Pre Warm/Cool Cabin From Key Fob - 2022 Prime LE

If it's plugged in or has at least 10% charge the fob button will start pre conditioning at your last setting.

It only runs on EV. It will not start the gas engine.

It'll run for 10min

Since it will only heat using the heat pump it will only work down to -10C (14F).

All Prime trims have the remote ac button on the fob.

An aftermarket remote starter can start the gas engine if it's too cold or the EV battery isnt charged. BUT for safety, the prime will NOT go into ready mode if plugged into the EVSE so a remote starter won't help of you're keeping the prime plugged in while at work or home. If you're going outside to unplug the EVSE just to use a remote starter, you might as well start the car at that time. Could be useful at work so you aren't leaving the car on and ready to drive... But you're still braving cold to do it.

 

The pack has a warmer and will run automatically when plugged in. All you have to do is make sure it is enabled. That works well for maximizing battery use even during the coldest days (here in Minnesota). The gas-engine doesn't need it, since you have such a massive battery for starting.

 

My reply was about how to enable rapid warming, since the engine must still be started. A warmed pack helps, but it cannot change the laws of physics. A heat-pump operates by extracting energy from the air. At -11C there isn't much available. Above that, melting stuff on the windshield works fine with just electricity remotely. And yes, I would hit the button a second time for that.

 

Probably a mix of not wanting owners to asphyxiate from carbon monoxide poisoning by running a gas engine in their attached garage and not wanting them driving off with the EVSE still attached and starting house fires. I'm not sure what their real reasoning is but those are often cited as to why they don't allow the car to go into Ready Mode while attached to the EVSE.

The Prime is pretty good about not allowing the battery pack to get into a deep cold state where it can't start. We get some pretty cold winters too and even -32C/-27F my prime fired up fine even when left unplugged at an outdoor work parking lot all day. Plugged in it uses a few extra Kw to keep the battery pack warm.

But those are to keep the battery and engine warm enough to function...They won't help warm the cabin. The remote climate only runs the electric heat pump and that's only rated to about -10C/14F. Even so, as you get closer to those temperatures it isn't very effective. I found losing a mile or so of range wasn't really worth the still cold cabin. Typically when it is that cold the gas engine fires up regardless how full the EV battery is - it'll warm the cabin and continue cycling back on to keep up operating temperatures. It's pretty hard to get a full drive in EV even if you have the range in those temperatures...but I think reducing wear on the engine and being able to feel my appendages outweighs the disappointment in having to use gas.

 

Here's a starter video from my collection of cold temperature driving...

 

Just to be clear, the remote A/C and the climate pre-conditioning are two different things but achieve similar results. The remote A/C using the fob can be used with or without the charging cord attached as long as the traction battery has sufficient charge in it. It only works within the distance the fob can send the signal. The previous setting on HVAC is the only setting you can use with the fob, so you have to make sure that HVAC is set to the desired temp and setting before exiting the car. If your Toyota App is working (not sure how it works in the Canadian version though), you can enable the remote A/C using the phone app remotely as long as the car is connected to an internet signal via its telemetric. With the app, if it is working you have the ability to modulate the temperature setting remotely.

The climate-preconditioning is a feature enabled by the scheduled charging session. You program the scheduler with the climate preconditioning to turn on immediately before the departure time you set. In this case, the charge used from the traction battery can be replenished from the wall especially if it is connected to L2. But on 120v L1, it is usually not replenished quickly enough such that either you will have less than 100% SoC or the charging session will take longer than scheduled.

In both cases, the HVAC only runs for 10 min. For the remote A/C, you can repeatedly run this 10min session with expenses of more traction battery energy. It will never start the engine, all the cooling and heating is done by the heat pump only. Thus for heating purposes, it is very ineffective at low temperatures. Below 14F (-10C), it does nothing to warm up the cabin. Although, I have read peopoe who live in a very cold climate that both remote A/C and climate-preconditioning work to warm up the cabin and thaw the windshield ice. I have found in my region (northern NE) neither functions do anything to warm up the cabin or thaw the ice in cold morning when I need to use the feature the most. I have totally abundant use of neither function as they are totally a waste of energy in the traction battery.

 

My understanding is that a block heater would make the engine to reach the operation temperature quicker, thus in the very cold days when the hybrid system can not work on EV mode, it makes it easier to heat up the cabin from the engine heat. In today's car, especially in PP with very thin 0W-16 oil, I would think an engine block heater is not needed to start up the engine. But my experience of the coldest temperature is about -26F (-32C) with my PP. I had my PP park outside without a charging cable attached and the traction battery heater function disabled, but it still started fine after two days of cold soaking. If the engine block heater comes standard then it won't hurt, but just make sure you have enough AMP on your circuit to plug the engine block heater and 120v EVSE if they are on the same circuit.

 

Expanding on Sals post above #15 The Block Heater does help a lot if you give it at least a couple hours to warm the block and oil before driving. It works all the way up to temps in the 10 C / 50 F. The block heater only uses around 500 watts, so it's not a big draw on any normal household circuit, but the EVSE is a big draw and should have it's own 15 Amp circuit (with nothing else being used on that circuit while charging the car).

Enhancing the block heater with grille block when temps are below 0 C / 32 F will shorten the warmup cycle even more. But you should use an app like Hybrid Assistant to monitor ICE and Inverter coolant temps when using grille block at any temps above the freezing mark.
Obviously, don't ever forget you're using grille block when day / night temps bounce around, it can produce some strange behavior, especially at highway speeds when coolant gets warmer than the ECU expects it to be compared to what it (the ECU ) sees as the outside temp..
No worries using it (grille block) below the freezing point from my experience.

 

Doesn't an automatic grille shutter do this already? Or, are you saying completely shut the grille closed?

 

Just what I said.
I'll repeat, Grille Block also helps, especially at temps below freezing, but others as well.

 

Sorry, but I still don't get it. I am asking if your Grille Block is something other than the automatic grille shutter function or not. Is there an additional benefit if I manually block the grille, or letting the car do the thing good enough?

 

Sorry too. I know exactly what your asking. If the details are not within your liking, no one said you have to use it or know how it works.