Greetings! Just picked up a 2013 PiP last week and have been enjoying it tremendously. Had a couple of questions... Charging @240V?: Fortunate to have 240V charging stations at work, but cannot seem to figure out if the charging timer option works with public charging stations? Plugging-in w/o setting the charge timer works fine, however, if I use the charge timer the charging station does not seem to turn on after I walk away. Need to talk to someone at work about this, but thought I might be doing something wrong. Thinking that I would want the PiP charged fully before I start my commute home I would like to use the charging timer option vs. having the car charge fully after I park the car. Driving tips for my commute?: I have a 26-mile commute to work that is mostly freeway driving. From my home to the freeway is about 3-miles, 22-miles on freeway (@65mph), 1-mile from freeway to work. On the way to work, I have been keeping the car in EV mode until about a mile is left then switching to HV mode until I exit the freeway and switch back to EV mode to deplete the battery before arriving at work. On the way home, I follow the same procedure...saving the last 3 miles of EV mode for the last stretch of non-freeway driving. Am I missing anything here? Any/all comments welcome, thanks in advance. Been reading through posts and enjoy everyone's contributions as I education myself on PiP driving. Coming from a car on the opposite side of the spectrum has been interesting, buy enjoyable.
Welcome and congrats! Seems like your intuition is working pretty well. That sounds to be pretty much the best option. A couple tips if you want to be really extreme about it: 1. Make sure to run out as much energy as possible right before you pull in to charge either at home or work. This means taking the HV battery down to about 3 bars once the rest of the EV range is depleted. 2. Is there an alternate path you can take that will be less miles but might be slower? Or is this definitely the least miles and fastest? If it's the only choice then what is the slowest speed you would want to drive the freeway and be safe/not piss off other drivers? Because if you think you can set your cruise control for 61 mph or less then you have even a few more options.
Re the charge timerquestion... Assuming you work an eight hour day, there's no noticeable difference in battery state of charge between charging at 9am or charging at 3pm then leaving at 5pm. It's also not cool to block the public charger for many hours before your charge timer kicks in.
The way most public chargers work, I think, is like the ChargePoint. After ~15 minutes of low to zero electrical draw they shut off assuming your car is fully charged. Mike
Unless I am misunderstanding the situation, I really can't visualize a scenario where it would be appropriate to use the timer at a public charging station.
Try experimenting between saving your EV as you need it and just leaving the EV button on all the way in your commute. Check you fuel mileage readings on the screen that pops up when you power down the car and compare them. After a bit of trying both ways myself, I found that with just leaving the EV button on in my commute, I actually get better fuel mileage.
Your commute is almost identical to mine I just let the EV charge deplete on its own and let it turn to HV by itself. Doing this I've been able to average about 82 miles per gallon without considering electricity. I charge at work as well. You have peaked my curiosity though I want to try your technique in see how I do. SCH-I545 ? 4
Thanks everyone for the responses, very helpful to get the feedback and I'm sure I'll continue to evolve my driving style. I'm stuck using the freeway for my commute, so higher speeds will be something I'll have to deal with. What is the comfort level driving below the posted speed limit? Given my experience driving in California to date I would think that it would be difficult dealing with merging traffic or the general flow on freeways. I realize that driving economically requires making changes, but driving with the flow or in HOV seems to be less stressful. I have enjoyed using dynamic cruise control at 60-65mph, it's just very different than what I'm used to (I admit I'm coming from a non-economical car where my habit was to immediately move to the left). While I wait for HOV access, the flow of traffic in the evening has prevented driving above 60mph so I have been able to stay in EV mode for about 13-17 mi. In the morning, traveling 60-70mph, I have gotten between 17-18 mi before EV charge as been depleted. RE: Charging in public stations, I should have clarified that I do not keep my car in a charging spot for more than a couple of hours. My work has a four-hour limit and I realize that courtesy is to only keep the car in one of the spots if you are charging. Through my work day I commonly drive short trips and when returning later in the day have started the habit of parking in a charging spot around 2-3p to leave by 4-5p. My question should have been, if I pull into a charging station at 2p and plan to leave around 5p should I just plug-in or worry about setting a timer for 5p to have the charge process delayed. New to this and guess the answer is charge away and get the car out of the spot While I have not seen a time of day where all of our EV parking has been full (max was 7/12 spots), I can imagine that other EVs would not be too happy seeing a non-charing car taking up space.
If at all possible, I would try to use HV for any uphill segment and then try to stay below 62 mph and use EV for the downhill and flat parts.
Just plug in and commence recharge- no need for the timer. You'll never notice any EV range difference between a battery that was fully charged in the morning vs. one that was charged 10 min before you left for home at 5pm. I've tried that experiment and have concluded- even a charge from the night before doesn't lose any significant value from sitting overnight vs. a morning charge just before I leave for work in the AM.
But for longevity of the battery it isn't good for the battery to sit with a full charge for an extended period of time.
Yeah, but by "extended period" I would assume "weeks". The PiP battery is only charged to ~85% SoC at "full" anyway, so it's pretty well protected against extended high SoC. Personally I'd never worry about it unless I was gone for a month. And even then, I did that last year and left my Leaf at 80% the whole time we were gone with no ill effects (didn't have the PiP yet then).
I never use the timer, when I get home I recharge, if it full charged all night so be it. And that is another resone I lease!
Because I don't want to have to think about turning a timer on or off every time I get home (is delayed charging okay now, or am I possibly going out again?) or go to a public station.
I always set the timer when charging at home and won't be going out until the next day. But at work I charge in the morning or afternoon, which ever is convenient...Again, you CANNOT use the timer when using a public charging station. After 15 minutes of no use the relay opens and you get no power no matter what the car asks for. Mike
A bit off-topic but one issue is a puzzle to me: Toyota suggests that the best battery SOC for long idle periods is when EV is depleted and the system just turns automatically to HV, this is about 23% isn't it? Why 23%? I think battery experts are saying 40-50% SOC is the healthiest state for storing batteries for long periods. Any input?
Good question. I doubt that anyone really knows...and those that know can't say. It seems to me the car should have an advanced battery management screen where you can tell it your intentions and it takes care of it for you...such as - the car will not be driven for a month, starting tomorrow - I'm only going to be driving x miles per day (don't fully charge); more applicable for bigger battery than PIP Mike
I suspect the thought is that cumulatively, sitting fully charged overnight, every night, is a large portion of the car's life.
