Outside temp kicks engine on?

oh ya. there are so many factors that go into it, it's impossible to say. the o/m says it will always come on below 14 degrees, but in most cases, it's starts happening randomly below 40 or so.

check the faq's for all the factors that determine whether the ice should fire up.

i must say, i haven't seen anything yet, so you shouldn't either, being in n.c., but i charge in a heated garage, which also helps.

 

If you have a fully charged battery and the very first part of a trip is downhill the ICE will rotate as a brake so as not to over charge the battery. A relatively small amount of downhill will cause this action. Once the ICE rotates it runs until the temp gets to 130F.

 

brrrr!

 

It also appears to be related to how much throttle you want. I have been able to drive for a period of time at low throttle in very cold temperatures without the ICE kicking on.

 

There's also another factor you may not have considered: ICE comes on after travelling 124 miles all EV.

 

Yet another factor: if you have the climate control on and set to a temperature above "LO", then the ICE will come on to warm up if the outside temperature is below about 59 F. At least that is what I see.

 

and also if you press the front windscreen defrost button.

 

Since everyone is throwing in their guesses, I'm going to say you hit the 124 mile EV limit. If you drive continuously on EV over 200 km, the ICE kicks in to condition the ICE to ensure that nothing sits still for too long.

Whops Priuskitty already beat me to it.

 

drives me crazy when i'm hitting it hard to get up a hill or something, and that happens.

 

First world problems.

 

i know, right? but i suppose p/c isn't the place to talk about clean drinking water in haiti.

 

The Prius is designed as much towards keeping emissions low, as it is fuel efficiency.
To maintain low emissions the engine must be warmed up to be the most efficient. Therefore The Prius maintains this condition the best it can.
So in short, yes outside temperatures do affect how cold the engine is, and/or how cold it gets, therefore The Prius will kick the engine on more often in colder temps. Regardless of state of charge, or even our personal desire to want to drive on electric.

 

That is one of the differences between an extended-range EV, such as the Volt, which tries to minimize ICE use no matter what the impact on efficiency or emissions, and a hybrid with a plug-in enhancement (the PiP), which tries to maximize overall efficiency as well as minimize emissions. In fact, the first Volts were not eligible for the California HOV Clean Air decals due to excessive emissions when the ICE was running. GM had tweak things to get it to comply.

This is a technical distinction which can be difficult for the marketing folks to get across.

 

i don't think tem understands the difference between lift back and pip.

 

what is OTA?