Gen 3 owners with 45 mpg+ Question

There are so many factors in when it engages the engine that it is very difficult to tell. However, if you really want good MPG, the car is doing you a favor here. It’s most efficient to use the gas engine when accelerating because it operates most efficiently under heavier load. When you want it off is when the car is maintaining speed or stopped and you’re getting an inefficient use of the gas engine. This is because the prius is not a BEV, you’re going to use the gas engine every time you drive unless you’re moving from one parking spot to another in the same lot - might as well do that when the engine can be used most efficiently.

 

The driver has to want to learn.

The driver has to learn from the prius.

The driver has to already be good at driving


I can use the HV battery alone for miles at any speed I want and keep the ICE off

It all depends how hard you push on the pedal, you can keep it going with just your big toe.

Also your HV battery has to be good.

I have one from Dr. prius, you can find the link on my profile Project Lithium.

 

don't we need to see the power bar to figure about how hard you're pressing the go pedal?

mine comes on when it passes the center (ev/hv) line

 

That would take away our spectaculations and this thread will only last one page.

 

ICE kick really depends on how strong your hybrid battery is.

 

That’s it

 

ICE will engage…

If battery drops below X value.
If coolant temp drops below X value.
If speed is over 45 mph (hot standby mode).
If input from pedal requires more torque than the electric motor is designed/programmed to provide.

 

Theres no point though. The ICE will kick off up to 45mph if all of the operating conditions are met. Driving in EV mode just gives you worse gas mileage unless you're just scooting up to a stop light. Its really more to keep the engine off so you can coast without it on here and there.

 

"Driving in EV mode just gives you worse gas mileage"????
I believe the opposite is true..... In EV mode the engine is off.

 

lmao i sense the point you are making. The point im making though is on tank averages using EV mode on purpose heavily lowers tank averages. Better to use the battery as above.

 

??? If you use the battery, you are not burning gas. How does that lower "tank averages"?
Do you understand what "EV" means? That means using the battery, not fuel.

 

This is the gen 3 forum, not a Plug-In Prius forum or a Prime forum.

If you had a Plug-In Prius, or a Prime, there could be energy in your battery that came from a wall socket, instead of from gasoline.

If you have a regular Prius, there is not one joule of energy in your battery that didn't get there by burning gasoline. If you regen'ed coming down a hill, gasoline took you up the hill. If you regen'ed slowing down from speed, gasoline took you up to speed. (Or you used some battery energy that got there from gasoline burned earlier.) And the rest of the energy in there came from the engine straight-up burning gasoline to charge the battery.

So, in a regular Prius, you don't move an inch in EV mode that gasoline wasn't burned for. And you're using that energy less efficiently, because conversion losses were paid when it went into the battery and again when it came out.

The car can manage that energy more efficiently when it just does what it does, and a portion of the power goes mechanically from the engine to the wheels without having to be taxed going into the battery and out again.

 

Do you understand what "EV" means? We all know what Electric Vehicle mode means. What do you think charges the battery? The car is powered by gas. Even though you think EV mode doesn't burn gas it does indirectly burn gas, yes.
I'm saying the energy can be better used and leads to higher mpg tank averages if you don't lean on using EV mode incessantly. It also will more than likely lead to a longer battery life over the years.
The regen brakes are around 60% efficient so if you just coasted more often and used regen less often when possible of course you could make better use of the energy. So another example would be instead of using EV mode and wasting the energy, use it to keep the engine off longer on coast and to supply energy for the bump starts as it would be more efficient.
Regen is nice when you need to stop quick though and ev mode is better used for scooting up in bumper to bump traffic at stop lights and parking lots etc...
Also, I'm not trying to be a dick here but you should think about how rude your comments come off sometimes. I know i catch myself needing to not be a rude **** sometimes as well. I think the internet and not seeing a person face to face just kinda dehumanize the interaction for us so we don't feel the need to talk like a normal human being sometimes.

 

The battery does NOT use gasoline. The engine does. EV does not charge the battery.
The engine burns the fuel to run the generator that charges the battery.
EV is designed into the car to be used. The car is designed to know the best way to charge
the battery.
Sorry you get so offended when corrected. But that souonds like a personal problem, not mine.

 

In this case yes using EV mode uses gas. So you should lower that tone when you speak to me, boy.

 

Paladain55 and ChapmanF are correct. The energy generated into the battery comes from gasoline. Either the engine sends power to the battery or the regenerative braking system does, but both of these systems suffer energy loss during the transfer. If you are under heavy load, it’s much more efficient for the engine to run the car directly than it is to charge the battery with loss heavy processes. This isn’t an EV where you have the option of using electricity you got from plugging it in also.

It is better for the Prius to use EV when the engine load is light and a lot of the minimum overhead for running the gas engine is unneeded and wasteful, such as coasting or at a stoplight.

All of this would be a different conversation if the car had a plug like the prime or if the engine was just a generator and couldn’t move the car physically like some of the BMW models.