Recharge going down

This will give you ideas why this happens: PIP Mileage deterioration | PriusChat

 

Were you actually getting that range or are you goin by the display when u get in?

SCH-I545 ? 4

 

footsteps... is that winter i hear creeping up behind me? welcome to priuschat! it's all down hill until spring. all the best!

 

All summer I was at 14.7 plus or minus a tenth or two.
I went on a vacation for two weeks and when I returned after a couple of days I was down to 14.1, and now at 13.9.
And its been fairly warm here in No Cal. But this is just the normal seasonal variation. It is colder in the mornings during the commute, even though the peak afternoon temp is nice.

Mike

 

I have 5600 miles on my PiP. The displayed EV miles on full charge has varied from 10.9 to 13.8 depending on all the factors described in other posts. However, the SOC at the end of common trips has remained pretty much the same. The round trip destinations that are in EV range and those that are just beyond EV range doesn't appear to have changed.

 

Cold weather was no EV driver's friend last year. We all griped about it. Asked a Tesla driver. He said same thing. Volt driver said they got about 30 miles. It sucks but next summer it will go back up.


iPad ? HD

 

Ever since I've had my PIP, I've averaged between 11.2 and 12.3 per full EV charge. Last week we had a power failure and I couldn't charge. Only had .3 available, left over from prior day full charge.

Drove to work that morning pressing the EV button EVERY time I had to slow down or stop at a light. By the time I got home EV was at 4.1. Didn't think anything of it but the next morning my EV full charge range was 12.5. Had never been that high after any prior full charge.
Ever since, I've been pressing EV every chance I get (if not already using EV obviously). And every morning my EV range has increased! This morning I was up to 15.1. And I'm in Northern NJ where it's getting colder each night.

Only get a small EV gain every time I press it to stop/slow down (might go from 10.1 to 10.3 for example). But that's not why I use it. The overall impact on my full charge EV range has been amazing.

Don't know if this would work for anyone else but for me, EV button is my new best friend!

 

You are changing the number. However, that has nothing to do with how far you can go on a full charge for a given terrain and driving actions (stops, hills, etc). But isn't it nice the car has a built in game - high number wins

 

I drive the same terrain every work day (14 mile drive). I used to lose EV before I got home. Now I make it home in full EV and have gone from average 82 mpg to 91 mpg. I'll keep pressing EV button to get more miles and better mpg every time! Might be a game to you. For me, it's real data so far. Obviously, at some point I will stop getting more EV range each full charge. Hasn't happened yet. I expect more than 15.1 tomorrow.

 

29,800 miles over the past 1.5 years is where my observations come from. No deterioration. Actual range has remained the same, taking into account seasonal variances of course.

Estimate is all over the place. Fortunately, I have finally noticed a pattern. After a vacation, where I went several days milking a single charge with 100's of miles of HV driving. When you come back home and return to routine charging, the estimate goes up.

Last trip, the estimate climbed to 13.9 miles. That was the highest I had ever seen it. The trip last week pushed it up to a new high this morning... 14.1 miles.

That estimate is just that, a guess based on recent data. It doesn't affect actual range at all. This morning's commute was 16.7 miles, taking the fast route on the 70 mph highway. The result was the same as it always had been for the temperatures... right around 200 MPG. In this case, it was 196 MPG.

 

I'm confused. What does pressing the EV button have to do with driving if you "make it home in full EV"?

Using EV where it is most efficient and using HV where it is most efficient always helps mpg.

 

I can't charge at work so I save EV for ride home. Having more than 14 EV available gets me home now in full EV. In the morning and if I go out lunch time I use EV button method and EV full charge range keeps going up. Before, only 11.2 - 12.3 never got me home in full EV. Not saying it's scientific or would work for anyone else. For me, I no longer see my EV range going down. Only going up, so far! And with colder weather I would never have believed it.

 

you do realize that the range estimation has no effect on how far you can travel in ev?

edit: i see that others have said the same thing already, but hey, whatever makes you happy.

 

That's what I've heard. But I seem to be seeing something entirely different. When it says 15 EV miles available I seem to be getting 15. When it says 12 I only get 12. Crazy, ain't it?

 

yes!

 

not sure what you mean by pressing EV.

or do you mean press HV when your total drive is LONGER then your EV range??

I found that when driving further then my EV will allow, pressing HV button on acceleration(off red lights and stops ect) then going back to EV when up to speed can increase the EV "GUESTIMATE" quite abit.

