in parking lot. or you can use it when you drive slow. basically you don't have the TURN ON the EV mode, you can use ECO mode or normal mode and keep the "Green bar" on the monitor below the "ECO" and it will only use electric motor. I find out you can use ONLY electric motor to keep the wheel rolling when you are going like 25mph to 40 mph. it is like 1) stop 2 ) you can accelerate to certain speed normally. (gas and electric motor will turn on) 3) when you reach like 30 mph, then let off the gas. (you should see the "EV" come out on the monitor) 4) then give a little gas ( make sure the Green Bar is below the "ECO") 5) then it will keep going without using any gas until the battery charge is low I tried it today and I get 65MPG on a 35 MPH road. lol
Ditto. I use it as I pull into the 2 football field length parking lot at work while I go slow for a while. I also use it when I pull into my apartment complex since the speed limit is 15mph anyway.
I find it useful in our 2010 Prius (the regular liftback) when I'm just going to move the car out of the garage, or put it back inside, etc.. The car is usually only moved anywhere from 10 to 50 feet. Why have the engine turn on and start the warm-up cycle just to be shut right back off? Also if coming into the garage at night or leaving in the morning and you want to make less noise (to prevent waking people up in the house) you can press it before you back out or press it right before you pull into the driveway.
Wouldn't the EV button also work well in heavy traffic? You are not suppose to exceed 26 mph in EV mode and in heavy traffic you have no choice but to drive slow. I haven't tied this, but have wondered if this could be a useful application of this mode?
And how would you recharge the HV battery after it is depleted? Think about this carefully before replying.
Yes, the first and last half mile or so of my commute. Both have low speed limits and are level. Perfect for expending that energy I so carefully squirreled away.
the only reason anyone should force the car into EV mode by using the button.. is when they need to drive around quietly without the gas engine turning on.. whether it's driving thru a small parking lot, apartment complex, or sneaking into the driveway late at night.. (then you still have that proximity noise thing still though).. mileage, though you might see some great results early on... can overall result in poorer performance when the traction battery is getting recharged again with the gas engine if you keep using EV mode when it's not needed. I usually leave the car in Eco mode and let the car do the rest of its thing.
It's really not that useful, first the car has to be fully warmed up by a ten minute drive for it to stick or else the car will say EV mode not available or speed is excessive. If the car is warmed up it naturally will use EV in parking lots etc. anyway! But it's fun to play with once in a while because you can accelerate briskly without the ICE firing up, gives you a little taste of what a pure EV would feel like!
Bingo! Do NOT use EV mode in heavy traffic. Within a half mile or so, your battery will run down, and the gas engine will run to charge it. And run and run and run. You will lower your mpg's to much less than they were when you hit the EV button. My '04 Prius was in service during the 2-year reconstruction of the Dan Ryan expressway in Chicago. No EV button, but the slow going stop/start traffic used up the battery fast. There was nothing I could do but let it run.
Haven't used the EV button yet. It doesn't seem like it would do us much good. I did have my husband put it in ECO mode this morning for the first time on his morning commute. I want to see if it increases our MPG's.
Eco mode affects throttle response and would help those with a heavy foot. if you're already skilled in driving a hybrid and not one that lays the pedal to the ground.. then you shouldn't see much differences when in Eco mode. altough, when the ac/heat are on, the eco mode also tunes in down so it uses less energy... so you might see some differences there. as the owner's manual says.. EV mode should be used only when really necessary as extraneous use can actually cost you mileage.
