Ive had my prime for about a week and LOVE the car, I have a 51 mile commute each way... When I get to work, I use an outlet out doors with a 50ft 10guage extension cord to charge. My question: Is there anything you guys can suggest that I could cover where I plug the extension cord into my “brick” ? (Apparently from what I’ve read on here I don’t need to worry about the “brick” itself In the rain.... but where the two connect I’m concerned about. Any suggestions?
Use one of those? Westinghouse EZ Extension Cord Protection Box - Secures & Protects Outdoor Cords - Walmart.com
You may also want to think twice about charging so frequently. I also have a 103 round trip drive each day and I worry about over-use. If I were u, I'd use 50% on the way there and 50% on the way home -- just my .02. I only use electric on downhill grades or even slopes. U can find an elevation-centric map at doogal.uk SM-G950U using PriusChat mobile app
Now you have me thinking.... SHOULD you and I be concerned about charging so frequently? What are the consequences if we continue? (Battery failure? Charger failure?)
How about I just sell it for $1000 I thought the question was valid.....although I’m not going to change my charging habits..... it’ll be good to know what type of expense I may/may not have soon!
I'll be right over with the $1000 cash! The car was designed to be charged a lot. Plug it in as much as you can. Save all the gas you can and relax you have one of the most reliable cars ever built.
I look at the battery a lot like I look at a phone battery. The more wear (use) it takes, the shorter its life span is going to be. I don't charge it compulsively and I never charge it in the heat or when the car is super hot. I've gotten 75mpg over the first 16K and I've only had the car for about nine months - since Thanksgiving 2017. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Lots of people charge the PiP two or more times a day and almost every unwrecked PiP is still in use. They came out in 2012, btw. My 2013 will turn over 80,000 miles tomorrow. I plug it in about 10-12 times a week. Yesterday, I started out showing a predicted range of 12.8 miles on a car that the EPA said should go 11 miles on a charge. In ideal conditions, I get 12-14 miles, but usually about 11. The Prime should turn out the same or better. The batteries in Prii are constantly charging and discharging as you drive them. Whether you plug it in or not, it wears as you drive it. And it gets old as you turn the calendar pages. Might as well use it since you bought it.
But the Prius does not look at its battery like a phone looks at its battery. The Prius keeps the charge in a relatively narrow band in the middle. Something like between 23% and 80% state of charge. Not sure what it is for the Prime, but they take the same precautions. Solar power controllers do that for their batteries, too. It GREATLY extends their life. That's how they can warrant it for 10 years or 150,000 miles in CARB states. Most last longer than that. However, the battery is constantly charging and discharging as you drive even if you don't plug in. So plugging in has no real effect on battery life. It's designed to be used. The car will protect the battery far better than you or I can protect it.
Well, we've owned our Prime for just about one year (since last August). Because I have a very old smartphone, I could not set up the usual Entune "push" notifications of charging events. So, I have Entune sending an email message to my internet service provider and have it forwarded to both my email and, as a text message, to my phone. Hence, I have an archive of the dates and times of each charging event message. In the year we've owned the prime, I have received 704 messages. That works out to a little less than two charge completions per day. While I don't have a regular commute, I know that the Prime is marketed as being designed for a 20-mile daily commute with charging at work and charging at home. And that would be two charging events per day. As jerrymildred points out, any hybrid automobile is constantly charging and discharging its traction battery. That's the concept of a hybrid. The Prime adds a larger battery and a plug-in capability. If your driving pattern is like mine -- many short local trips -- it's perfectly OK to plug the car in when you can, even if the battery is not fully discharged or if you don't have enough time to bring it up to full charge. This "topping off" charging strategy will become more common as more places make charging stations available. (The "plug-in reminder notification" is the result of stopping at my home for a few minutes without plugging-in the Prime. It knows where it lives -- and it wants to be plugged-in!)
I will also throw in that 100% charge on the display is actually about 82% SOC, so you're not fully charging the battery ever and this is intentional as this has much less wear on the battery.
