Help!! Don't know what it all means!!

Welcome to Priuschat.
Unless it’s real cold you can use EV up to about 85 mph.
The car will not automatically charge the battery after it’s depleted but it will automatically switch the HV mode(gas).
You can recharge the battery using the gas engine but it will cost you in fuel. Hold the EV/HV button for a few seconds to toggle Charge Mode on and off. Most don’t use this mode often as it will hurt gas mileage.
Suggestion: Don’t over analyze things until you are comfortable with the car. Just enjoy it. (Read my signature)
If you want you can run in HV mode when the gas engine runs most efficiently (highway) and EV mode at other times.
When you turn the car on it’s always in EV mode regardless of which mode it was in when you turned it off.
Based on your description of your commute assuming you do not plug in the car at work I would use HV mode for the trip TO work and EV mode for the stop and go return.

 

she doesn't have a prime, she has a pip.

congrats and welcome!

1) how many miles on her?

2) do you know the ownership and service history?

3) are you charging every night at home?

4) the car takes care of everything, but you'll do a little better using ev for slower speeds and hv for faster. it's easy to toggle back and forth.

5) keep it in eco mode until you understand better and are ready to experiment. it tones down the hvac to save fuel, and makes it harder to accelerate too quickly.

6) don't confuse ev/hv with eco/normal/power, read up on it.

7) all the best!

 

I believe that is for the new Prime, not the older PiP that she has.

 

Welcome.
The owner’s manuals are also online.

2014 Toyota Prius PHV Owners Manual and Warranty - Toyota Owners

 

You're not clueless, you bought a plug-in Prius! Maybe the best car purchase you will ever make...

If you do nothing except charge overnight then get in and drive it like any car, you will get close to best economy. When you are more familiar with the car, keeping your EV charge for lower speeds may give you a little more, as will a light foot on the gas, and a steady cruising speed.

Your overnight charge will be used up before you get to work, if you just get in and drive. This does not flatten the battery, it uses the charge % from 85% (max) down to 23%. Below 23% is reserved for HV mode, and maintained automatically. As your EV miles come only from overnight charging, when the car switches automatically to Hybrid Vehicle (HV) mode it runs like a standard Prius.

For now, for excellent economy, just leave the Eco button on - when you start in morning you should see the Eco light and EV light side-by-side on the dash, no other button lights. Eco helps avoid excessive acceleration, and reduces A/C a little.

If you deliberately select HV mode by pressing the HV/EV console button, the EV light will go out, and any EV charge (from overnight) is protected until you change back, or restart the car.

Enjoy!

 

Congrats. I just bought a plug in to replace our old Prius.

The manual won’t describe how to drive to maximize mpg. This is the place to learn that.

Plug it in as much as possible. Electricity will be half the cost of gas or less and the more you charge the more your average mpg will go up. Hopefully they included the cord that comes with it to plug in in a regular 110V outlet. It takes about 3.5 hours to charge on 110V.

Once charged it should read about 7.0 to 11.0 miles of EV range near the battery image. Depending on whose been driving it (the computer calculates it based on driving habits) When you have EV miles available the battery image with show partway filled with a solid color. That’s EV range. Once that drains down and there’s no more EV miles the battery will show full again but with lines across it, that’s HV battery. The HV battery will go up and down in charge and be charged by the gas engine automatically. You’ll plug in to recharge the EV part of the battery.

In general Use EV for surface streets and go to HV for highway.

I agree with the above. Use the EV/HV switch to choose HV in the morning and save the EV for the slow stop and go and surface streets in the way home. Use up all your EV range on the way home.

 

You can’t drive to work in ev until you can plug in, the car doesn’t charge the battery enough.
You have an ev/hv button, but it will tell you battery too low go ev until you can plug in.
You have eco/power button, and when you double press it, there’s normal mode in between. That button just changes the throttle position and affects hvac. Not a big deal, but experiment with it.

 

No, it won't do this automatically, you'd have to force it. And there is no fuel economy advantage to doing so, it defeats the real purpose of plug-in-electric cars, which is to avoid using that gas in the first place. (Force charging on the road will consume extra gas, completely using up the hoped-for fuel savings.)

The car doesn't need to be inside that filled-up garage in order to be charged. Can the car be parked so that the charger cord reaches an outlet? If not, then can you reach it with an extension cored? (Use the shortest heavy-gauge cord available that can reach.)

Run the cord under the garage door, with boards right next to it, thick enough that the door puts no pressure on the cord, just on the boards.

HV is the EV button on "not-EV", not a separate button.

 

Welcome to PriusChat! I hope you enjoy your Prius as much as I have mine!

As you see, everyone wants to be helpful, and yet each of our experience differs. If one post says this and another say that, they may just have different experiences.

As a general rule, the Prius will never deliberately hurt itself, so you don't have to do anything special to avoid breaking it. (Gen 2 would continue driving once you ran out of gas, potentially destroying the battery. Newer Prius watch for that)

I would do the maintenance Toyota calls for. Some try to do more, some try to do less, but Toyota is not 'wrong'.
Two items that Toyota never mentions:
About every 100,000 miles you should drain and fill the ATF WS in the transaxle. (About $50 DIY, about $100 at a mechanic)

Brake fluid slowly absorbs water, which corrodes the system and lowers the boiling point. (Boiling brakes just sounds bad) It is hard to give a fixed time frame, as parts of the world have different humidity, Say every 3 years, there are tests to be sure you need new Brake Fluid. Even if you are a DIYer, I recommend you get an experienced mechanic to bleed your brakes, the Prius system in complex.

For DIY, NutzAboutBolts has great videos on how to do routine tasks:

Toyota "How-To" videos - YouTube

Toyota has resources for owners including all the manuals:
Welcome to Toyota Owners
If you sign up with your VIN number it will tell you all the Toyota maintenance done to your Prius.

Here is the maintenance schedule for your Prius:
https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms-s/T-MMS-14PriusPHV/pdf/2014_Toyota_Prius%20Plugin%20Hybrid_WMG_lr.pdf

Should you become fascinated by HOW it all works, Professor John Kelly at Weber State has a wide range of videos on whats going on inside:

Toyota - YouTube