Hello Everyone! Went for a quick drive for about 15 minutes and the car never seemed to get out of the warm up period. I had no EV available, the battery was charged to normal limits when I started. I would expect this in cold temps but this is south florida in the summertime!!! AC was blasting but the battery level never wavered from the normal full setting of two bars empty. I normally get 40+ MPG on this drive and I only got 29 MPG because the ICE was running the entire trip. Specs 2015 Prius V 9000 miles Any Ideas!!????
test your 12v battery. do you carry any pets? hv battery might have been overheated from sitting in the sun.
In cool or cold weather, the engine on 3rd gen Prius can be predictably turned off/on, say at a red light after a bit of warm-up, by turning the cabin temperature up down/up, when it's cool out. The threshold's around 21.5~22.0C: go above that, engine starts up; drop below it, engine shuts down again . It seems there's programing that's saying, if you're asking for more heat than some threshold, it's going to keep the engine running. Maybe something similar is happening with a high AC demand?
Were you running in ECO mode or one of the other modes? I believe ECO mode does a much better job of managing the engine with the AC in use.
I've noticed the same thing in 2 different hybrids. My best explanation is that the engine isn't working hard enough to make much heat. Also in warm weather you often do manage to coast more which cools the ICE. I'll also add that it doesn't seem to make any difference in MPG. I suspect that the Gen-4 cars with active louvers might avoid this quirk.
Drove the car this morning on the same route and it was completely normal. The car warmed up for about a minute then it was normal Prius driving. I do this drive most days, so it was extremely unusual for me to drive 15 minutes without the electric motor working at all (it is all stop and go traffic). I hope the combination of high, heat and humidity just caused a fluke. Thank you for all of the replies!
ECO mode for the drivetrain with Auto mode for the HVAC. Then see what happens. I consider the ICE on in the first 100 yards to be it trying to get the HVAC to cool down the interior. The car has been sitting in a garage but with temperatures at 80 on wakeup. (Or heat up the interior in winter.) Now if the HVAC was off..... I'm 99.8% of the time in both ECO and Auto and get spot on EPA figures for 33k of mixed driving. My local trips are generally 7-10 miles before stopping. But half the mileage has been 50 miles of more at highway speeds of 65-70. My first mile is at 25-30 MPH due to local limits.
I've mentioned it to the dealership when going in for service, they tell me engine oil temperature has to be at a certain temperature for the EV system to turn on. I don't know enough to be sure it's the case, or just an easy thing to say to customers. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
