Engine Maintenance Mode

I'm seeing GOM of high 31s. Still not warm here but I've not had to go out in the coldest morning weather. That will change tomorrow when I leave at 5 AM to take my daughter to the airport. SUPPOSED to be low 40's overnight but I'm betting she won't go for "turn on your seat heater and zip up your coat".

64°F for a high this coming Sunday. Hottest we've seen all year.

 

even better... it should be able to learn based on location what the typical throttle setting is (averaged over multiple trips) at a specific location. It can then use that refine EV/ICE engine usage dramatically, using each to their best advantage. (ideally it would have elevation information included in the map to help along random routes).

They're missing out on a lot of possibilities by not integrating the map/route planning with the EV/ICE control computer.

I'd even go so far as to have a "non-guidance" mode route on the nav system just for the purposes of doing better energy management.

I don't think these solutions would be particularly hard to do, it's really just a matter of sorting power requirements for the route and then applying the right source for the particular region (little bit more than that since a region change from ev to ice will require some energy to start the ice and that will need to be averaged in so you don't have a gazillion start/stops), but overall I wouldn't think it would be difficult at all to implement.

 

GPS has elevation data embedded in the maps.

 

Very nice.

My commute forces the engine on each day.

But at 2650 miles, I’m still on tank #2 of gas and still have range available.

 

All in the name of data.

I’ll be the catch can man.

 

Thanks for sharing the results with us!

 

Humm... I would love to be wrong here but I have yet to encounter this engine maintenance mode yet.

The car (Cdn Prime Advanced built and delivered in March 2018) is about to reach 14,000kms (8,700 miles). The gas in the tank is still the very same the dealer included on delivery. Yeah, yeah... I've used a bottle of stabilizer just to be sure.

Anyhow, I've done approximately 700km in hybrid mode over a few long-distance trips last summer. Beyond that, the gas engine barely started over the winter months (make that "Winnipeg Winter" months) and the few times it did, its because I purposely forced it to as part of a tutorial video for a local dealership. For the most part: 100% EV (and 1,800 KWh in total) in city driving throughout the year and no gas engine start for many months. The dealership actually noted that during the oil change visit this last March.

Here are a few pics just for giggles:

 

I'm more than 6 months in with this last tank of whatever that smelly liquid is that I bought for $2.04 a gallon, Dec. 13th, 2018. You know, for that little hatch on the other side of the car? The petrol gauge is still at more than 9/10ths full, and only because there were some more than 32 mile trips beyond EV mode into the dark side. Not once did this petrol engine thing ever start up on its own*. No maintenance mode discovered yet.

* Winter, and some days of -26F and somewhat above that temp did start in HV mode, because, well, duh.

 

Thank you. Now I know I am not the only one who has not seen this mythical "maintenance mode" for many months.

One would think it makes A LOT of sense for the ICE to start now and then, but my own experience alone does not confirm this at all. At some point, it would be nice to confirm this is a discrepancy that Toyota will either explain or fix in the near future.

Cheers

MSantos

 

OK, I think I have experienced pseudo Maintenance Mode on my PRIME other day. Here is what happened.

My daily drive is longer than EV range, so ICE comes on almost every day on it's own when EV range hit zero. However, with nice warmer days (50s in morning 70s in the afternoon), the EV range has increased steadily in last 6 weeks. Now the GOM is showing 38.0 miles which is just long enough to make the round trip for my commute all in EV. A few days ago, I was driving home in sunny afternoon with temperate close to 80F outside. The car sat in sunny parking lot all day, and the cabin temp when I got to the car after work was above 100F. It had ~50% EV SOC and the car was not charged at work.

Even though it was bit uncomfortable at the beginning, with wide open windows I was able to tolerate near 80F temperature on my way home without turning on AC. After about 5 miles on the road, when the SOC for EV was indicating 40% and still ~15 miles EV range left, the engine started up on its own for no apparent reason. I was not accelerating quickly. There was no uphill. I did not hit HV or the defroster button or anythingelse on the dash. I was easy going 35mph on fairly flat road with no stop and go. I had no idea why the engine started but quick switch to HV and then switching back to EV shut the engine off for the rest of the way home about 10 miles. When I got home and turned off the car, I saw for the first time on my PRIME, the pop-up notice for selection of battery cooler. Well, that means the battery was somewhat overheated. In retrospect, I thought the reason the engine started on its own while driving EV with plenty of SOC left must be the way to cool down the battery. I did not have the AC on, so it would not have helped to cool down the cabin temp, but by starting the engine and shutting down the motor, the car was trying to prevent overheating battery? Do you guys think that's what happened? Have you ever experienced similar thing on your PRIME?

 

Hey @MSantos , good to hear from you.

 

Hi Mendel & Tideland

Sometimes, one's gotta get in the word grind to sort out the odd concern now and then.

This "maintenance mode" has been the subject of chats I've had with several Volt owners over the years, and I'll admit that I expected the Prime to be somewhat aggressive while monitoring the lack of ICE usage and forcefully fire it up on a timely basis.

Cheers

 

This is a little old, but I just came across this thread. I would agree that the most likely reason the ICE came on was that the battery was getting uncomfortably warm. I haven't had that happen, but I've never driven in 80F weather with the A/C off and windows open. That always calls for air conditioning here.