But that is typical "using EV when most appropriate" driving that we all usually do, but now using HV(once warmed up) for starts off the line really helped bump mine up.

And yes you will get more EV range using the ICE for starts..but typically MPG will be less.

 

Not at all what I'm saying. I try to save EV for my ride home (14 miles) as I can't charge at work. In the past, I would never have EV mode active (green light) in the morning or lunch time. On my drive home, I would wait until I was 12 miles away and press EV. Could make it home in full EV almost every time.

One morning I had no EV available (power failure so couldn't charge). Started out with .3 and kept turning on EV (press EV button) every time I had to slow down or stop at a light. Slowly regenerated about 4.1 EV miles by the time I got home that night. I never actually drove in EV that full day. I just forced the battery to slowly regenerate EV by pressing the brake in that mode to slow down. The next mornings charge gave me more than I ever had. Seemed strange, but I started pressing EV every time I needed to slow down or stop at a light. Over the last week or so, my available EV range has increased each morning and now it is at 15.1.

Some will say this is just an estimate and you can't really go 15.1 in full EV mode. I disagree as I can now make the 14 mile ride home in full EV where I never could before. When it said before I had 12 once I drove 12 in EV it turned off. Now that it says I have 15 I can drive 15 until it turns off. Extra 2 or 3 miles in EV isn't a big deal but its nice to know this car can get more than the 11 or 12 I used to be getting. My battery can hold it. It just isn't so easy to get it to realize it.

So, for anyone complaining that they once had 15 EV and now it is down to 11 or 12, I say, try using EV whenever you have to slow down or stop at a light. It seems to be "training" my battery to hold more of a charge. That's the only way I can explain it. As soon as the light changes I stop using EV by pressing the button again. Once I know my EV range is enough to get me home (where I can charge again) I just drive in EV.

Not scientific, probably makes no sense, but works for me so far. And with the weather in NJ getting colder, its hard to believe.

 

Others here know a lot more about it than me, but isn't this partly to do with the fact that keeping all your EV range for the homeward trip would normally limit the battery's regeneration? One of the great things about the PiP is that it has a whole traction battery to regenerate, so never runs out of capacity to store that extra charge - EXCEPT where you don't let it use EV when fully charged!

You are going out fully charged, but in HV mode. That should, I think, mean that for a lot of the drive the hybrid system doesn't have the capacity to store all the extra electricity generated by braking if it is to keep to its SOC limit of 85%(?). So I suspect that previously a lot of it was wasted. That would be the case if the EV range was previously staying at the same level it started at for most of the journey.

Now, I don't understand how the EV technique you describe is getting more electricity into the battery, but if you are right that it is, it follows that you are taking the battery up above 85% SOC by doing so. That's exceeding what Toyota thought safe, and so potentially damaging the battery, I would think. To be clear, if the charge above 85% is happening, it is almost certainly happening on the journey in, and not on the overnight charge - the car still takes its 3kw in, it has just learned that you now do 14 miles on it, because you are force-feeding it with regenerated electrons like a foie gras goose on your journey in.

The answer, (if I'm right, which I quite probably am not...) is to let it use some EV in the trip to work as well. It makes more sense to use the EV on the sections of the whole return journey appropriate for it (in particular at lower speeds); in the unlikely event of a completely homogenous journey, it would make more sense to use the EV from the start, giving the maximum possibility for storing regenerated energy. If so, you would end up with the same overall level of EV use, indicated by your range not dropping on the overnight charge.

 

This morning my "estimated" EV range was 15.3. Slightly higher than yesterday even though it's much colder this morning in NJ. Trend is still going up which was nice to see.

Decided to try a new "test" and change they way I drive to work to see if the estimate was fairly accurate.

So, instead of saving EV for the ride home tonight, I never touched the EV button and drove the entire 14 miles to work in EV. Green EV light stayed on the entire time. I pulled into the work parking lot with 1.1 EV remaining.

To me that says the estimate of 15.3 was very accurate and I actually got more than the 11 or 12 EV I used to be able to achieve. Certainly got enough to make it all the way to work. This would be the perfect car for me if I could now charge but that ain't happening with current management where I work. Still much better overall MPG than my 2010 Prius 3 so I'm not complaining.

Still not scientific but close enough for government work (if they ever get back to work again)!