PIP general question for a new comer

Too bad they didn't have it charged for you. Here are my thoughts (in red) on your questions:

My question
1) Are there two batteries in the PIP? One battery for EV mode and one battery for HV mode? The icon battery is for HV and the miles under the battery Icon is for the EV battery? No. Just different states of charge in the same 4.4 kWh battery.
2) How can you check if the main battery is still good? See how many miles it estimates for EV range with a full charge after you've driven it long enough for it to learn your style. But I've never heard of a PiP battery going bad yet, although they have lost a little range.
3) For those of you who drive a PIP 2013, how many miles can you drive in EV mode with a 4 years old lithium-Ion battery? It depends. In pleasant weather w/o running A/C, I can go 12 or more miles depending on speed and how often the idiot traffic engineers here make me slam on the brakes and then re-accellerate to 55 mph. Normally, 10 or 11. But most of my driving is on 45-60 mph roads.
4) When the battery is full, can we start driving in HV mode and keeping the EV mode for slow trafic Certainly.
5) Can we recharge the main battery when going down hill. Yup. Just like any Prius, only you can keep charging on really big hills that would force you into B mode in a regular Prius.
6) When I saw the average consumption on Fuelly for PIP, I have the feeling people who bought it in 2012 are recharging it and others dont. I don't know. If I have to drive long distance w/o charging, I get about 60 mpg under the miserable conditions I already described.​

Everything else being equal, low mileage is better for several reasons.

Great as the PiP is, the Prime blows it away from all that I've read here. Enjoy the shopping!

 

60 is what I get if I can get it warmed up. Actual HV average for me is 53 right now. But a lot of times, the engine only has to run long enough to warm up. Not good for fuel mpg.

Yes, it way easier to stay in EV with this than with a Gen 2. Not sure how it compares to a normal Gen 3. Battery icon will stay solid till the EV range is almost used up (something less than 1.0 miles, but I don't have time to look it up). Then it turns to bars like a regular gen 3.

Idiot traffic engineers have roads with 60 mph speed limits and traffic lights that turn red just as you get there -- about one every stinking mile. And yes, there are the drunken Indy racers to contend with no matter what you drive.

Yes, PiP is really nice, but I'm lusting for a Prime. Hard decision.

 

pretty difficult to test the health of the battery. most people seem to get between 8 an 16 miles depending on speed and weather. winter is an ev range killer. don't buy one before testing with a full charge. all the best with your decision!

 

I have a 2014 Prius Plug In and I can get 8-10 miles on ev mode on 40F weather, on warm weather I get a little bit more, one of the things I love about this car is when you travel and take freeways where there is a lot of down hills you get to recharge the battery, last time I recharged the battery from 0 to 9 miles, I was able to use those miles in the small town, in my way back the same thing, one of the things I do is get out of ev mode as soon as I go over 55 mph and use ev mode on the city only, there is a button to do so as long as you have miles left.

 

takes some serious downhill to recharge. i have never been able to do it in these flatlands.

 

If the EV portion of the battery is depleted or nearly depleted, it'll act pretty much like a normal Prius. But I've never been in a traffic jam long enough yet to start the engine on my PiP. But then, I've only had it six months.

 

Let us know how the overnight test goes.

 

The punch line

 

Going from full to empty:
100% SOC (State of Charge) to ~85% SOC is a buffer reserved by Toyota for battery longevity - unusable.
~85% to ~23% SOC is dedicated to EV drive. This is ~2.7 kWh (out of 4.4 kWh) when new, older battery - a bit less (the kWh I mean, not the percentage). 23% is 6 bars on the battery icon when in HV drive, it is also the target SOC the system is most comfortable to be in when in HV drive, when lower than that the engine works a bit harder to fill it back, when higher than that the electric motor assist more and use the excess.
~17% SOC is 2 bars and the allowed minimum, engine will be forced to kick in for charging back towards 23%.
~17% to 0% SOC is a lower buffer - unusable.

From empty to full by wall recharge or regeneration downhill:
~17% to ~27% SOC is devoted to HV drive. 27% is about 8 bars on the icon (full HV portion). You cannot switch to EV mode.
~27%+ - battery icon changes to EV (no separate bars) and estimate EV miles appears (about 1 mile when new, a bit less for older battery) at this stage and on you are still in HV mode but you can manually switch to EV mode.
~29% SOC - system automatically switch from HV mode to EV mode (if not done manually earlier).
~85% SOC 'full' battery.

We have found by reports of members here that a typical battery looses about 2.5 - 3.5% per year (this is a ball-park-figure and we do not know if it is completely linear with time and use). So 4 years battery in good conditions (not being abused), average mileage can be expected to loose 10-14% of its usable charge.
Look for 'battery degradation' in this forum with the search tool to learn more.

 

I just got my 2012 and the estimate it provides me everyone morning is between 9.1 and 9.9 miles EV. It's about right as I can get into town one way. Wish it were more, but I'm happy there is some.

 

Yea, I just got mine a month ago and I get about 11.2 11.0 miles on EV on a full charge.
From what I heard is the car does learn your driving habits, but the best way is to not go passed 40-45% power on grid in order to maximize your EV range. Yes you're a turtle in the beginning but once it moves it's not bad.
Also, A/C plays a big role along with starting and stopping, air pressure in tires, and hills.
I tend to feather and go/coast approach. Hope that helps to maximize EV range.

 

So, did you get the PiP? How did the test drive go?