What do the "power settings" actually do?

Yeah that's what I do.

 

Blame the Climate Control. I asked my salesman because mine kept firing the ICE first thing every morning - it was WINTER at the time. He suggested scrolling the temp setting from 24C to whatever the lowest was (16 or 17 I think). Yep, that did it. It seemed that the ICE thought it was needed to warm the car up to 24C on a 12C morning, and was obliging. Scrolling down the the lowest setting is basically telling it "NOPE, don't bother, I want to be cool".

BUT - I had to do it before the ICE started - sometimes I could be quick enough in the morning, but it was far more reliable if I did it when I parked the night before.

The other thing which seems to make a difference now in Summer is to hit (OK, PRESS) the EV button immediately on Powering Up. If I've got more than 3 bars battery, it will run SNEAKILY on EV at least till I get out of my street and pick up pace.

 

That is definitely different than 3rd gen, which will always start engine when cold.

 

In the U.S. (and Canadian?) market, the ICE is going to fire up if the engine coolant temperature is below 68F / 20C. Parked overnight in my garage, that means it will fire up more than 350 mornings per year.

Other markets have a different temperature threshold.

 

I wonder why they'd make it different.

Mine has never started under those conditions here - as long as I've turned off the C/Control. Even yesterday (open carport), it was down to about 16C overnight and car hadn't been used for 38 hrs. In winter it's often down below 10 and the ICE doesn't start usually till I get to 38km/hr which isn't till I'm out of my street. And we don't use the cold-season oils like some parts of the world do.

 

QUOTE="alanclarkeau, post: 2453154, member: 142812"]I wonder why they'd make it different.[/QUOTE]
How does the traction battery warranty in your country compare to the U.S.warranty?

 

How does the traction battery warranty in your country compare to the U.S.warranty?[/QUOTE]
It's a NiNH with 8 yr/160,000km warranty - the rest of the car ONLY has 3 yrs/100,000km, one of the poorest in our market.

 

I think 4th Gen has changed the rules; there's lots of mentions here of engine not starting when cold.

Seems like the battery is being used more, hopefully not overtaxed.

 

Mine seems to fire up when cold. I have the climate control set at 72 F. I do not think my Two trim has the heating coil. The fan does not start until after the engine has run for a while, at least in Eco mode.

 

I should explain myself better. By "cold" I meant when the car's been shut down for an extended period, and the engine's cooled to ambient temperature. Say overnight. With 3rd gen, regardless of outside temperature, summer or winter, cabin heating settings: the engine will start, within a few seconds, at car start-up.

 

Mine seems to only start up in cooler weather.

 

Remember that post I put up about 5 months ago... Where I drove around the park in EV mode for about 5 miles? But I never exceeded 15 mph. The ICE never came on. The car had only been parked for a couple hours prior to that experiment, so maybe it wasn't completely cold.

 

I spaced that this thread was Gen4.

For my Gen3, with the 68F coolant threshold, 'cooler weather' is nearly all year round, except a week or two of July or August. In Mendel's climate, slightly more north, he may not even get that week or so of EV-friendly starting.

Most of the year, two hours isn't enough time to cool my Gen3 to below the threshold temperature. Depending on season, even 8 hours is not consistently enough. In your climate, ambient is often higher than that threshold so it never cools until the season changes.

But as Mendel pointed out, Gen4 also has different operating rules.

 

Yeah, it was just a one-time experiment for fun. Just to see how far/long I could go in EV without the engine kicking in.

Now days, all the fun experiments are over. Now I just drive the thing... Oddities and all. However, I have noticed that my gas mileage has gone down ever since I switched over to the "Normal" drive mode. What can I say, the white knight just likes PWR mode the best!

 

Maybe cooler weather? Or does that even happen in California?

 

It can get very cold in some parts of the state. Obviously, in the mountain elevations.
In my area, the coldest winter Temps I have ever seen was about 39. But just briefly in the morning, and only for a few days in January.

 

We watched a "The Making of Breaking Bad" video: it was an eye-opener, having watched high-noon, summer scenes in the shows, and then seeing behind the scenes: the principal actors bundled up in parkas before and after shootings.

 

Exteriors were filmed in New Mexico, colder than Southern California.

 

Yeah. Climate can be east/west as much as north/south. BB shot winter, snowed-in scenes locally, in the mountains.

I recall @bwilson4web was talking about a pending blizzard, and I thought, well he can't be at home in northern Alabama. But he was.

 

Try winding the temp setting to it's lowest before you park one night, and see if the ICE starts first up - also try hitting the EV button as you start up.