Acceleration/ev bug

Its normal a warm up cycle, It automatically uses EV MODE (thats why you see your mpg is high at moderate throttle) while the engine is warming up to 104.5*F-109.4*F ( I have a gauge that tells engine temps) in the mean time the engine is disengaged from drive to warm up then will the ICE engage to the drive, however the ICE will kick in before reaching 104.5*F-109.4*F if the traction battery is low, when full throttle is applied or speed exceeds 45 mph. That is why i always try to keep my traction battery above 75% before I leave my car Overnight or greater then 6 hrs.

 

I usually power on the car in the morning, leave the key fob on the seat, go back in and fill up my coffee mug and the ICE has started and shut back off. I can, with a little coaxing, motor out of the neighborhood in EV. Forget about the EV button. Just keep it under the center line on the display.

Other than motoring in EV out of and into the neighborhood at the end of the day and driving my last mile into work in the mornings, I just drive it like a regular car. Anything other than that and you will wonder why the heck you bought the thing. You can make yourself crazy driving it like its a helicopter or something (diddling with pedals while trying to steer and keep your attention on the road). It's no small wonder that some insurance companies (and AARP I think it was) have concerns about hyper miling. I need to ask my agent about it because my auto insurance went up about 80.00 more per month than expected, have always owned 2 late model vehicles at the same time, never had that much of a jump in premiums and have always bought similar priced vehicles combined with no tickets or accidents in over 10 years.

 

I use EV mode only if I am moving the car around in the street or in in an underground carpark. There is no point using it for normal driving. The Prius is not that sort of hybrid. Very interesting about the warm up phase though. When I leave work the street is slightly uphill. As long as you don't press down too hard the car glides away very quietly using more electric power than normal. Very nice. It only lasts for a few hundred metres then we go to the next warm up stage and things are more normal. Makes me think what a Prius could be with no spare and the space full of a nice LiPO4 battery so it could do this more often.

 

If you put the Prius immediately in neutral after turning on the power for a cold start you can delay the start up of the ice.
once the ice starts up from cold start it will go through the multi phase warm cycle.
once the ice starts up - the ice will run and warm up slightly faster when in neutral ( because its not pulling mg1 mg2 along).
the Prius warm up phase can be accelerated by pre-heating the coolant using OEM 400W engine block heater.

the most fuel efficient speed for EV is about 15 mph

recharging the traction battery via the ICE is a lossy energy conversion - it is better if the traction battery gets most of its energy from a few braking events then from automatic ice activation to recharge the HV battery.

 

because its not pulling mg1 mg2 along

ICE still turns MG1/2 - it has no choice they are linked via the gearbox always. So it will pull one of them along, but presumably only with inertia of the rotors to overcome since neutral will put no 'generator load' on them.

(Sorry - being pedantic I know)

 

I've learned to ignore the mileage readings over short trips. The numbers are more meaningful over longer distances. The fuel mileage numbers I'm interested in are long-term gasoline mileage. It will drive you crazy trying to make sense of mileage numbers that are complicated by warm-up cycles with EV driving mixed in.

 

No kidding. Being new, I've watched the numbers fluctuate from a high of 58.8 for 100% highway all the way down to 41 for 100% short trips under 5 miles (and a lot of idle time in the driveway going nowhere trying to learn voice commands). It was sitting at 46.5 before my wife went to Therapy on Mon. The clinic is 3 miles away and it dropped to 45. It went back up to 45.8 on a longer drive yesterday and I expected it to be back down this morning after she got back from therapy, but it's at 45.6, same distance, same ambient temp, etc. I've been watching it because I've been trying different driving techniques, but my experience has pretty much been that traffic patterns, etc., suggest I should just drive it and concern myself only with mpg at each fill-up.

 

Oy vey...

I just can't see that, just running the car, sitting in a driveway?

Also, ok, maybe you're miles from anywhere. But there's likely laws on the books in your area, about leaving an unattended car running. For good reasons.

