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Battery range drop

Discussion in 'Gen 1 Prius Plug-in 2012-2015' started by sandgrubber, Oct 31, 2017.

  1. sandgrubber

    sandgrubber Junior Member

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    Location:
    North Central Florida en route to Marlborough NZ
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I got rear-ended. The Prius went into the Toyota body shop and then, shortly after, I had Toyota service the car as well. The body work seemed to have increased the range of EV travel by 20%. Then the routine service decreased the range by 40%. (I'm in New Zealand... So all my gauges are in Japanese and metrics in km. Furthermore, my drive to town involves a lot of downhill and I get good recharge when I go to town. So I'm using percent rather than miles).
    Toyota says they checked the system and it all looks good. I know they didn't check performance in EV mode because they returned the vehicle with no EV charge... I may have the only plug-in in the region, and Toyota probably doesn't have a charger.
    Does anyone have any suggestions about how to diagnose this problem?

    P.s. The car has relatively low miles...54k km, so under 35k miles. It's generally cool temperature here. It ranged between 35 and 68 F when the changes took place.
     
    #1 sandgrubber, Oct 31, 2017
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    you're not giving us enough information.

    the only way to measure ev range is by driving the same route at the same speed in the same weather, with hvac off.
    start with a full charge, reset a trip meter and drive until the engine comes on.
    rinse, and repeat.
    there is likely nothing wrong with your car, but there is in your measurement system and analysis.

    another thing you can do is measure how many kWh to charge the battery from 'empty'. post here, and we can tell you if it's within spec.
     
    #2 bisco, Oct 31, 2017
  3. sandgrubber

    sandgrubber Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    North Central Florida en route to Marlborough NZ
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Ok, I'll be more specific. My usual drive to town is 25km. Mild climate. I never use the HVAC, and don't count trips with the lights on. There's only one possible route and not a lot of difference between one trip and the next apart from wind and occasionally getting stuck behind a slow vehicle. Before the repairs the gauges indicated 16.7 km range at full charge. Because about a third of the trip is down a steep hill, I arrived at the town boundary with 5 km to spare, plus or minus 2 km. After repairs, the gauges say 22.7 km range when fully charged, but I am lucky to make it to the town boundary before it goes out of EV mode. It still seems to be recharging well going downhill...that is, the gauge shows a gain a nominal 4 km of charge on the long downslope.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #3 sandgrubber, Oct 31, 2017
    bisco likes this.
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    disconnecting the battery resets the default ev estimate. so that probably happened the body work.
    temperature and rain have the largest effect on actual range. for instance, i'm does about 10% since the local tmp has dropped from the 70's to the 50's f. and tyre pressure is somewhat important.
    any change to either of these?
     
    #4 bisco, Oct 31, 2017
  5. sandgrubber

    sandgrubber Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    North Central Florida en route to Marlborough NZ
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I suspected the battery disconnect did something to the EV range estimate. Thank for confirming.
    Temperatures gradually increase here at this time of year, so it's likely that it is averaging around 5 F warmer now than it was when I took the car in. The battery is happier when it's a bit warm? No? (Temperatures here ranged between 40 and 65F over the relevant details). I can't remember driving in the rain ... our climate is pretty dry and I tend not to drive in heavy rain.

    The Toyota guys checked tyre pressure. If anything, correction of tyre pressure should have improved mileage.

    I'll have a go at changing modes... I've been using ECO when there's no EV left.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #5 sandgrubber, Nov 2, 2017
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i get my best ev range around 70-80 f, short of turning on the air conditioning. do not know if i would trust toyota with my tyres pressure.
     
    #6 bisco, Nov 2, 2017
    Data Daedalus and jerrymildred like this.
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