I've had a CTEK quick-connect cord installed under the hood, for some time now. Popping the hood to access was a hassle, so I was looking for an exterior accessible place to route it. I spliced in 3' extra wire,wrapped it in plastic loom, and first ran it out through the upper grill: This worked, but I'm a little concerned: the plug is semi-sealed, but it is the positive and negative leads running back to the battery. If it were to get drenched, it might short out the battery. Also, it's a little funky, wedged through the grill. I was pretty much resigned to just coiling the extra length of cable up, having the plug back in the engine bay. Then came up with this: I found inserting a pen knife blade on the bias, around 9 o'clock, and giving a gentle pry, popped the cover off easily (clips are at 3 and 9 o'clock). Inside, everything was quite dry, even though the car was driven in heavy rain this morning. I ran the wire loom (from the fuse box area) over the driver's end of the front top beam (beside the block heater cord), Dremelled the black plastic trim cover piece underside ribs locally, so they're not riding up on the cord. If you take the hood retainer hook off it's a lot less torturous reaching an arm in there for fishing the wires through. There's a vertical interior baffle along the route, but you can just sneak a cord around it. Fed a few inches of conduit into the pocket, coiled it around, with the tip of the socket up near 10:30, just in case water does get in. I'll try it for a while, hopefully don't wear out the cover plate tabs. Replacement piece is $6.42 CDN here, fwiw: Genuine Toyota 52128-47030-B0 (5212847030B0) COVER, FRONT BUMPER HOLE, LH for Toyota Prius - Amayama Part number: 52128-47030-B0 (Left-Hand, in Classic Silver Metallic) Oh, if this location doesn't pan out, there's always behind the front license plate... Still, I think as-is might be a keeper. Addendum: just realized I'm in 4th gen. Have reported it, requested to be moved.
We're low usage, the car often sits 2~4 days. Then it might be just a grocery run. I keep it connected to a charger as often as not.
Low usage just for grocery runs, reserved for a Prius? The good grocery stores must be hundreds of miles away!!!
My wife used to use it more for her work, but we're both retired now. Picture a drum solo that keeps going slower and slower.
