What is with the EV button? Its useless!

Yes, you would use it to drive it on a driveway, but the OP would use it to start his commute with cold engine, deplete HV entirely in the first 1-2 miles and then force completely cold engine to scream on the hwy.

 

As it is now, you have roughly 20 seconds of EV. If you're REALLY quick, you can get it outa the garage and into the driveway, sans start up. Do it in 2 stages and you can accomplish it more comfortably. This is a given, with/without EV button attempts.

It'd be nice if Toyota could increase that 20 second buffer, say to 60 seconds. Next gen wish list....

 

You get 20 seconds? I get less than 10, and the back-up camera boot-up often consumes 3 of those.

 

my wife's hycam gets about 5 seconds, but that may be related to temp and battery charge level as well? i haven't tried it often enough to know if there are different times. it seems to come on just as the nose is leaving the garage.

 

yes, that wouldn't be good. but there has to be a way to keep it off under a certain mph and time.

 

Tried it tonight. Outside temp said 61 deg. Not sure engine temp. I pushed the start, then shifted into neutral. No ICE start. Selected EV mode, put into drive and proceeded to drive around in the parking lot in EV mode. Exited the parking lot and when speed was around 10 or so message came up.

 

The EV lockout is based on engine coolant temperature, not outside temperature. If the car had been operated earlier in the day, or the outside temperature was higher earlier, the coolant could very well still be above the EV threshold.

 

Someone in colder weather can try it .

 

I feel that this is the only area where Toyota gave in to 'EV' marketing hype. I also think it backfired as many automotive journalists beleive it is meant to be used as a permanent driving mode!!! It is obviously severely underpowered and range limited in this mode. As I've said before, it is purely a temporary warmup overide button.

 

Automotive "journalists" don't RTMF, so if they don't what the EV button is for, it's on them, not Toyota. I'd be perfectly happy if they replaced all 3 buttons with a cup holder. I use EV much more than PWR. I used PWR once just to make sure it worked and can't imagine when I'd use it in regular driving. In addition to switching stalls in the garage and forest roads, I sometimes use EV when I turn off the blvd onto a side street with 20 mph speed humps. From there I can get to the house in EV mode, but most times I don't even both, I just drive slow when I'm in the mood. I wouldn't miss any of the 3 buttons. If I needed to use the battery more, I'd buy PiP.

 

EV MODE is NINJA MODE! and moving your car in your drive way w/o starting your engine.

 

Engine temp was at 65 and car gave message EV not available.

 

I find the engine sounds more refined for whatever reason when using PWR mode when accelerating fast from a stop, possibly due to a modified ICE/MG dynamic power profile where the MGs kicks in slightly sooner ahead of the ICE. Whether this impacts initial thrust I have yet to determine, but it sure does make it one of the most refined 1.8 engined cars when you need to quickly go from 0 to 30 from a stop.
No difference in refinement seems to be detected between ECO and Normal just that Normal is more sensitive to pedal depression. If PWR is just more sensitive, then why is Normal not any more refined than ECO, so I don't think pedal sensitivity alone fully explains why the PWR mode feels more refined.

 

This is very possible.

Of course without "insider" access I can not really know. But I think back to the original release of The Gen 3 Prius, which came nearly simultaneously with the release of the "New" Honda Insight.

The Honda Insight had an "Eco" Button....or Eco Mode.

I always have felt that "Power" "Eco" and "EV" modes were at least in part, Toyota's attempt to totally trump the singular "Eco" mode of The Honda Insight.

With ownership, I'd say I drive in ECO and Normal in far majority....both Power and EV are modes that I only use in very specific situations.

 

Well, I remembered wrong, and have since recorded delays of 14 and 12 seconds. I'll have to measure more of them, and watch for variability.

 

I checked this evening using the Torque app. The voltage goes up to 650 volts in every mode. But only during heavy acceleration - nearly floored. It also goes up to 650 during max regen breaking.

 

Does anybody know if this 20C cutoff/limit is something that can be adjusted in Techstream? I haven't bought the OBD/USB adapter that Techstream wants, so I can't check myself.

The pulling into/out of the garage scenario is something I've ran into twice this weekend alone.