Erica & Dianne, Can either of you please contact Toyota Corporate Plug-In Prius Team, tell them how loyal and supportive we are here at PriusChat, and ask if an engineer can assist us in understanding the PIP? We do a lot of Testing and a lot of Guessing, while a Toyota PIP engineer will have the Knowledge and Answers. Please Help.
Go to: techinfo.toyota.com and pay the man $15 for two days of tech downloads....and it is mostly in English!
OP just wanted to bring them on board to answer any questions we have. It may not be wise for them. They may inadvertently disclose some secrets regarded by Toyota.
Nonsense. They talk about cars everyday. If their just talking about them gave away secrets, there would be no secrets left.
Does the OP want specific technical information or have they just not bothered reading the manual? Like others have said, it would help if they were more specific.
Although I dont want to speak for the OP, I would guess the biggest question is "why does my ICE start up?".. Yes, it is covered in the manual and the FAQ.. however, the part that leaves much to be desired is the line where it basically says "these are some of the reasons, among others, why your ICE may start". For example, they mention some temperature that may prevent pure EV driving. Yet, make no mention of any "lower threshold" of EV driving at a different temperature. Perhaps its a combination of things too technical for the owners manual.. that's fine. Which is why it would be beneficial for the PiP Enthusiasts to have access to some more technical "stuff". Even looking at the first page of threads, there's usually at least one post about losing EV range or mysterious ICE starts.. having some more technical knowledge dispersed through the "community" would probably help ease some of the new owner concerns and set expectations for future owners.
I understand Ken's frustration for the lack of concrete information regarding the inner working of PiP. I added this suggestion for the next gen PiP. For this gen, we still like to know more details.
are there any forums where automotive engineers (representing the manufacturer) regularly participate in various technology discussions?
Back in like 2005-2008 Dodge used to have the SRT/PVO Department do monthly chat sessions rotating between allt he different SRT Platform Forums. Was usually really informative with good fresh info released every time.
Perhaps we need a location to keep track of questions. I recall one question is the GenIII/PiP cargo volume specifics. There is the vol under the floor, the vol under the Toneau cover, the volume over the cover, the volume with one seat down, two seats down...etc. Some of the numbers are in the Youtube video but I don't think it is clear. The quoted cargo vol number for USA is high and apparently reflects a seat down or something. The quoted number for Canada is much lower and apparently does not include a seat down.
I don't think we need official engineers to tell us this..you can go measure or observe it easily enough. Why the ICE comes on, or the algorithm for EV miles estimate are a bit more difficult. Mike
^^^what I meant was a method where we could put "Questions requiring Toyota Input" possibly the Moderators would have to decide what questions could be elevated to that level. Then some way of getting answers. I recall once I posted GM's engineer equation for MPG vs. weight of car (from the Volt threads). Nice to have Toyota engineer version. Right now the only Toyota communication option is for users to write a letter to Toyota USA for support, and then report back here if they get an answer. One example of this was Gen-II lube oil change to 0W-20, somebody here finally got a letter from Toyota USA saying it was OK as long as you maintain drain interval.
