Any advantage to having EV charge when running with ICE?

Certainly, there is an benefit. You can see that in the instantenous fuel economy meter. Just be aware, there is hardly any fuel economy benefits while the engine is cold. Obviously, its warming up to provide you heat but you won't lose any EV either. Once warmed up you'll start seeing 50+ mpg where under HV, you'd much lower.

 

there are only three advantages to plugging in anytime:
1) you live where kWh are cheaper than gas
2) you live where kWh are cleaner than gas
3) you enjoy ev more than engine.
if any of these work for you, plug in as much as possible.

 

There is advantage as the battery is used up as when when ICE is warming up or providing cabin heat.

Your overall MPG will be higher than if you don't charge.

 

If you are going to use the ICE, I personally would just put the car in HV and drive to force the engine on, and park until it cycles through whatever warm up stage for a few minutes before I actually start driving.

This is the stage where the car floods the engine with fuel (poor economy, it is for emissions).

Driving in that mode will give really poor gas mileage, that is why I just park it for a while.


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Heat in the car comes from the coolant, which is heated with waste energy from the engine. Not a lot of direct energy cost there. If you want to speed up the warm-up, turn off the blower until the coolant temp is 115F or so. Parking during warm-up will kill your mileage, since the engine will be running at 0mpg. When you run on the battery, the engine cools off since it is not running and the engine will come on around 115F to warm the coolant. This is more of an issue with the plug-in, of course. Even in winter with air temps around 20F, I can still get 40-45mpg during warm-up...much better in warm weather, of course.

 

? You'll get even worse fuel economy by just parking. 10 mpg during warm up is better than 0 mpg not moving.

 

But when you're driving around while the ICE is warming up, the warm up takes much longer. In (so cal) cold weather, I've had warmups that took like 5 minutes while moving. Nowadays, if I know the ICE is going to start while I'm moving, I'll hit the HV button while at a stop light. That gives me about 1-2 min of warmup without cold air blowing through the radiator and engine bay.

 

There's no way sitting in place with the engine running is advantageous to moving, while warming up. A pure waste of gas.

On the few occasions I'm forced into the scenario, say engine still warming, stuck at a red light, I'm almost nauseated, watching the trip mpg dropping like a rock on my Scangauge.

 

Engine warm up is always faster driving than while idle. If you're talking about cabin warm up, sure, maybe in a snowy climate. SoCal? I think we'll have to disagree either way. I'm in colder NorCal and it is nowhere near cold enough where idle would warm up faster than in motion.

I purposely do the opposite of what you describe. If I know there is a long stretch before I hit the red light and I don't have enough EV anyway, I press the HV button early to force the car to warm up while in motion and therefore decrease or eliminate the time it sits idling at a red light.

 

When the engine is warming up coolant is not flowing through the radiator.

 

Start quote:

"the ignition timing is very late, after the top dead center. therefore the engine does not have enough power to drive Prius or charge battery.
basically, Prius can not use the engine power when you drive. Prius is driven by battery power and the battery is discharged.
it is good idea to drive slowly or stand still warming up in this stage."

End quote.





Source:


Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat


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But you still have the cooling effect of air passing through the engine compartment.

I would agree that moving with the ICE running could be more advantageous to sitting stationary while warming up, but only under the condition that the ICE is under load. My first few miles leaving home is mostly downhill and lower speeds. Warm up time is definitely longer if I'm cruising down the hill versus just sitting in the my driveway warming up. With any juice left in the battery and driving in ECO, putting load on the ICE requires a decent amount of pedal pressure.

The issue with getting 0 MPG versus, say 10 or 20 MPH while moving is purely a function of you moving (miles). You're not consuming any more gas while sitting stationary with the ICE running (during warmup) versus moving (you're actually most definitely using less gas). But whether you put that extra gas to use (under load) to warm up the engine faster is the difference.

From my own anecdotal evidence, FWIW, allowing the ICE to come on when it needs to and parking in my driveway versus me starting the ICE at a stop light (usually with about 1-2mi of EV left) is the difference, for me, of about ~160 MPG versus ~180 MPG over a 13 mile drive from work to home and a net gain of 600ft of elevation. Splitting hairs, I know.. but hey, thats what we do here, right?

 

Interesting read. I stand corrected. Idle 50 seconds after start up before moving for best fuel economy. Although, reading all 5 pages, not everyone is convinced this actually provides the best fuel economy. Only way is to test it. It probably won't be an improvement for me as my work and driveway are all on inclines so that I will be coasting longer than 50 seconds by the time I need acceleration. That and I have a PiP so warm up can happen anywhere.

Edit: I just noticed what I wrote is again completely opposite of what Tracksyde wrote the post above.

 

Eh, in the grand scheme of things, it doesnt matter a whole lot.. and when we talk about it, everyone's situation is different, somehow.

For me, over 13 miles, the difference between 160MPG and 180MPG is 1 ounce of gasoline, hahah. I shouldn't care.. but I do. Sometimes I feel that if I drove a regular Prius, I'd be happier and more carefree about MPGs.. but with my commute being right on the edge of achievable EV range, I can't stop caring about maximizing pure EV range and minimizing gas usage.

 

Same here, I crack the windows open to avoid defroster usage even if its raining. I use the floor and windshield setting if it gets fogged up real bad. I never turn on the heat until I run out of EV. I do all this to save a few ounces of fuel. At my 69 mpge average, it only accounts for a fraction of an mpg.

 

Today gas is so cheap! Why bother it may cost more to charge it!

 

Depends on where you live.

Us californian's still pay $3.00 per gallon for gas while I always hear on the news about gas being $1.50 somewhere in the United States.




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And even apologists for the oil companies cannot come up with explanations. Usually, it is breakdowns at the handful of refineries that make the unique California low-emission blend, or those refineries being offline for scheduled maintenance. What we are left with is that the prices are a dollar or more per gallon higher than in other states because "they can".

 

I paid $2.22 a gallon at a Costco in San Jose. Los Angeles appears to be getting screwed right now, when it's usually the opposite and the Bay Area has higher gas prices.

As to letting the car warmup or not, I stopped stressing a long time ago about maximizing my EV miles and MPG. This because I have a 45 mile commute each way, and I start out on a hill heading upwards, so my gas engine is coming on no matter what. I'd rather have heat in the car and be comfortable than to obsess over getting every last bit of juice in EV mode.