Total Range for the Prime?

Is this a code that's clearable with a ODBII scanner?

 

I meant leave charge in the battery from the beginning on those trips where you might run of out gas. You can still use the charge at the end of the trip if it turns out that the fuel tank is not going to run dry.

 

I had a chance to test how far Prime could run after the "low fuel" light comes on. I was on interstate and was 70 miles away from next service area when the gas light came on. At the time light came on, the drive range was still showing ~30 miles left and the gas gauge still had the last half bar. After driving 70 miles to gas station, there was no range left just showing "----", and there was no bar lit on the gauge. But presumably empty tank only took 10.238gal to fill it back up. So, there was still 1 gal of fuel left in the tank. I would think I could have driven at least another 50miles or more.

With my previous Gen3 Prius, my driving range on a full tank did not vary much from fill-up to fill-up, so the driven mile since last fill-up was a good indicator of when to stop for gas, but with PRIME daily charges and short trips I made on EV only makes the driven mile since last fill-up vary vastly. It would have been more useful if the driving range shows negative miles after reaching value zero.

 

After 12,707 miles, my "Blue Streaker" shows 559 and 32.7 on the two "miles remaining" indicators.
On my recent trip to WDW, I mapped out four (free) ChargePoints along the route, and used the handy dandy Charging Stations in Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot Center. I racked up the minimum charge of $1.50 each time I used one of them. I also found some in Orlando, at considerably higher cost (The electricity was free, but the parking charge was prohibitive.) I averaged about 40 MPH on the two major (859-mile, 24-hour) legs of the 2500-mile excursion, but the predominantly gasoline-fueled trip knocked my overall MPG down from 107 to 94 (ignoring the costs for grid-charging.) I only had to resort once to using ethanol-laced fuel (All the stations had nothing but "regular" due to the hurricane.) I am determined to feed my new car nothing but "pure" gasoline, if at all possible.
I also own a 2006 Prius with 300,000 miles under its belts (steel-belted radials). I have just recently changed its brakes, and had to replace the two rear struts when a chunk of spring popped out about 30,000 miles ago. I also have rebuilt its traction battery three times now (myself) and have added a grid charger to it, which will keep it cranking for a few more miles, at least.

 

Yep. I'm reasonably sure that somewhere in the range of 1.5 - 2.0 gallons of fuel remain in the tank when the low fuel alert comes on. I'm confident driving another 75 miles from the alert unless conditions are adverse to typical fuel economy.

 

I have run 60 miles beyond DTE at --- on flat straight freeway. I went 95 past DTE --- once and ran out of fuel with EV left to get me to Costco for fuel, but that was down a mountain so it does not tell an accurate story. I am now comfortable with testing the flat freeway range after DTE ---, and I hope to test it in the next few weeks.

If you have EV left, when you run out of fuel in HV mode, it will not go out of EV mode. No other indication. Based on fuel added to that tank, 11 gallons, the last .3 may not be usable.

 

Thanks. That's good to know. 11 gal to full tank is easier to remember than 11.3 gal. For all practical purpose, the tank if full with "10 gal" with 1 gal to spare.

 

Did you mean that when fuel runs out, the mode changes from HV to EV ?

 

Wow, I get nervous when I get below 1/8 of a tank. I would have been freaking out being on an interstate with a reported empty tank (let alone being 70 miles away from a gas station). Glad you all are doing this field research so I don't have to.

 

I would not be so happy if they were driving in front of me while they ran out of fuel.

 

Seems like most people do not like to drive behind me. Is that just me, or is it Prius thing??? LOL Luckily, on most interstate highway, there is an extra lane on my left for them to pass by.

 

Fortunately, the drivers behind me expressed no displeasure when my timing belt snapped on a previous car. (Its maintenance schedule did not call for timing belt replacement at any age or distance.) They would have had no clue what my problem was, other than the vehicle suddenly became disabled at full speed in the middle of a five-lane segment of interstate highway. They even cooperated quite well in letting me change lanes to glide to the shoulder.

Nor did I have a problem when the ignition module suddenly failed and went into a reduced power limp mode. Nor did sis have a problem when her timing belt snapped, on a surprisingly young, low mileage car. She was even able to change across all lanes, in heavier traffic, with enough glide speed remaining to roll up an exit ramp, through the interchange, and into a service station parking space.

I'd hope that your local traffic culture would be similarly cooperative to 'suddenly mechanically challenged' vehicles.

 

In CA that often results in a 10 to 12 car pileup.

I was not concerned with running out of gas. I have made that part of my drive on ev for 85 continuous miles before. 7000 ft elevation drop. I call it leveraging a mountain.

This was my first attempt at running all the way out of fuel, but I was not the first, bwilson4web did it first and documented it here.

 

More aggressive driving culture. Almost combat.

 

Just read this morning about a possible .40 cents national gas hike to pay for new roads/bridges, etc. Glad I drive a PRIME.

 

They can add that to our state proposed 7 cent gas tax due to budget crisis. Enjoying driving EV.

 

I am very grateful to all those SUV drivers. They pay so much gas tax... May they be fruitful and keep multiplying.

 

you do realize that MIchigan added an extra tax just for us EV users, right?

 

Now my state is joining a different bandwagon, looking at per-mile replacements for the gas tax.