What if you DON'T charge your Prius Plug-In and continue to use it?

The PiP "reserves" a portion of the lithium-ion battery and never uses it for the purpose of prolonging the life. Even if you use all bars of energy in hybrid mode, the battery is not fully discharged.

It may even be slightly beneficial to the life of the battery to run in hybrid mode only, as rapid or full charges cause a light amount of wear. I wouldn't worry about causing harm by charging either; as the battery is never fully charged, for the purpose of preserving battery health.

The main cause of degradation is heat. Make sure you keep the vents in the rear seats unobstructed and you will be fine.

 

Unless you find someone who has actually done this?
Or a Toyota engineer,- who is going to really know?

Most people who buy a Plug in Prius do so, so that they can enjoy the benefits of plugging it in.

Toyota's last round of commercials for The Plug In Prius, seemed to go to a lot of trouble to make sure everyone knew that you didn't necessarily HAVE to plug it in.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is if for that 6 months to a year period, you are still "regularly" driving it, and allowing the battery to discharge and charge itself as a "hybrid", you would probably be OK.

I suppose you could call "Toyota Customer Experience" and pose the query. Or you could be the test subject and let everyone know the results in a year.

My money is on the bet that you'd be fine. Especially if the situation is that you would have occasional charging opportunities on weekends.

 

no prolemo. a lot of our members don't charge. as red point said, lithium actually prefers to be empty. you'll probably get more longevity than those of us who charge everyday.

 

Greg here has the plug-in, doesn't plug it in, as far as I know, without problems. He'll likely see this thread, weigh in.

 

As far as performance, I have a 13 that I haven plugged in in probably a year and no problems. Best mpg I get is 61 when it's hot, worst is 47 when it's cold. All highway miles, I've got 75,000 on the car since I leased it in June 2013.

 

I find it relaxing to drive without a charge in the EV-partition of the hybrid battery; one less thing to think about. I'm not worried about battery degradation, in fact quite the reverse; I believe that keeping it at a lower charge-level will be less destructive to the battery than constantly topping it up with frequent charging.

As you drive, periodically you can see EV miles appear and disappear, as the regen buffer overflows. I think a plug-in is basically a regular Prius with a larger battery.

 

i'm sure a ton of people in cali bought them for hov stickers, and never plug in.

 

I posed this exact question a few months ago. As a test subject for about 6 months, I have been only able to charge occasionally at public stations and sometimes at a relative's house. I haven't had any problems. My mileage is just as good as when it was new if not better. My computer estimated EV range has dropped from an average of 13 to 12 which likely due to colder weather.

 

It would actually be bad for the battery if it were "empty". (As in, it'd be ruined). Lithium batteries don't like either extreme.

That said, there's no need to worry about that, as the car doesn't fully charge/discharge - a part of the battery's capacity and charge is reserved for longevity.

 

are you sure about this? my indicator goes from full to empty.

 

Technically, a battery is fully discharged when the voltage is 0, and fully charged the moment before it explodes. I'm sure the Prius does not fully discharge or charge, and the display is programmed to show "full" and "empty" based on safe states of charge.

 

yes, this is what i'm saying. empty on the display.

 

For long term storage, the manual said to use up all EV miles.

If anything I would avoid keeping the car at 1 pip in the battery icon (HV mode).

 

This is a strength of the PiP: you don't have to operate as a Plug_In.
You fall-back to the world's best MPG hybrid car.
In Plug_in mode, some members never use much gasoline.
Freedom of Choice...

 

Yep, plugging in can be more trouble than it's worth.

 

I was averaging 52 MPG on gas and 138 MPGe with electricity.

I now drive mostly in HV mode since it is more expensive to drive with electricity -- unless on the very short trips that I would not get more than 40 MPG.

 

Any way you want to slice the numbers, a plug-in charge is good for 10-12 miles, which is equivalent to about 1/4 of a gallon of gasoline.

 

My daily commute is only 8.4 miles. I averaged 12.5 miles per charge. So, EV could cover 74% if I don't drive that far in the weekends.

The reality was, I was doing about 60% EV prior to the gas price drop. Now, EV ratio is decreasing because I charge only once a week.