Giving that it's really difficult to "Pulse & Glide" Prius C. I tends to Pulse & drive in "EV" (I don't mean by pressing the EV button.) E.g. Accelerate to 55+ mph, full release the throttle and then carefully feather the throttle until it shows green arrows from traction battery to wheel, stop short from letting the ICE kick back in. Will this shorten the life span of MG1, MG2 and the traction battery? Will it cause any other issues later? Hope someone can shed some light. Thanks
No worries. The battery management ECU will take care of your battery and will limit the state-of-charge between 40-80% to limit charge-discharge cycles. This is indicated in the battery SOC display.
I'm not too worry of the SOC drop too low.. The car speed will be too slow for highway much earlier before that.. What bugging me is the law of "Wear & Tear". The way I see it, my driving habit will caused the traction battery to discharged more often, and the MG to work propelling the car in greater distance (comparing to drive it like a normal car or P&G). These might leads to much earlier components failure.
you can't hurt the battery, it protects itself. you may think you're doing something, but it's only allowing you to do it if it's not bad. however, you may find that what you're doing is actually deteriorating your mpg's.
Interesting thought... Let me drive it like a normal car for a few days to see if what I did have any positive/negative difference.. Thanks
i have the same problem with the plug in. the battery is so strong, it's difficult to glide without using some juice.
Its all in the foot. I can coast in my '05 like its nothing. If you're going 55MPH, you might be better off using cruise/holding a constant speed. Air resistance really kills the benefits of pulse and glide at higher speeds.
It has been talked about that 1/4 into the EV section on the HSI indicator is fine for P&G. Another thing to note is that I find letting the car go into EV if it wants to, to be more efficient then me applying more throttle to be out of EV. This applies when cruising at low speeds such as 35mph. Nothing beats P&G though from 30mph-40mph if you have the patients and time for it. Don't worry about having a little EV on the glide. As Ken from Japan stated, up to 1/4 has shown to work great and can achieve 99.9mpg doing this formula.
Personally I really don't think the Energy Monitor is worth worrying about in a c. Just use the HSI and if you can get used to positioning the pedal so that you see neither negative (regen) or positive (EV with a little power), you've got it. I find this quite easy to do in ECO Mode. If you see a little sliver of colour show up either side, it really does not matter in the scheme of things. If you manage to get the HSI perfectly on the line the car will still be drawing 1-2 A from the battery (the same as it would do when stopped) - you'd actually need a sliver of colour showing in the CHG area on the HSI to provide charge to counteract that, but then you wouldn't be in a true glide. Also the c can only go up to around 46-47 mph before the ICE must come on, above which you can't pulse and glide anyway.
Thanks everyone for your input. During the festive season, I drove the car just like a normal car (light footed, without concerning whether I'm in EV or ICE or P&G) and viola, make not much difference in terms of fuel consumptions. Looks like my previous driving habit has no benefits at all, in fact it's more dangerous since I pay more attention on the dash than I should.
I had added only voltage stabilisers to the 12v 6A port, initially was no difference but after getting more out from the old car, I feel the this stablilisers acts like capacitor, I notice my HV batt drop slower just by visual monitoring and by 12v display while driving sometimes is below 13v without air cond... So less charge will charge from the HV to the 12v, will this have some savings? My understanding will, maybe.... Is the car ECU able to adjust this?
Voltage stabilizers are snake oil in a normal car, but without an alternator, noone can describe a "use" in a Prius. Voltage is consant before "stablizers"
if there is voltage meter to measure and you can see the fluctuation on normal car, maybe u can determine is working or not.... if u base on feel, or other measure by value, fc or others still not justify....
You still can get couple mpg better than normal drive if you can optimize these following: 1. When you speed up, don't be afraid of power mode. (I used to avoid power mode, but power mode is more efficient if you don't brake after that). 2. Don't use any kind of brake after power mode. (even regenerate brake). Try to glide from the speed with low EV. 3. Don't stay too long EV mode that require more than 1/4 of the EV bar. It is bad for the battery, and give you low mpg. If you need stay constant at 1/4 EV to keep constant speed, all you have to do is give it a quick boost with gas engine, and glide with low EV. In my opinion, that battery is OK for full blast AC, and everything else, except for stay at EV mode more than 1/4 bar too long. I done this in the past, and the battery got empty really fast. When it get empty this fast, the battery must be very hot, and definitely shortening the life time.
