So,my wife and I bought a new 2011 Prius from Fort Myers(FL) Toyota. She loves it. She drives 70 miles back and forth to work, and has cut her gas bills by 2/3rd. Shes getting 58 to 62 MPG.....some city and some travel at 45MPH. She works hard at getting the best MPG. I drove it 200 miles round trip to the east coast of FL with the A/C on at 60MPH and we averaged 52 MPG. I like the car...I'm 5'10" and 260lbs and I fit ok. At 26000 miles a year, she will save a lot of cash....and that stuff is hard to come by............By the way, does any one know just how the AC compressor is powered....there are no belts, so is it a direct drive off the motor or is it 12Volt electric driven? Thanks....great site!
There are no accessory drive belts in your car for anything, so you can enjoy the A/C even when the ICE is not running (stop lights, etc). Enjoy!!!
I know about the lack of drive belts...my question is what powers the compressor? Is it driven off of the engine with some sort of gear/shaft drive or is it electric driven from the 12v system????
It's electric. A thread (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...atures-use-12v-battery-hv-battery-engine.html) has information on what powers what. That's about the 2nd gen Prius, but it's mostly the same, I believe. dogfriend's post in that thread says the main HV battery runs the A/C compressor while the other, low-power parts of the A/C system draw power from the 12V battery. Although of course the energy all comes originally from the engine.
