How much electric distance are the Primes getting?

Is this ICE firing due to low miles left on the estimate plus higher power demand?

 

is the steering wheel heater worthwhile? do you need to remove your gloves to appreciate it?

 

DO remember, as per the owners manual, to put in at least 20 litres (5 1/4 US gallons) per 6 months. So letting the car consume some fuel is probably a "good thing (tm)".

 

Doubt it, I still had 10 miles available last time. I think it is the hill and power requirements at the time. I have yet to get all the way up the hill without the ICE coming on.

 

Too hot for me.

I have to pulse and glide with the heat button.

 

My charge is up to 30.5 miles now.

 

Turn the engine on in the beginning then.

 

isn't this counter to what most are saying? are you sure you're not in ev auto?

 

In ref to your last sentence. The engine has a specified warm-up time, therefore warm the engine up at the best terrain and time of the trip, allow you and your passengers to be comfortable the whole trip. Possibly when you arrive home and tackle that hill you would now have enough charge to make it all the way.

 

i thought ev mode stayed in ev, even at full throttle?

 

I think it does, I am not sure what is triggering my car to turn on the ICE. Today (EV Mode not EV Auto) I was going down hill again slowing down. It is a big hill and from top to bottom I went from 65 to 0MPH, about 3/4 the way down, the engine came on. No idea why or what triggered it. Had EV range of 13 miles left. Once I got to 0MPH, I turned the car off, turned it back on, EV mode was active, ICE didn't turn on again the rest of the way in. Absolutely no idea why it would do this. Car hadn't gone 200 miles since last time ICE was on so it wasn't a random turn on to cycle the engine. It hasn't been a big enough issue for me to decide it needs to be looked at yet but it doesn't seem to make sense.

I can confirm that at full throttle the ICE will come on eventually if it detects you are looking for more power than the motor can achieve. So if you are trying to accelerate up a steep hill and you have used all the power the motors can provide, it will kick in the ICE even if you are in EV mode. At least this is what has happened to me repeatedly, not sure it should happen this way. I know that the ICE doesn't provide a ton of extra horses, but there is definitely a benefit in higher speeds where electric motors don't have as much torque.

Once the car becomes more common and dealers have them in stock, I may go by my service dealership and ask to test drive another charged Prime down that same road just to see if what I am seeing is consistent with another vehicle. What is funny is last time I had to use HV to go over this hill (because I hadn't charged the night before due to my circuit popping), it went into EV mode going down the hill on its own which is what you would want it to do.

 

i wonder if it was charging faster than the battery could accept it?

when you're going up the hill, does it come on if you don't quite floor it?

 

Yes it does, about 3/4 the way up. If I really punch it the engine comes on about 1/2 way up.

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Getting around 37 in hilly city driving.

 

wow, that's fabulous!

 

baffling. are you seeing anyone else posting similar?

 

That's impressive. My wife's Prime is only getting 22. Hopefully, once it warms up around here in north east PA the range will increase.

 

Interesting......Gas does have a shelf-life?
Does the car's computer recognize and have any counter-measure's for this?

 

I have not seen anyone else post about this, and thus I am hoping to eventually try another Prime on the same loop and see if it behaves the same way or if it is really my car that is doing this. It is at least consistent so it would seem that it is expected behavior from the car rather than a true anomaly but that doesn't mean that it isn't wrong expected behavior.