Should I leave the Prime plugged in when not in use and charge is complete?

yup, it's ok, I had a 2012 PIP and then a 2015 PIP left them both plugged in after full charge and had no issues. You can even pull the plug before charging is complete.

 

no problem, it shuts down when done charging and nothing happens after that. question, does the o/m warn against leaving the battery fully charged for long periods of time?

 

here ya go, go ahead and search

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om-s/OM47A88U/pdf/OM47A88U.pdf

 

i read the pip manual on a cali flight, looks like prime would require flying back to the homeland.

page 133) leave a low level of charge in the hybrid battery when leaving the vehicle undriven for a long period of time.

use the charging timer function as much as possible in order to fully charge the hybrid battery immediately before starting off.

 

what about the advice on page 133?

 

Yup, good find Bisco

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

My girlfriend tells me not to pull the plug early. Not sure who to believe now.

 

it's kind of ambiguous, but it is what it is. tesla chemistry must be different if they tell you to leave the battery full and plugged in all the time. it would be interesting to know what leaf, volt, bolt, ionique all recommend.

 

In the case of Tesla, it is because vampiric draws, one of which is maintaining the 12volt battery. If not plugged in for an extended period of time, the battery will brick. The amount of above buffer in a Tesla pack is likely more than what others have; 'fully' charging the pack past the regular limit for a long trip is an option on a Tesla, but they warn against doing so regularly. So there is less risk in keeping it charged.

Any Li-ion can brick if the charge gets too low. Keeping them fully charged all the time is also bad. 80% SOC is where the are happiest long term. That is probably where Tesla has the SOC at with normal charging. Those warning against keeping the car fully charged are likely going to a higher SOC that has more risk for storing the battery.

 

you think pip and prime have higher state of charge than others when full? both manuals recommend driving ev until engine comes on before storing.

 

I've come to unplug as it's not uncommon for the electric power to cycle on and off at the house, usually due to wind, storms, squirrels having a play date on the transformer or a vehicle into a pole. When that happens, the vehicle will start a new charge cycle and keep emailing until the power stops fluctuating.

Will also unplug if bad storms are on the way or forecast. We've had ef-1 tornadoes touch down within 5 miles of the house in years past, and also get frequent lightning, which interrupts power.

Here's a neat map of lightning strikes in the U.S.

fwiw, we have whole house surge protection on the main breaker panel.

 

Hard to find a manufacturer more conservative than Toyota in this respect.

If it is for maintaining the 12V only without additional substantial parasitic drains, I think it will take several months to brick a full Tesla traction battery.

 

I always thought those manufacturers who recommended not leaving a lithium battery fully charged did so because if "something" happens, there is less energy to deal with.

 

that's an interesting take.

 

A PHEV will have more charge than a BEV when 'empty' for hybrid operation, but that sounds risky. Guess it depends on what they mean by storing.

I didn't consider that they were air cooled before. The charge of the battery increases as it warms up. Relying on ambient air temperature alone could mean a charged pack could have its SOC rise into the damaging zone if left in, say, an Arizona garage during the day.

Roadsters bricking batteries became news because of collectors that stuck the car in a storage unit without being plugged in. So it does take months, but with the over the air updates and monitoring, there is more losses than with other BEVs.

Without the system in power saving mode, a Tesla can lose a noticable amount of range sitting unplugged for a week. A Leaf in the same situation won't lose as much range, but it doesn't have all the parasitic drains; one of which is maintaining the 12 volt. So a Leaf may not lose range, but it may not start because the 12volt is dead.

 

agreed, that's the problem with their ambiguous wording.

 

After depleting the hybrid portion of the battery, the PiP still has 17% SOC lower buffer, that is considerably more than any modern BEV so what exactly sounds risky?

 

Well, the fact that all batteries will self discharge, so a Li-ion bricking is just a matter of time. Then combine that with Toyota's recommendation to not charge the pack before storing the car without defining what they mean by storing. Are they talking about a couple weeks while the person is on a long vacation, or of the car being parked for 6 months or more.