Hello i have 06 Prius and have been getting decent mileage, most of my mileage is hwy to work and back(42 miles one way). Very little stop and go maybe 6-7 miles worth. My question is, Is anybody using this EV Chip i have seen advertised and will it affect the car's computer or electrical any at all. I have seen it mentioned, but not many reviews. My thought was i could save when i town driving if this chip truly does what it is supposed to do. I would appreciate any input some of you Prius Vets have on this. As i am not trying to be greedy with mileage, just trying to get the best i can. Also if anyone knows of better ways to improve mileage, i would love to hear that also. Thanks and have a great day!
I have seen on websites where one of these chips can be plugged in and the Prius will run strictly in Electric mode up to 35mph, whether or not this working for folks is what i was inquiring about. It is for 06-09 models i believe, I know the 10-11 models have the button avaiable.
:violin: xpcman is right. Dont do it. Its a waste of money and you will only hurt your fuel economy. I did the mod and I thought I used it wisely but no matter what I did, fuel economy went down. I only use it now to turn off the ICE when I aproach a stop light and it doesnt stop by itself. Im sure the gas savings by doing this is very minute. Dont waste your time on the mod. Search search search.
Did you mean the coastaltech ev mod and the like? Its a nice to have modification but must be used wisely. Its easy to install and doesnt require much tools. You can use it moving your prius in the parking lot but if used excessively you wont save gas since your engine must run to charge the battery. Its better to have it than not, as Ive said its a nice to have but not a must to have..
an EV mode is free.. and you can do it by simply running two wires and a momentary switch (mine is a doorbell) i don't use it unless i'm moving the car from the front yard to the garage... or to force the car out of an idle at a stoplight. the main fact is that the car isn't designed to run in EV mode.. it can.. but it's better at balancing the SOC itself instead of you destroying the battery by trying to use it all the time. (or plainly too often) the plug in prius has a reserved part of the battery for this purpose.. by having a normal prius and using EV.. you're simply making the system work harder when the ICE is on in order to makeup for the EV time you used. overall, most likely, it will drop your MPGs unless used perfectly.... (there's no guide to perfect EV usage in a normal prius). sometimes i use it to keep the ICE off during accelerations for a few seconds.. just so the ICE doesn't kick on under 15mph. (again.. that's more of me not liking to hear the ICE than actual gas mileage benefits)
