PiP – the Marvelous Mountain Machine

Dude, you've got the best of both worlds. PiP sips gas and electricity. You also have a big cargo space and roomy interior.

 

That is excellent gas sipping on a road trip up and down the mountains!
Are you sure this was not hypermiling?

It's not so great at sipping electrons because of its short range and 3 season EV/ limited speed capabilities.

If the OP did not use any gas during his normal non-road trip driving would the great gas mileage make up for the difference in costs?

What about the 10k mile oil changes? Fun ! Regardless of the EV miles, correct?
What about the decreased power at altitude? Normal for any non-turbo gasser. The Volt has full power at any altitude,
right up until you deplete the battery that is...
How is a Pip at 8 - 14,000 feet of altitude? Especially after the little battery is depleted..

too late, you poked the other PHEV posters

 

I drive over Patchen Pass (1814 feet) on my commute to work, and love watching the battery charge on the downslope. Doing mostly highway driving and charging daily, I'm averaging 60 mpg when I fill up.

 

I've been to 10K+ ft with depleted battery (Tioga pass) and had no problems. Essentially, it works just like my other 3 previous Priuses did -- just fine. Actually, in the gen 1 Prius (year 2000 or so) I intentionally drove hard up hill and did get the "turtle icon" once on this road (down lower at the "old priest grade"). For those that don't know about the turtle icon -- the gen 1 displayed this when you had depleted the battery and it needed to run the ICE to recharge whether you currently needed the ICE or not.

But back then the Volt couldn't get out of the parking lot, since it didn't exist.

Mike

 

In the last 6 months, I've been averaging 4.4 miles per kWh. That's 148 MPGe from the wall, with charging loss taken account.

56 MPG on gas miles too. Love my PiP.

I am no hypermiler as it is an insult. I don't even make it to top 10 in the top20 MPGe thread.

 

> I'm not clear on what you are saying. Are you throwing away slightly used oil every 10k miles, regardless?

>>OK, the Serra's have one peak <100' higher than the Rockies highest peak !!

And the Prius engine may not lose power at altitude the way a typical ICE does due to it's ability to use the full 13.5:1 compression ratio when at high altitude. Still, it has less power at high altitudes.
The Volt does not, as long as it has a typical battery reserve. When it runs out of EV miles it becomes a hybrid just like the Prius only with the ability to be a series or parallel hybrid. Gen 2 sounds promising too, with even more drive modes.
And on the downhills it has a place to store all that regen power. And when the battery can accept no more regen it does motor to motor braking. The Prius gets hot brakes coming down Pikes Peak. The Volt does not.

iplug,
It sounds like the PiP is perfectly suited for your commute and your 3 season climate.
This is probably why it is a limited release car in areas with only 3 seasons, and HOV stickers.

 

My PiP has gone through 3 winters in NY/NJ. It did fabulously!

 

>Well technically it is the PiP's problem that it does not have the smarts to track oil usage and tell the driver when the oil needs changing. This is the owner's problem, and the planet's, when PiP owners throw away perfectly good oil

>>Well technically power loss is there, it is just delayed due to it using the high compression as required.

>>>Well technically I was talking about Hybrid mode only for both cars. The Volt has a bigger battery reserve than the PiP when operating as a 150 HP hybrid.

>>>> Well technically I am talking about using the thermal properties of the PiP brakes. If they are hot, they are being used up. Do you have an IR temp reader to confirm how hot they get? Plus you are zinging the engine in B mode. I've heard that with my '10 Prius. My Volt brakes warmed up 10° above air temp at the Park Ranger safety stop coming down Pikes Peak. My battery gained ~75% during the descent. I was told by the park ranger he sees hot Prius brakes and they get to sit in 'time out' just like other cars. I came down in silence, just using the brake pedal, which was only regen.

>>>>>I agree, we are technically just talking tech !

 

Volt wouldn't be efficient climbing mountains below 45 mph. It's transmission will need to decouple the clutch and run it in series mode. All ICE power would have to be converted to electricity.

PiP has 72% of ICE torque at the wheels at all time.

 

Unless its battery is depleted, then it's 100% ICE, correct?
Except for minor transaxle loss.
Same with both cars. There is no longer any hybrid assist, correct?
Only the PiP is way faster than a Volt at that point. At least the current generation.
This is all high altitude, top of the mountain driving we are talking about, of course.

 

Can only get better. According to this article, "Look for regen improvement in Gen IV Prius".

 

I'm not sure about the exact figures, but the Volt has to convert all the motive power the engine generates into electricity and then back to motive power. A Prius splits this via the transmission, with some power going straight to the wheels (more efficient) and the rest doing the same as the Volt, which is way better for mpg.

 

I was under the impression that the PiP does all it can to keep the hybrid portion of the Lithium battery in a middle state of charge for use in blended mode? When EV miles are depleted there is still the 'hybrid' part that stays alive to assist the gasser?

 

Yes. The reserve is there once depleted.

 

I must dispute this. The mechanical limits of the variable intake valve system won't allow it to get anywhere near 13.5 compression ratio.

I have done Pikes Peak, or at least the portion up to Devil's Garden, where the road was closed that day due to upper level snow.

Regen topped out the HV almost immediately on the way down, then I caught up with earlier traffic. B-mode was then almost useless due to the slow traffic speed. Cars ahead were downshifted to gears appropriate for them, but too slow for my B mode to spin up to substantial engine braking speeds. (B did provide some braking, but not nearly enough to prevent ramming the cars ahead.) The short view distances made safe passing impossible, so my only choices were to ride the friction brakes, and/or take turnouts to let the traffic get ahead. The later also allowed the brakes to cool, and me to run the next section at higher speed with more engine braking until catching back up to the leading traffic. Of course, if I waited too long, that empty gap would be taken by the next slow traffic bunch.

 

Are you talking about a standard Prius here, or a Plug-In? It takes a couple of thousand feet of drop fill a depleted Plug-In battery.

 

Well, I'm going to say Pikes Peak is a four-teener, right? (14K feet plus). I remember my old Jeep just gasping on that trip! But I have evolved from that bucket of smelly/polluting bolts...