Hi everyone, I have been enjoying my new Prime for over 2 months mainly in sub 0C temperatures. I am curious about the Auto EV drive mode. How and when to use it ? Does it take into account the outside temp or heating needs to decide to turn on the ICE to get the inside cosy more rapidly. Are there other benefits
I never use EV Auto Mode on my PP. AFAIK, the temperature or heat setting does not change the engine starting behavior in EV Auto mode compared to EV mode. That is, if you use either EV Auto or EV mode in temp below 14F (-10C) with the heat on, then the ICE will start. For all practical purposes, EV Auto mode behaves exactly the same as EV mode for my driving habit. That is, pure EV mode will stay on until the EV range depletes then it will switch to HV mode. Theoretically, in EV Auto mode, the car starts the engine when it requires more power like going uphill or quickly accelerating in a merging highway, but I have not experienced any of those situations in my normal daily drives.
Thanks for your reply , As for heating the PP behaves like you say. Not sure I will use the EV Auto Mode with my driving habits. BTW I have another question regarding the normal and power mode. Does the power mode pull more energy from the battery than normal mode or does it only remap the curve of the response of the accelerator pedal. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
AFAIK, it is just remapping. There are a quite few threads on this topic debating the nature of Power mode. And some people claim that the Power mode does indeed accelerate quicker than Normal mode with peddling floored. But personal impression aside, most facts seem to indicate that it is just a throttle remapping effect. For me, that is a moot question. I have been happy with ECO mode ever since I started with the Gen3, and have never switched out of that mode in my PP. EDIT: Here is an example of thread discussing the Power Mode 2017 Prime, Differences for Eco, Normal, and Power? | PriusChat
AutoEV is pretty useless. We have one route that has hills to climb where AutoEV runs the engine instead of battery operation up hill. The route is beyond the battery endurance, and on this one route AutoEV gives us slighly lower gas consumption--it saves some battery power for the lighter load sections. Otherwise AutoEV makes no difference. Yes, PWR mode gives more scoot for the same push of the accelerator pedal. We only use it for freeway driving when we may want to quickly slip into a gap in traffic.
I wouldn't say useless. Try merging onto a crowded freeway moving at 70 mph in EV mode, and you'll find the lack of power is scary. You need the car to be in EV Auto or Hybrid mode for such a scenario.
I make use of it every work day (I have a 160km drive each way, with available charging at each end). The terrain is half flat and half very hilly. It makes a modest difference on the way to work (half flat first) but a noticeable difference on the return trip. It works best in conjunction with the dynamic cruise control. I’ve had my car 11 months and I’m already at 43000+ km, so I’ve tried many variations on a theme, so to speak. But I’m happy to have the feature on my Montreal to Sherbrooke runs.
