when will the ice kick in during acceleration

The less you accelerate with the batteries, the better mileage you'll get.

The green batteries symbolizes the charge level
it'll turn different colors based on how full or empty the batteries are. look at the number of bars on the battery, you'll see it'll have different colors based on how many bars it has.


And to answer your question: the ice will kick in unless you wanna accelerate really slowly. That's what its designed to do for optimum mpg. Second-guessing the programming will only hurt your mpg.

 

Really slowly is probably the throttle position you have to push so the engine doesn't come on while the charge is blue

Normal is any position after as soon as the ICE turns on + a little bit extra to eliminate it directing most of the electricity to the batteries instead of to the electric motors. Approx 1300rpm and up to approx 2400 rpm. Any higher and it'll probably be wasting gas due to pumping losses as well as the adjustment of fuel injection for more power instead of efficiency.

Just accelerate at the same speed of traffic. Just don't purposely go slower so the engine doesn't come on. Because after awhile, the prius WILL FORCE the engine to come on at the SLIGHTEST push of the accelerator.


Heres why using the battery is bad:

Energy is lost converting mechanical energy into electric, then chemical energy, and then back into electrical and then back into mechanical.

Think about it: the electricity comes from GAS. Converting gas to mechanical, then to electric, then to chemical, then back into electric, and then finally back into mechanical is even less efficient then simply leaving all those other conversions out and just use gas into mechanical energy LIKE IT WAS DESIGNED TO DO.

The whole point of the battery is to capture BRAKING ENERGY: Which is the energy that would otherwise be LOST in the brake pads and converted to useless heat.

 

Install an EV switch.

 

That's normal, depending on how low the battery is. Whats the color of the battery? purple? red? Blue?

Battery power accelerates ~three or five times as fast as creeping.


If you really wanna figure this out, get/borrow a scangauge so you can tell exactly how much energy is coming from the battery.

 

J_w73,

There is significant difference in the greater EV acceleration you can
get with an EV mode switch. If you already drive gently, it feels like
gentle ICE use and its easy to forget you're using EV mode and run the
HV battery down to the red/magenta bars. In stop and go driving it
takes a really long time to get back to 5-6 blue bars. At 65+ it
wouldn't take so long, but in both cases the recharge has a big MPG
hit.

I've got an EV mode switch, but I've gotta say that I hardly use it
any more. The conversion losses in energy going from ICE to HV
battery and then on to MG1 to power the car just kill your FE/MPGs.

FWIW, you can quickly drop out of EV mode at any speed or SOC
(HV battery) level with a quick, half-throttle punch on the go-pedal.

You don't seem particularly concerned about maxing your FE/MPGs, so
you just might be one of the rare cases/people where heavy EV use
and the attendant FE/MPG loss isn't an issue.

 

It's a common misconception. Say this over and over until you believe it: "Using the battery is bad for mileage." For the very best mileage, avoid braking and avoid using the battery. The brakes and battery are there only because we drive in the real world. Ideally we wouldn't use either.

Think of it like this: the gas engine is the only prime source of energy for the Prius. All other energy sources simply store energy from the gas engine, with subsequent conversion losses. Think of the battery and motors as a big electrical flywheel that stores energy from the engine and gives it back when needed. The flywheel has some losses. Driving the wheels directly from the engine is more efficient, but not practical for all speeds and loads, so we sacrifice some efficiency to make an automobile drivable.

Regenerative braking is absolutely the worse, least efficient form of energy that the Prius uses. Why use it at all? Because it is essentially free. If you are going to brake anyway, it's better to recover a small portion of the energy than to toss it all away. It still doesn't make it great, but it is better than zero.

Tom

 

Also, the bigger the battery cycles, the fewer cycles before you're buying a new battery.

BTW, when playing with how much acceleration you have in ev mode, you had a warm engine, right? 'Cause an engine as cold as, say, 70C will turn on whenever you leave full stop.

 

This would ONLY be true IF the energy didn't come from gas in the first place. Your using energy that will be eventually be less-efficiently replenished by gas.