 

That's pretty much standard operation in winter where I come from in Wisconsin.

 

I find mine warms up much much faster if I am driving the car.
Opposed to sitting and waiting for the car to warm up. YMMV.

 

If I'd known that trick, I wouldn't have needed the remote starter.

There are too many pickup trucks around here that stay running all day in cold weather, for a law like that to make sense.

 

I think it's more dependent on your group of family/friends, rather than where you're from. I'm from Wisconsin too, and we never preheated the car - just hop in and go, and it warms up in a mile or two. You have to wear a heavy winter coat to get to and from the car anyway, so that keeps you warm while the car is heating up. On the other hand, in California, I see some people warm their cars up all the time in an area where "cold" means "40s".

Meanwhile, not only do I not warm the car up when driving in Wisconsin, but I don't use the heat at all in a Prius until it has fully warmed up (except if needed for defrosting/defogging). To each their own, obviously...

 

I agree. I always thought it was a waste, but it's even worse. They used to do it to drive us less than a mile to school (though I usually walked with friends). Admittedly, the car sat outside in the weather and got iced over, etc., so I guess it was easier than scraping the ice only to have it ice right back up. There are times now when we travel in colder climates where I'll start the car while we're packing to defrost the windshield so we can leave when we're ready.

 

I can see pre-warming when the windshield's frosted or fogged, if you can't see where you're going not good. I find it very frustrating when I'm in that situation, what can you do. Garage parking helps immeasurably to avoid that.

But when the windshield isn't fogged, firing up the car and heading back into the house? Right up there with nails on blackboard, for me. I mean, my so-so Fuelly rating will get even worse.

 

Read the Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat It is long and technical, but the take home messages are:

1. On a cold start, the ICE will run for 50s
2. The ICE will continue to run until the coolant is 40c.
3. EV-mode is not available on a cold start
4. Stages generally follow coolant temperatures in steps from 50c to 60c to 70c. Moving up the stages is the goal.

You'll notice a subtle change in engine noise as you move from Stage S1a to S1b.

Don't turn on the heater until you have reached about 55c or are accelerating using the ICE. Using the heater at lower coolant temperatures will force the ICE to run, even if you are stationary.

The general advice is that running the ICE for 55s either while stationary or gently moving, will provide the best start for an economic drive and allow the heater earlier. You should not load up any cold engine; the Prius just enforces gentle start-ups somewhat. (Actually, you can flog it and it will respond, but that bad for the ICE.)

BTW, I use a ScanGauge to know the precise coolant temperature.

EV button? Use your right foot instead
Those TV commercials have a lot to answer for. The Power, ECO and EV buttons
Once the ICE is warm, EV mode is available. Control your right foot to keep in the "EV" part of the HSI and you'll be in EV mode without pressing any buttons.

This thread discusses grille blocking. 2010 Prius Grill Blocking strategy | PriusChat Once you understand the warm up stages, grill blocking makes sense.

 

The thing I love most about my Prius is that I don't have to go out of my way; undertaking pain-staking efforts, performing extra tasks and creating minor hardships for myself to get excellent fuel economy.

 

I meant to say that TV commercials that emphasise the three buttons make it appear that the driver has to tell the car what to do.

 

^ The only one of that array of buttons (EV, ECO, PWR, PARK) I ever touch is EV, and the only time I'm touching it is for getting from the garage to driveway, or vice versa. And it (EV) is a crapshoot: sometimes it works, sometimes not. If they'd just increase the brief 20 seconds of EV you get at startup, to 60 seconds, I'd be happy.

I almost never use PARK, just power off. Use neither ECO or PWR.

 

There should be another button called "MAX." -Full Power - screw the warranty.

 

ECO and PWR are both a bit of a joke. Neither do anything to the gearing, valve lift, anything substantive. ECO just means you get more of a workout with your right foot, PWR less.