Hi everyone, Long time lurker 4 time Gen 2 owner and am interested in a 2012 Plug In. Currently the one for sale says 13.8 miles of range which leads me to believe it had it's 12v battery either replaced or was disconnected recently. Because I have to make a 10 hour drive to see it, I want to know if beforehand there is a way to see the packs "real" range. I don't have an OBD2 reader or anything of the sort so I can't view any DTCs either. Sorry if its been asked, I searched but couldn't find an answer to this specifically. Thank you in advance, Adam (ATX4) Edit: Would also be interested in looking for a way to check the Prius Prime as well. Same situation, readout says 26 miles but the car has 110,000 on the clock, so I suspect it has been reset/flashed. Both cars are also salvage/rebuilt.
Just an idea, but after driving 10 hours to see the car, I believe it would not be the least bit unfair if you asked the seller for a 13 or 14 mile test drive over local roads. That is the only true way to see what the range is. Be sure to familiarize yourself with some driving techniques. You want to have the power display up there so that you can stay within the EV power limits, i e don't push the pedal much until you've used up all your electric range because that would immediately kick in the engine - you don't want that while you're testing the range. You could have the seller drive the first few miles while you observe his ev style, then finished the drive yourself. We will be looking for an update after you see the car.
I hadn't thought to just test drive until the pack ran out, for some reason I was thinking subconsciously it was like of running then fuel tank out but now that I think of it, it's maybe a 30 minute city drive, so not too bad. Thank you for that, I'll see what they say for the plug in. Out of curiosity, how linear has the charge drop been for your car? Are there any sharp sudden decreases while driving, I.e. "80%" to "55%" due to the computer adjusting on the fly?
pluggo is correct. there's no way to verify anything without a road test. but yes, 13.8 or thereabouts is the factory default. a 10 hour drive to buy a car is onerous in any situation, except new.
It's the closest one to me, as they were/are very rare as they were never sold new where I live. That's why the rebuilt status and high mileage. Also with import taxes a new Prius Prime is $70k, so new cars are completely out of my price range. Otherwise I would go a different route. But either or, I'll just have to make the trip and see how it drives if it doesn't sell beforehand. Thank you for the replies so far.
Thank you for the replies, I am going to see if the seller has anymore info and go from there. It'll be a while before I make it there but will update when the time comes. I Cheers, ATX4
Hey, @ATX4, I hope the quest is going well. One other thing to keep in mind on that rage. It is greatly affected by weather, speed, and driving style. A 14 mile range in a 25 mph residential area in nice weather will become a 7 mile or less range at highway speed with traffic lights and cold weather. You'll want to factor that in when you test the range. The best test of the battery's capacity is how many kWh it take to go from depleted EV range to full.
Cheers for the info, and I am fine with the variation. I have a 3 cylinder Toyota rated at 56 mpg but with AC and city driving I get 24-26 on a good day and our old V6 Nissan did 11 mpg although rated at 16 city. Even our Gen 2s were lucky to break 27 because I was often below regen speeds and the motor was constantly needing to charge the battery. Main reason I want the Plug in is because 99% of my driving is done below 20 mph where EVs can really shine on consumption and I am curious to see how well it does. Not necessary as fuel isn't breaking the bank, but I am interested in EVs in general and think this might be a good first step. Fortunately the coldest day here is around 80f, so there shouldn't be much cold weather issues. In terms of KWh accepted though, i won't have any idea how much it charged until I get home and use my power monitor, but of course I'll have to buy the car to find out at that point unfortunately.
Oops! Supposed to be "range," not "rage." Spending too much time in Fred's House of Pancakes. Wow. You should get great range at that speed. On my Prime, at about 50 mph, I'm getting maybe 4 to 4.5 miles/kWh. If I'm able to go 30 mph, that goes up to about 6 to 6.5 m/kWh.
Hoping so. Sub 15-20 mph is great for 200cc taxis and 50cc scooters, but terrible for any kind of car in terms of fuel economy. Out of curiosity, does the plug in or Prime (considering both) have a m/kWh readout? And sorry, but another question about charging, but I haven't been able to find info on adjusting charge speeds. Power is sketchy where I live and will have to charge through a pure sine wave inverter to smooth out power to the charger, which is only rated for 2kW. I heard the charger draw 10 amp at 110 volt, but power here is 220 and a 10 amp draw won't work. Is there a way to adjust the charge rate to lower amperage? Thanks everyone
Yes for the Prime. Not directly for the PiP, but the PiP has a feature I miss on the Prime. It shows how many miles you've driven in EV and how many kWh you used. Whatever it has should be made to work at the voltage in the country it was made for. In the US, it would need a 15A circuit. But I would think in 220V countries, the required amps would be about half of that unless they charge twice as fast. Not sure. My 240V EVSE on the PiP drew about 10 amps. That was the limit of the charger in the car. I can't guarantee the same for other countries.
Cheers for that info, the Pips display is more to my liking as it reminds me of the Gen 2 and I am more familiar with it. The Prime looks too much like a smart phone to me which is a negative because I hate smart phones, haha. I may have to do some rewiring of my place if I want to get a plug in because even my water heater is enough to drop house voltage to sub 200, so, well see if it's cost benefit ratio is worth the extra expense. Thanks again, I will probably know more by the beginning of April when I can go see the car, granted no one has bought it in the meantime.
I went from a Gen 2 to a PiP and I thought the difference in display was a radical change, and all for the good as I recall. Prime is missing a couple things and has some annoyances, but the info it gives is generally much more complete. As for the wiring, I feel for you. We lived in Honduras for nine years. We had to put voltage regulators on almost everything. We had 3-phase 208V nominal at the radio station. The actual was usually under 200V and very often under 190V. At that voltage, the mini-split air conditioners simply would not run. The 120V stuff was often down around 90V so it would burn up refrigerator motors. Also the voltage was too low to open the gas valve for our clothes dryer. What a pain!! It was usually clean power, just very unpredictable in it voltage and its availability. But whadyawant for only 50 cents per kWh?
Haha, you know just what kind of shenanigans I deal with on a day to day basis! Our house probably has two dozen stabilisers throughout every device we own, ac, fridge, freezer, etc, and we have battery backup for our water pump and fans. I think on a good day if we have 90% voltage 90% of the time, we’re happy. Only thing is that our power is only 15 cents per Kwh, although we do burn a bit more with all the voltage stabilisers working overtime. Whole house only good for 5Kw, but charging at night shouldn’t be an issue if it’s below 2kw but I am still apprehensive to be frank. Will price out electricity upgrade and see how things look after that.
Since the car seems to use the same charging equipment for 100-250 V AC, I wonder is it tolerant of voltage drop as long as it's somewhere between those?
