Can we bring up Power Mode again?

no idea, hopefully soon.

 

Even though I never use it, ECO either, just leave it in "the mode with no name" (Normal), it seems overbearing that PWR doesn't stick.

One other thing kind of like that is cruise control: it switches off when you shut down. I'm ok with that.

 

Of course you -could- just press the gas pedal further down. That is the only difference between normal mode and power mode.

 

Not until fuel economy is improved enough to score 50 MPG on the EPA label while in PWR mode. The consensus here on PC when the Gen3 was introduced was that it fell short of that score in PWR mode. For marketing reasons, Toyota didn't really want to be advertising 49 MPG.

Speak for your own regional driving conditions. There is no one standard condition that applies to the whole USA.

While many drivers do agree with you, many others do not. I'm one of those who do not. And none of us drives exactly like the standardized CAFE and EPA test cycles.

 

….About the same day that they're sprinkling salt on the sidewalks from where HELL has frozen over.

Toyota is rather like Mac in this regard.
Do things their way, or feel free to join the unwashed Philistines in doing things the 'other' (read: dumb) way.

I've got about 36,000 miles in type (G3, 2010) and it's one of those many little things that used to irk me about the car, but now I just mutter about it on occasion. I thought about tinkering with my G3 to force the car into PWR mode upon booting the car, but since 'my' G3 is not really "MY" G3, but a company vehicle.....those thoughts have died of loneliness. I do manage to eke out from 55-59 MPG in 'my' car (hand calculated - tank to tank) and I've not really noticed much of a difference when I jab the PWR mode or the ECO mode, or just leave it alone.
I do notice the difference in acceleration between PWR and Normal when I'm using the throttle like an ON/OFF switch, but I live in a rural area and so I'm usually not operating in the WOT region.

It's just one of the many reasons that Kermit the Frog always used to say: "It ain't easy being green..."

 

I switch to Power Mode when I believe the Prius will be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic (going less than 15 mph) for more than 15 minutes and the SoC is less than 55% - Why? I want to use the ICE sooner and use the electric motors less to avoid draining the HV battery to a SoC less than 50% so I can avoid activating the Prius automatic HV battery recharging cycle. The Prius automatic HV battery recharging cycle causes the MPG to drop between 5 -10 mpg for that trip so I try to avoid it whenever possible. While Power Mode in a traffic jam, I do mini Pulse and Glides. For example, while stuck in a traffic jam on MD Route 355 along the Military Base ReAdjustment Construction for the Naval Hospital in Bethesda ( this is a daily traffic jam during the weekday 2:30pm - 6:30 pm along northbound 2 miles road segment of Md Rt 355(Wisconsin Ave-Rockville Pike) from Cordella to I270 exit which can often take up to 60 minutes to traverse), I pulse ICE to get the Prius to 7-15 mph as quickly as possible and then shut down the ICE so I can glide the rest of the way. A mini pulse needs atleast 1.5 car lengths to do efficiently. As long as I can drive about 30 more minutes in regular driving after the traffic jam - I can nurse the MPGs back up over 50 mpg. When not in traffic jams, I usually use Normal Mode because I'm driving in many hilly terrain and it gives me a more balanced control over the throttle. If the roads were flat - I'd use Eco mode.

 

You should call Toyota and log your complaint. Everyone else who agrees w/what you want should do the same thing.

See Entune - class action suit, anyone? | PriusChat as to why.

Seems highly unlikely that there'd be the bolded section since 2006. The power and eco buttons didn't exist on Priuses until the 2010 model year. Us US 2nd gen (04-09) Priuses have NO EV, power, nor eco buttons. 2nd gen Priuses in some other countries got an EV button though...

I've had my 06 Prius since January 06 and have been following Priuses since then...

 

You get something for something else. US models didn't have EV button, but 3 years longer warranty support for almost 2x longer distance and from user point of view without sacrifice anything - except nice to have feature.

