Prius Prime: detail about Charge-Mode

i leave mu pip in the hybrid charge zone every winter for two months. after 6-7 years and 40,000 ev miles, plus 20,000 hv miles, self discharge is minimal, in terms of dropping bars.

but i don't recall a warning in the o/m like prime. perhaps a change in chemistry?

 

My normal commute uses about 20%. If I have appointments after work I will go through the full charge. I’d really like to go 2 days of normal charging before plug in. Just wondering how many hours I should charge it at the slow rate. Thanks

 

what do you mean by '2 days of normal charging before plugging in'?

 

i think my previous comment was out of place now that I have a better understanding of the modes after 3 weeks

 

Anybody have a idea why my "fully charged mileage" would drop off? I live in central FL. where 40 degrees is cold, drive 25-30 mile local trips. I was getting 28-30 miles per full charge. MY MPG gauge stayed on 199.9mph forever, not so anymore. It dropped to 20-21 miles per charge before the gas motor kicks in. Dealer says it has no codes. Any thoughts?

 

As noted above, the use of the heat pump will use quite a bit of energy. Keep in mind that when the outside temperature is 40-degrees and you've set your cabin temperature to 70-degrees, the heat pump is trying to make up for a 30-degree difference. That's as much effort as bringing your cabin temperature down to 70-degrees when it's a scorching 100-degrees outside. (Of course, the climate system is not equally efficient in both cooling and heating modes, but you get the idea.)

When I had a sudden drop in mileage about a year ago, I discovered it was caused by the Prime not being in "ECO mode". I always leave the vehicle in "ECO mode" but notice that it's usually de-selected after I get the car back from periodic maintenance at the dealership. So, be sure to check out the indicator light on your dashboard display.

More information and illustrations about "ECO mode" in this earlier post: EV range | Page 5 | PriusChat

 

“Charging to 30% will last far longer than charging to 84%. For example, charging the batteries to 100% usable/84% "real" SOC and discharging them before charging again will give about 1200 charge cycles before losing 30% of its capacity, but charging to 30% usable will get you about 3,000 charge cycles before losing 30%.”

I like this break-down. I’ve seen the graphs but seeing it written down made me think, what do you get out of the battery before losing 30% capacity in each case.

84% x 1200cycles = 100800% battery capacity used
30% x 3000cycles = 90000% battery capacity used, self limit EV miles to a third of normal.

I say just drive it and just charge it. For over a year we have plugged wife’s Prime in every time we park, and after a year we still have a happy traction battery that can give 38 EV miles in the Summer, and in 5F polar vortex drive all EV (no heat, less that 55MPH).

If Toyota thought full (more like middle 60%) traction battery charges would significantly effect vehicle (8 - 10 year warrenty claims) they would have tweaked the min/max charging points more. If there was a real battery problem we would have heard from Arizona owners like we did for the early Leaf deterioration battery problems.

 

I had a great day here. It was in the 30’s in the morning, less than 3 miles. In the afternoon it was 50-60 degrees. 33 miles on 1 charge

 

Oops. We don’t get to use 84% of traction battery charge, only the middle approximately 60%. So the math changes;

60% x 1200cycles = 72000% battery capacity used
30% x 3000cycles = 90000% battery capacity used, self limit EV miles to a third of normal.

I also realized that to use 30% of the traction battery you need to charge to approximately 50% because of the unused approx 20% buffers. Also I have to check how low the study discharged the battery in each cycle. I’m sure they didn’t stop discharge at 20% like the Prius does. So the math is not accurate.

 

Let me know when you get here
,,,

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I use the remote warm-up while plugged in.

 

how does thatwork, did they change it on the 20?

 

You just push the 'auto a/c' on the remote. It will cut on the climate control on your last setting.

 

cool! that must be a new feature

 

i have remote a/c, but he says remote warm up.

does prime remote start heat with the heat pump while plugged in?

 

I can't get this to work. If I precondition the car it throws off the charging so that it takes another 30 minutes to get back to 100%, and by then the cabin isn't warm anymore. So, unless I'm willing to leave with less than a full charge preconditioning is a useless feature.