When driving with the electric motor only I notice it has more pep than when using the gasoline engine. It is most noticeable as the charge goes to zero and the cars switched to gasoline power. The car feels like a heavy load has suddenly been placed on it.
All the Primes are that way. It took me some getting use to but now I know what to expect. You sure take a hit on the eco scores when the ice kicks in. Enjoy the ride. I sure am.
It's similar in the Volt. i test drove the Gen 1 Volt back in ... 2011? It was really peppy in EV mode but once I switched to Mountain Mode, it drove like a Prius.
This is just a guess but electric motors can build torque instantly but gasoline engines build torque with time after the engine starts.
I believe what you're seeing is due to poor mapping of torque curves and throttle response between ev, ev+ice, and ev+ice (warmup). it seems fairly smooth to me when the ice kicks in AFTER it has warmed up (that is, you're driving in hv mode with a warmed up engine and the ice kicks in and out, it feels rather smooth), however when the ice is in warmup and the car is trying to limit the power a cold engine is outputting it certainly feels like you're missing something... It feels like they have the ev and ev+ice throttle mappings done nicely, but that the cold-ice safety is a downstream effect after the mapping is done and that is causing the irregularity. Or it could be something to do with mg1 no longer being available as a motor after the ice is running (only as a generator?). Not sure, but there is definitely a poor feel when it's going into ice warmup. When it happens I always let off the gas and reapply to get back into some sort of sane mapping point.
It's an illusion because the pedal mapping is different. It's faster in Hv than in Ev. I ran a 0-60 test in Ev mode | Page 2 | PriusChat
I've only had my Prius just over a week. I noticed this effect and it generally happens at an awkward spot on my journey to work each morning. There is a steep hill where I can suddenly find myself holding up a line of traffic. I have now started turning EV mode off just before that point so that the engine is warmed up befor and that seem to work much better. It does however seem to knock my points down a bit on the display. Last week I scored 85/100 for the journey by the end of the week but this morning using that technique I only scored 55/100.
What you're feeling is torque, and electric motors supply full torque from zero RPM. Gas engines build torque gradually from idle.
