.. the battery would be enough to get me up to cruising speed without upsetting the drivers behind me (in town at least). As it stands, it takes about 5-6 seconds too long to get up to speed on a level road without the assistance of the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine). I feel the stare of other drivers if I don't put it into the upper band within a few seconds leaving an intersection. Anyone else feel it just needs a tiny bit more EV power? They are getting closer with the Prius III. Probably the next generation or two we will see even higher mpg ratings if they can improve power on MG2 a bit more.
Of course, it's really an electrically assisted gasoline powered car. After you've gotten going a little (say the first 10 mph) you might as well kick in the engine. There's no real efficiency to be gotten by relying on the battery to get up to speed, as there are losses in charging the battery and then additionally in propelling the car. Coasting and braking are where you can make more progress without as much impact on the cars around you.
I see a few problems with your approach: 1. Your battery and/or motors will die prematurely. 2. You end up burning more gas in the long term. 3. You bought the wrong car (trade it for Tesla, Volt, or Leaf). 4. This is exactly why Prius drivers are hated for.
The MG is less efficient than the ICE for acceleration. You're better off doing a modified pulse and glide using the ICE to get up to speed and then the MG to maintain speed as needed and you won't make the people behind you nuts.
I used to feel the same way about the lack of power when trying to accelerate from a stop on battery power only. I've found that using pulse and glide is a lot friendlier to other motorists and I actually started getting better mileage because the ICE wasn't kicking in for long periods of time to recharge the battery.
With the non-PIP Prius you don't want to get your acceleration from EV. It will eat at the small battery (8x smaller than a PIP battery) insanely fast. Then your engine will be running at times when it (optimally) shouldn't be running, because it needs to recharge the battery. Such as when stopping at the next traffic light.
The non-plug in Prius was not designed to accelerate up to speed on electric power alone. Watch your DVD that came with the car if you have it. Accelerate keeping the HSI bar in the ECO zone, the upper half of which uses the gasoline engine. Preferably keep below the PWR zone. When up to speed try to use as little accelerator as possible to maintain speed with traffic flow. Accelerating in heavy traffic, I often have to let the HSI go into the PWR zone, but I wish it wasn't so. I'd like to see a little more total power to keep a good acceleration rate while out of the PWR zone and only use PWR zone for passing on highway, steep climbing, etc....
Stuff a 2.5L Camry Hybrid motor and HSD in the Prius for more Mad Powa Tweak the software to turn the electric motor torque limiting down or off and it will accelerate quicker Mike Mobile on my SGH-i717
It takes way more energy to go from zero to 10 mph. Look for opportunities to make efficient use of the stored energy in your battery. Use your battery: once you reach cruising speed. Stop & go city. Pulse & glide.
Actually, since the kinetic energy is related to the velocity squared, 10 mph represents 1/4 the energy of 20 mph; 1/16 the energy of 40 mph. I would agree that the HSD transmits engine power least efficiently from a standing stop. So get yourself halfway across the intersection on the traction motor then kick in the ICE to get up to speed.
View attachment 46887 The attached graph represents the energy to propel a vehicles versus speed. You want to avoid calling for power at low speeds. It takes >2x the energy to propel a car at 3 mph versus 10 mph. The longer you stay in the 1 to 5 mph range the more energy you use per distance traveled. From a stop try to use the battery to accelerate up to 10-15 mph.
i thought i read that ideally, you want to get up to 15 mph on electric, then zing the hsi to the middle of the right portion until you reach desired speed for best efficiency. i agree, this is too slow in traffic and can only be done with no one behind you.
As with all things, it depends. Wayne Gerdes recommends using EV up to 16 mph (in a GenIII) and then accelerating up to the 3/4 mark on the HSI on the gas engine. ICE is inefficient at low speeds, EV is inefficient (due to needing to be recharged with the ICE) at higher speeds. This is where he puts the optimal compromise.
Interesting. I was already doing the 'up to 15mph' on battery once things were warmed up, and then moving into the upper range to get up to cruising speed. I'll try to do the pulse more, but I won't glide so much - drivers do not like it when you speed up and slow down like that. I'll just push the ICE enough to get me up to speed, and then release the pedal enough that I cruise with as little power as possible. So far I am averaging about 50mpg (48-53) for my trips to work and back with temperatures hovering around 35 degrees f. Very impressed with this Gen 3. Plus this is Canada, where snow is fairly regular this time of year, and traffic is heavy in rush hour.
I, too, traded in but for a Volt.... problem solved. Yes, the EV performance of my gen III was inadequate but it was still enough to get me hooked and to see the light. An addiction to which only a full EV power train solution could satisfy. I get my level 2 charger in tonight. The transformation will be complete. woo-hoo!
While the graph is interesting, I fail to see how it supports your conclusion. Don't you guys think that Toyota chose the proper EV/ICE cutoff for max efficiency? Or are they total idiots?
