Am I the only dumb bastard

Mike installed my EV switch Saturday morning. He is a great guy and did a great job. He even fixed my lower glove compartment latch without my mentioning it. It was worth the one hour drive to get such great service. I'll be going back for the SSC50P

 

EV mode can be disengaged by pressing the button again while in EV mode. Problem is, you have no way of knowing if you are or are not in EV mode with the NA model. Outside of NA, they have an indicator.
You can tell if you went INTO EV, by being on the consumption screen and pressing EV. Successfully entering EV makes it beep once, and go to energy screen. If EV is refused, you get 3 beeps. If EV is auto-disengaged, you get 3 beeps. No beeps or screen changes when manually disengaging EV.

If you can read CAN, like Attila has, the CAN does output EV status.

 

You are absolutely correct about EV-mode.
Besides, I strongly feel the car has built-in security which doesn't give any user the chance to discharge the battery to a level of malfunctioning by operating it. The ICE would be made to kick in before it gets to that point, overriding any kind of EV-mode. The only way of draining the HV-batt to a point where it needs resetting (phrase quoted from Prius manual) is to keep the car idle for a period of multiple weeks without activating the hybrid system.

I feel the reason for Toyota to include/omit certain features is to get customer feedback concerning such options as EV-buttons to decide if to implement it in future models or dismiss it totally for all. They do this for options with moderate or low benefit or only marginal impact on performance and where they could not decide to skyrocket market prizes by including all of them anywhere. It's like some sort of beta-testing a piece of software, under special regards of a country's customer's taste. More tecchie stuff for Japan, more environment stuff for the US, more add-on stuff for Europe.
Many european drivers achingly wish for the CHS (coolant heat storage) available only in the US. Sweden, as I believe also has no EV-button. Switzerland can opt for Nav in the most basic model, germany can choose nav only for top model. Some folks in the EU can get a rear camera. Japan has automatic parking assistants to opt for and rear cam equipped for all.

In germany we found posted a letter from Toyota to their dealers concerning model changes in 2006: we do get the parking assistant (!) to opt for all models, nav as standard for top model, rear cam as option and an aux audio in for MP3-Players.
See, they are tayloring the car for certain markets and react to customer inquiries.

 

I guess it's because I have found an unusually high percentage of drivers (and I have lived in multiple states, so I'm not claiming a regional difference here) who don't know what a blinker is!

 

Mike, please PM me.. I am interested in the switch ... I live in the Portland Or. area.

 

A lot of people I discuss the Prius with tend to agree with this line of thinking. It makes a lot of logical sense on the difference of features available in various markets. Including features like EV, in certain markets, would allow Toyota to compare such variables as, battery wear, motor wear etc...

I don't buy any reasoning that it's a dark conspiracy to not have EV mode in NA. The argument of constantly being in the pink bars is weak. Being in the pink does not mean that the battery is actually near empty! It is known that the SOC meter does not measure the entire battery pack's capacity. If i remember correctly, the hybrid system allows the battery to discharge to only 40% and charge to 80%. By not allowing the battery to be deep-cycled, the life of the battery will be good for a long time.

I've had the EV button installed for a while now, and with strategic use, i get better fuel economy, but sometimes it's just fun to drive in electric and sneak up on people . I've already been to the dealer for 2 oil changes and they have not said anything. It's a hoot being able to drive with electric motor only. It's your decision to make whether you want it or not, but you will be missing out!

 

I think you are doing things right. Discuss teach inform and let the consumer make his or her decision based on the facts. Then document the interaction.

 

Are you *sure* the non-NA models have an EV *indicator* as well
as the button? What/where is the indicator? Where does the signal
come from, and if any of this is true can someone across one of
the ponds please trace what ECU connection drives it? This should
be really trivial to chase down, and would answer a *long-standing*
problem.
.
_H*

 

*whew* I just finished this whole, heated thread, and find it interesting that no one is discussing this one for the past few months. Is it just that everyone feels we're beating dead horses?

One conspiracy theory I was wondering if anyone had considered or heard about was: could the no-EV in NA be due to pressure on Toyota from US Gasoline lobbyists who are afraid that we Prius-ers might somehow get better gas mileage (with all due respect to what it says in the non NA manual about EV leading to lower FE)?

 

There is no real conspiracy theory, The EV did not lend itself to EPA testing and was removed to gain their approval. They(EPA) said the EV would not conform to their standard testing procedures. Possibly with the proposed changes in EPA testing we will begin to see the EV in NA.

 

That's what they WANT you to think... h34r:

 

Wow. Quite a thread...

I have to chuckle when I hear about "running the HV battery down" in the Prius. Yikes. That simply never happens! When you see the low battery indicators on the display, you still have WAY more capacity left in the battery than I do in my pure-battery Rav4EV on a daily basis. The capacity of the battery that the Prius uses is varied a bit to ward off certain battery "situations" but for the most part the Prius only allows about 30% of the battery capacity to be used. In the Rav4EV, I go from 100% to the single digits (and have even gone below zero SOC several times) and there has been no negative impact. There are now several of these cars running around with over 150k miles on them, and after seeing the same treatment I give mine, the batteries are STILL going strong.

My educated guess is that damage to the battery is NOT of any concern here.

 

They WHO?

 

You know... "Them"! They who shall not be named...
The ones who wear black suits, fly black helicopters, and drive black Prii... B)

 

What's an EV switch? EV mode? Installing EV? Does this apply to my '06 Prius?

 

In a nutshell, an EV (stands for Electric Vehicle I suppose) switch allows you to drive the Prius on the battery alone, under certain conditions. Available in Japan and Europe, but not in NA. A switch can be installed as the software is there, plus you have a choice of having an OEM switch or a hidden switch (ie making a control like the cruise control stalk activate it).

 

Did you actually see this documented anywhere?

I'm not real familiar with foreign government agencies but I looked around a little bit.
In the UK there is the VCA.
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/index.asp

They were able to test a Prius where EV is standard issue.

gb

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FredWB @ Oct 12 2005, 10:53 PM) [snapback]140352[/snapback]</div>

I had a "wandering issue" on delivery of my 2005 Prius. Took it back to the dealer and explained it to the service rep. They did an alignment and I think "caster" adjust and it has been fine since then. It seems it was a factory adkustment issue. Now with 38,000 miles, I'm still delighted with the car