potentially integrating with other activities (e.g. if the House computer figures out that I've got 30 minutes between appointments, the car just finished charging, and the refrigerator reports the eggs need replacing... and notes from the web that the Giant Eagle 3.2 miles away is running a discount.)

Telematics good, but more knowledge is better. You know, "Knowing is half the battle. The other half is red and blue lasers."

 

Thank you for clarifying the term. I work in the same "shop" (since graduate school in Computer Science in 1972), but I am not always up on the latest TLAs. (Pun here: TLA is a three letter acronym for the phrase "Three Letter Acronym".) BTW, I have a Nest thermostat. Just waiting for the ads to start popping up on it now that Google bought the company.

 

I would like to see a "charge limit" setting to go along with the timer. I do mostly short trips, great for the PiP, but I live on a hill. Hence, I have to use Neutral (and use some friction braking) for much of the hill so the ICE won't turn on and ruin my mileage for the short trip which would otherwise be all EV. I believe a setting of 75% max SOC would be perfect for my situation.

 

Nissan used to a setting on the Leaf to limit the charge to 85% SOC. But they had to take that setting into account when stating the EV range, so they got significant jump in their advertised EV range by disabling that option. What always charging to 100% SOC will do to battery life in the long term remains to be seen, but that won't be the current management's problem....

 

Doesn't Nissan have to give the same guarantee for battery life as for the PiP in California?

 

"Neutral", is not actually neutral. The engine remains connected to the drive-train at all times. When you coast downhill in "N" the MG1 motor has to run in reverse to keep the engine stopped. Much better to coast in "B" so that the engine can provide some braking, instead of relying on friction braking.

 

That doesn't work. I started down the hill at SOC 84.7%, shifted into B. The ICE started rotating. As soon as the SOC hit 85.3% the ICE started using gas. At the bottom of the 1.3 miles mostly downhill (some level and small uphill) the mpg was 123 and the SOC was still 85.0% whereas using Neutral no gas is burned for the complete 1.3 miles and the mpg is 999. Now I have a further problem, the ICE has started but not warmed up so I really should keep it going until it reaches temperature, definitely not a good plan for an all EV trip.

 

If there's no place for the energy to go when your battery is full, it has to consume power to slow you down. I'd say if you start a trip already flush with energy, don't sweat it. The Prius isn't designed for engine-off, all-EV driving. The ICE must run occasionally for the system to operate properly.

 

Occasionally is defined in the manual as at least every 124 miles. I generally go about 30 to 40 EV only miles before a trip that requires gas. When I do use gas I always make sure the ICE is up to operating temperature for at least 5 minutes. I believe that is exactly what the PiP is designed for. Since I live on a hill I have to use Neutral to start an all EV trip of 10 miles or so. Since the ICE is "happy" to not run at 60 mph (it starts at 62 mph) going down long hills I don't imagine that Neutral at 40 mph for a mile once a day should be a problem.

Having said all that... it would be nice if I could set the charging to stop at SOC 75% - 80% so I could recover a little bit of the energy I used getting up the hill. It would really be nice to be able to select a SOC % that closely matched to what can be generated going down my hill. Then I wouldn't have to do the small amount of friction braking presently required.

 

The required warranty period is the same (10 years, 150K miles, I think); the question is: exactly what is being warrantied. The Toyota warranty has all sorts of fudge language saying that diminished capacity is not warrantied. As the Toyota warranty is written, it seems that it could degenerate all the way down to the capacity of the standard Prius, and Toyota would say: no failure, no claim. I don't know how Nissan's warranty is written.

 

Blah, struggling with the charge timer...
My driving pattern is very irregular and adjusting the timer all the time is painful. If charge timing is really that important (the owner's manual states this on several occasions, PiP FAQ has a topic on that too), I wish setting the timer was more user friendly:

1. +/- buttons to change timer in both directions. Making an almost 24hrs round trip when changing timer back is frustrating.
2. There are two timer modes now: START and END (absolute). How about adding two more:
   1. Relative Start - you can use to delay charging by an hour or a two to allow cold soak
   2. Relative End - when you can estimate pretty good how long your errand will take (meeting, movie, theatre etc.) and want to have your batteries charged and warmed up precisely on time.

 

Improve seats.
Cargo space cover has different height positions, just like seat belts have it adjustable. Lots of cargo will be too tall for the shades to close properly with current setup.
Different trim levels other then base/advance. Or make more options available on the base version.

 

25 mile battery

 

Yeah, more range.
And maybe winter EV heat, with remote pre-heating/cooling from an app.

Baby it's cold outside...

 

I don't even care about electric heat, just give me an electrically defrosted windshield.

 

Toyota should avoid resting on their laurels and falling into complacency as Apple has, since they introduced the iPhone. Recently, any objective comparison between the iPhone and it's competitors ranks it as under-featured and over-priced.

 

and wildly popular.

 

Some call it "Apple-Religion." I tend to be a bit of an agnostic with regard to technology myself.