I have a 2012 Prius C I purchased last December 2012. I love my C and learned how to deal with the "on ramp" speed and my carpool speed is a comfortable 70 to 75mph. I put in $ 26.00 a week for my 378 mile commute. My big question once I start the car, a big hum come on (the regular motor comes in) just like a regular car, and this would continue for a few seconds (possibly about less than a minute) until I get to the ist "stop" at the corner. (Then it settles into the quiet mode) Is this normal? It has been cold lately in Los Angeles ( 35 in the morning). What is the "supposed" normal start for a PriusmC? Can anybody also please explain how the echo mode and ev works. Should I always be on Eco mode. Sorry, I'm such a newbie
Eco mode the fan for the heater and AC is less, there for less gas. When you turn on the car it needs to warm up before it can be in EV mode.
Mine is a regular liftback Prius, but still similar hybrid drive. My typical start like this - foot on brake, push button, powers up in Ready Mode. Flip it in Reverse, back out to driveway on electric, gas engine comes on about maybe 6 seconds after power up. engine continues to run as drive down the block, turn corner and down street. If cold out, engine runs little longer, heater use, will run for quite a while. No heat, engine will shut off when coming to stop after couple minutes. As you take off from a stop, the car may get going a bit on electric drive, but it really needs and uses the gas engine to accelerate which btw requires much more power than stready cruising. You don't always need to be in ECO mode, but I have found it good to use when it is cold outside. ECO mode seems to ease the use of the heater, allowing the gas engine to run a little less. A couple times when the engine seems like it's been running too long, I put in ECO mode and the ICE (gas engine) imeediately shuts off, but not always. EV mode? I don't use it. Many times when I push it, screen says 'cannot use EV mode' or SLT. .. But, I might try the EV for S&G's if I feel the ICE is running a bit too much while cold, but strolling in a parking lot.
OP's info indicates he has a Prius c One, so he doesn't have SKS (push button). He has to turn some key, I think. But yes, on other members of the Prius family, shortly after the car has been powered on and is in READY mode, the ICE (internal combustion engine) will start and will run essentially until the engine and catalytic converter is warm enough and then can shut down (provided you're stopped or going slow enough). If the ICE is not warm enough and heat's requested, the ICE may turn on/run to provide cabin heat. See Why mileage gets worse in winter | PriusChat. No Priuses have coolant/engine temp gauges. If you want monitor it, you'll need a tool that plugs into the OBD 2 port (e.g. ScanGauge II). On the Gen 2 Prius, at above ~41 mph, the ICE must run. In Gen 3, it became ~46 mph. I'm not sure about Prius c. Gen 2 Prius and early Gen 3s had no indication of whether the ICE was running or not. One could monitor ICE RPM via aforementioned tool. I think on 2012+ Gen 3 Priuses, they did add some ICE on/off light (in the form of an EV light?). I'm unsure about Prius c. These might interest the OP. Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat Prius C warm up stages | PriusChat
The only indication I'm aware of in 3 weeks/1800 miles of driving it is the EV light on the Eco-Score screen or the energy-tracking screen. As best I can tell, 45 mph seems to be the point at which the ICE doesn't shut off. I'll hook up my ScanGauge at some point this week, and find the engine temperature at which the ICE shuts down. I'm going to guess 125F, based on the temperature where two previous cars cold engine light went out.
It's 40°C for me, which is 104°F. Note that if you don't meet the conditions for it shutting off at 40°C, it may push on to a different threshold, but I don't see that frequently enough to test out. The speed where the ICE always comes on is between 76 and 77 km/h for me, equivalent to between 47 and 48 mph.
Confirmed: 45 mph is definitely the speed where the gas engine powers the car. Rolling down a hill under EV power, I managed to nudge it from around 40mph right up to 45 while keeping the ECO bar well below the first partition. In two separate tests, the gas engine kicked in right at 45 mph, even if I wasn't adding to the speed via throttle.
I wonder if our indicated speeds are out by a different margin. There's no doubt I can have 76 km/h on the display with the EV indicator still there. Of course it's the actual RPM of MG1 that's going to cause the computer to start the ICE.
76km is about 45.6 mph. I have had it show 46 mph before, but I have to be going down hill with absolutely no throttle, not even glide. It won't go any higher on my car though.
