I'm new at driving a Prius (2012) and not sure if it starts to move as it should. I take my foot off the break and move about 3 foot backing out of the garage and the gas engine starts. On the other side of the garage door I stop to wait for hubby to the close garage door, gas engine is still running. Still without giving gas I move forward on my 120 ft drive and stop at the end and the gas engine is still running. I give it gas and stop at the first stop sign (1 mile away) before it cycles off. Seems to cycle on and off better once the engine is warm.
That sounds normal. The first order of business for any Prius (except the PHV) is getting the engine warmed up so it gets low emissions. Once warm, it starts to optimize for fuel economy. Gruesome details: Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat
Unlike some other hybrids, the Prius models (all of them ??) are designed to warm up the engine and cat. converter as soon as possible. That has been discussed on here before several times. A little searching for those existing threads should be informative.
Actually, the Prius warms up the -cat- when first started, not the engine. It takes about 20-40 seconds of running to do this, depending on ambient temp. It takes much longer to actually warm up the engine. As stated above, this is to control emissions as soon as possible. Note that the engine is not used when backing up, even though it's running. All reverse power is electric. This is why it can be difficult to back up a very steep slope. Torque is limited by allowed peak battery and inverter current. The electric motors run from the inverter, as they use three phase "AC" at about 540V, converted by the inverter from the battery and also from, surprisingly, the electric motors (for example, MG1 can generate power while MG2 uses it - but it must go through the inverter for control and conversion). You can stop the engine from running if your traction battery has enough charge in it by pushing "start", then immediately pressing "EV". This should not be done except when necessary (you are only moving the car around, you don't want the engine starting for noise or other reasons such as exhaust gas dangers, etc). It is inefficient and can slightly shorten the life of the traction battery, though one would be hard pressed to prove this.
I will be testing that with my C. It really gripes me to have the engine start up when all I need to do is re-position the car in the garage or driveway and the total movement is less than 100 feet.
It really gripes me to have the engine start up when all I need to do is re-position the car in the garage or driveway and the total movement is less than 100 feet. Unfortunately - your Prius is not a "mind reader" and doesn't know that is all you intend to do. They had to design it planning that you WOULD be continuing to drive it further.
-I'M- installing the mind reading module. Then the car will know what I know (a very dangerous thing), unless I'm wearing my aluminum foil mind reading avoidance cap.
No they didn't HAVE to do any such thing. My Fusion doesn't work that way. I can get pretty close to a mile out of it before the ICE kicks off........if I drive real slow. Then we come back the useless EV buttton................ It COULD read my mind if it would really pay attention to me having pushed that button.
