Nothing new here. The gas engine is allowed to fire when the car sees fit in the "EV Auto" mode. If you want to keep the engine off, stay in EV mode.
ev/ev auto = ev only and ev auto. not a good start to prime life. but there again, something else from toyota said the car goes 25 miles on ev, with the engine running. and danny said no way, ev only. so i'm taking everything with a grain of salt until someone gets there grubby little hands on one.
I see no conflict between what Danny (and others) said and the text from o/m quoted here (which I read twice). Only in EV Auto mode the engine may start due to high load requirements. Not in EV mode. Maybe its my English?
This particular condition (in bold) has an asterisk and an explanation at the bottom saying this one refers to EV Auto mode only.
Correct. When power is needed temporarily, for example when the accelerator pedal is depressed firmly or when accelerating suddenly.* *: When traveling in the EV auto mode only
Yes, I don't think it would be an issue under lighter acceleration, but if dual motors is available in hybrid and EV Auto modes, the system might switch to one motor under heavier acceleration.
As others have said, to start the ICE takes the use of one of the electric motors. So if the two motors are both already at max output to accelerate the car, the car would hesitate and have less power briefly while the ICE was started, wouldn't it. I don't think that would be regarded as a desirable experience for drivers. But I will be interested to find out whether it does this and if so whether drivers to find it ok or not. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I agree, and after reading parts of the o/m I tend to believe that the dual motors drive is for EV mode only. EV auto may be similar to first gen EV mode. Although MG2 is about 12% less powerful than the PiP one, to maximize efficiency ICE will join well before MG2 reaches its maximum power.
Just my opinion, but worrying about acceleration times and whatnot in what is designed to be a fuel efficient hybrid vehicle is missing the whole point of owning a plug-in hybrid vehicle - which in my opinion is most importantly to burn less fossil fuel and to emit fewer greenhouse gasses running the vehicle. If you want muscle off the line buy a Hellcat, or in the electric vehicle market, a Tesla Model S if you've got 90K+ to spend on a car.
You are taking it a bit to the extreme aren't you? Would you accept 18 sec 0-60 with a bit more efficiency?
There's slow-unsafe, and there's not-fast-but-safe. Prius is the later. I've driven cars that were slow-unsafe.
try a 1985 mercedes 300sd, with 65 horses. oh well, with 10 tons of metal around you, i suppose you're fairly safe.
Then there is the sales implications of speed specs. Being the most efficient ICE car most can buy doesn't help much if only a minority are buying it.
agreed, gen 4 looked pretty nimble in the bank robbery ads, will be interesting to see what they come up with for prime.