Hi all, I’m a new Prius v owner and also have a Gen II 2007 i-Tech here in Australia. We’ve had the EV switch in this region forever and I am well practised in using it for very particular situations on the Gen II and it is very useful when used that way. I’ve only had the Prius v for a week now, but the EV speed limit seems to kick in at only 32kmh or 21mph. It does this fairly consistently over exactly the same trips that the Gen II easily copes with to the correct 42+kmh. They are different vehicles. But my neighbours Gen III model behaves the same as my Gen II, and that has the same drive train basically. One big difference, my v has only 100km on it by me so far. We do a lot of short trips! That’s what the Prii do so well we’ve found. So maybe it’s a run in thing? For those that use the EV, what speeds does it cut out at for you? I am not hard accelerating. The HV battery is not low. It happens downhill with the foot only lightly on the accelerator. No headwind! No luggage. Tyres up. Not overheated or underheated (no snow in Sydney!) It is a basic model, Prius v in Australia, not an i-Tech or package 5 in US. It shouldn’t make any difference. Please don’t offer comments about EV usefulness or petrol economy. That’s been covered well, outside North America. Too early to ask do you think? Perhaps I should wait longer and test it more before asking, but a problem nipped early is easier to convince dealerships about! If it persists... (otherwise, wow, what a car. I love this model already even if it is a tad thirstier than the Gen II for the trips I make. A seven seater gem). Thanks!
US Model, but I have gotten up over 30mph. Never tried to determine max speed as I'm too impatient with the quantity of acceleration much past 25 (the speed limit in my housing area).
EV mode switches off in the US models at 26mph, or if you stomp on it. Of course you can drive up to 45mph in EV if the throttle doesn't exceed the middle bar, but EV mode using the switch is limited to 25. The manual does explain these things.
Thanks for the replies. All are as per the manual, so I will have to test mine more and see what it does, because it isn't hitting the specs in the manual, or the examples people have so kindly given here. I can't imagine why it would be turning off earlier and no battery issues are presenting at all. I have to rule out driver error! If I get anything interesting or I discover it was my mistake I'll post back. As usual, take a bow PriusChat.
The car will default to the lower setting unless a certain set of very specific parameters are met - engine temp, a/c load, outside temp, HV battery temp (not too cold and not too hot) are met. If the car does meet all of those then it will allow you to drive on EV upto 50 kph. The very fact you said you do lots of short runs probably means that the car hasn't been able to reach the requirements (HV battery temp being the main one) and thus it switches off EV mode at 35 kph. If you have a long steep hill, then go down that and at the bottom your HV battery should be topped off. You might find the engine revving (though it probably won't be using fuel) and that you will be able to drive the car on electric (not EV mode) for a fair distance. Once the HV battery gets back into its happy zone, the car will revert to normal. There are no hard and fast rules with the Prius. It's all grey. Have fun learning and finding out.
We have the Aussie v. Don't use the EV button and you can get it up to 73km/h with throttle 76km/h without throttle. Just use the EV button for temporary warmup up overide. Your right that you get the disengage beep at 32km/h using the EV button.
Thank you all. Case closed. This Gen III v has very specific parameters on user selected EV mode, as you explained. I have tested it more and it correlates exactly with what GrumpyCabbie and EMCGuy spelt out. Good! It ain't broke. I got my son to search for this thread and he got the search slightly wrong and we found all the threads from 2009 when the Gen III came out and people were asking about this. I could not find them before. The Gen II user selected EV mode worked really well for us, but once again the Toyota engineers have proven, just let them do it. The heavier much roomier v is outperforming the old 2007 gen II in fuel use up and down our hill.
I never use the EV switch. I frequently get up to about 40MPH in EV while semi-coasting on two different slight downhills going to our rural home. Each run is just over a mile long. The last one has one rather steep section. I watch the bar graph as I am going down hill to keep it under the mid point so it will stay in EV. I virtually always hit 40mph here. Then, as I go back up hill, I keep it in the EV range with just the slightest touch on the pedal. I cap the hill about 20-24 mph and cruise the last quarter mile into the garage still in EV. Usually the battery is almost halfway down at that point.
