New to PiPs having battery issues

Could also just be life, it happens. And sometimes it happens a LOT.

 

The inverter doesn't wear out any more than a computer power supply wears out. It works until a part fails. Inverter failures are extremely rare. And a failure would be sudden and throw a trouble code. And if it fails, I don't know of a way it could fail and the car still be drivable.

To figure out whether it's an electrical load or a mechanical load, see if another Gen 3 Prius owner (doesn't have to be a PiP) will try coasting beside you in neutral in a big parking lot to compare how far the cars will coast. If yours is noticeably shorter, that could indicate some kind of mechanical drag.

On the electrical side, you could look at the amps being pulled by the various systems using either tech stream or one of the many phone apps out there and compare it to another Prius.

These are just general troubleshooting approaches and not specific instructions since I've never had to deal with this situation. You're kind of running through the tall grass here, but there are troubleshooting principles that apply to all situations.

 

Lots of good suggestions here, for what seems to be an extraordinary and rare situation. As a ‘14 owner, here are my thoughts:

1. If it is drawing ~2.7KW on a charge, that sounds about normal, and in fact quite healthy compared to mine. When I got mine in 2016, it usually drew about 2.7 on the ChargePoint, but that has slowly eroded to about 2.4 now with age. However, my range has only reduced by the same ~10%, now tracking about 15.5-16km on a charge, where it used to register 17-18km. So I am not really concerned about the couple extra pennies of gas, as long as the battery doesn’t outright fail.
2. Have you had it hooked up to a diagnostic machine to test for anything abnormal, in particular the HV battery health?
   
3. A 3-mile EV range does sound impossibly low to be accurate (even with the heaviest and most wasteful driving possible), there has to be something wrong, whether the battery or otherwise.
4. Sounds like you have tried all the usual things (brakes, tires, oil & fluids, etc), have you checked the 12v? Do you have any other 12v accessories plugged in that could be drawing some huge amount of energy? (Unlikely for sure, but this is a strange one, so you never know…)
5. Have you cleaned the HV fan (near the back seat), or know if it has ever been cleaned? Maybe the battery is overheating and dumping energy or deactivating or something (complete guess…).

I think the best idea would be to find a hybrid specialist to do a full analysis of the vehicle to figure out what’s going on. Seems there are some affordable options to replace the HV battery if needed, but I would try to exhaust everything else before going that path. As others mentioned, there has been very few (if any?) known failures of PiP batteries, so nobody really knows if it will behave the same as the regular Prius or differently, which makes it hard for us to diagnose if this is in fact what is happening here…

Good luck!

 

If the traction battery temperature is high, the charge and discharge current limits will be increased, so usage of the battery could be restricted. Inverter and MG temperatures could have an impact on these limits too. Something like an OBD2 Bluetooth scanner with Hybrid Assistant will allow you to monitor/log temperatures and the charge/discharge current limits.

 

What he said.

Thanks for the comment and clarification, it certainly sounds like there is something abnormal going on, that will need a proper diagnostic scan to pin down, and we over the interwebs will not be able to confirm…