In PWR mode accelerator is remapped for faster action and from time to time engine idles instead of shutting down. This means that from user point of view there is nothing in terms of security in not being able to enter PWR mode. Prius will accelerate from stand still and from some speed the same way like in normal and eco modes. It only depends on how fast you floor accelerator.
On the other hand idling engine instead of shutting it down produces more emissions and makes it harder to pass emission tests with reasonable result. This way car manufacturer have to avoid making it default mode.
You could ask why we can't disable traction control or on other cars why we can't set it default disabled.

Look at it from the other perspective - Prius C owners even don't have a chance to try PWR mode. They only have ECO and Normal with no support for PWR.
CT200h owners have 3 modes, which ECO and Normal gives 500V output voltage to the engine while PWR changes VSP VSC mappings and increases output to 650V. We have 650V all the time.

 

No you haven't. Pwr mode provides no more power than Eco or Normal mode. In fact, if you are running heat or AC, you have MORE power in Eco mode, since less will be used for that. By the way in a parking lot, at low speeds, you have 295 foot-lbs of torque from the electric motors, more than some muscle cars.

 

Not true. PWR mode takes it out of the Atkinson mode and changes the performance of the engine considerably including the torque. The Toyota engine is not a true Atkinson mode engine but achieves it via electonic controls vs. engine construction.

That is why PWR mode will always require manual intervention vs. being a selectable default like ECO modes.

 

Source?

 

It has been stated repeatedly here that the "modes" are mostly just a remapping of the throttle potentiometer effect. This was explained by Toyota that the purpose was to allow easier hypermiling or more efficient driving when in "eco" mode. "Power" mode was there to satisfy those who never have enough. A quick throttle response -feels- more powerful (just as most car manufacturers, like Ford, do it because their cars sell better when they do - the public is SO gullible). The modes do other things, such as reducing the AC cooling aggressiveness when you switch to "eco". I have NEVER heard anywhere that they change the engine parameters.

So, YES, source?

 

What annoys me about what you've said is that it's simply not true that you have "no power" or any loss of power that can't be adjusted for by stepping on the accelerator further.... And then to claim you and others run the risk of an accident? Really? I'd love to hear you explain to the judge that aggressively swerving out into oncoming traffic causing someone to run into you is somehow a manufacturer defect. Come on! Gimme a break!

And what doubly annoys me is that you celebrate the fact that you no longer have a reverse beep even though you admittedly have a hard time "remembering to hit an extra button every single time." Did you not know that the reverse beep exists for forgetful people like you who may not be aware that they have NOT shifted back into drive after using reverse?

How long till you accidentally stomp on the gas to pull out in front of a fast approaching car while forgetting you're still in reverse and smashing into the car behind you instead?

Or would you argue that you aren't forgetful enough to do that? And thus, if you aren't forgetful enough to do that what makes you forgetful enough to not hit an extra button when you start up the car every time?

In other words, why not just enjoy your awesome car and stop whining and complaining? It's really annoying... I hope Toyota ignores you!

 

I run in eco mode all the time and have barked the tires on more than one occasion when pulling out in traffic, according to one theory, I would have sent the tires up in smoke and got hit, if I'd been in power mode.

 

I believe that throttle remapping includes not just pedal position, but also time filtering. Filtering inherently causes some time delay. That means the heavily filtered ECO mode has more time delay from pedal to engine than does the lightly- or un-filtered PWR mode.

So while numerous sources indicate that flooring the pedal produces the same engine power (and torque) in all modes, the time it takes for the engine to spin up to that power is different. PWR mode gets to full power the quickest, ECO produces the very same power but takes several tenths of a second longer to get there. Normal mode falls in between.

Is the often unrecognized time delay the real cause of this longstanding PWR vs ECO disagreement?

 

How many milliseconds of difference between modes are we talking about?

 

0.1 s or less?

 

The Prius engine is an "Otto" engine that uses electronic controls to get low torque results similar to Atkinson engine.

Correct...dumps the "Atkinson" mode for the power and torque of regular compression sequence.