I have a loved one who owns a 2018 Prius Prime Advanced Plug-in with all the bells-and-whistles. I had read somewhere that the estimated range in EV mode when the battery is fully charged is supposed to be 40 miles, but, the most I've ever seen is 31.5 miles or so. I thought I had read this in the manual, but, apparently not, as I can't find it in there. Anyways, lately, I've seen the estimated EV range slowly drop from around 31.5 miles to around 28 miles or lower, on complete charges. Is the battery going bad or is this just a bug in the firmware which estimates the EV range? Thanks, jdb2
You likely stumbled across a mention of RAV4 Prime, not realizing it wasn't a reference to Prius Prime. It could have been a mistake by the writer too. The EV range differences could be easy to overlook.
Depending on time of year mine will drop as low as 22 miles of EV. Still love it... look at my average mpg below.
Like a long downhill run. EPA says 25. I'm usually 31 plus or minus 3-4 miles. People with cold winters will get 25 plus or minus in the winter. I'll get 25 on State Road 54 because it's 60 mph with a hard stop (little or no regen) about every mile.
I've never seen anything close to that and I can't recall anyone mentioning that much on this forum. It usually claims 32 and then in reality I get 25. I drive aimed at getting best MPG.
I bet @john1701a got the spot on response. Yap, only 25miles EV range for PRIUS PRIME, but most people can manage to squeeze 30+miles. Guess-O-Meter is notoriously temperamental to change in your driving conditions. Drop from 31.5 miles to 28 miles can happen in a single day, and that is perfectly normal. It is only an estimate and not an actual EV range. You can get it to display over 40miles EV range, but that will require some "cheating".
I find that the "estimated range" depends a lot on how I last drove it and whether I'm using the climate control. On my 2017 Prime Advanced I usually show between 25 and 28 miles of available range on a fresh charge, and have never run out of juice in our little valley of 200,000 people. I did run out of juice one time when I was visiting a relative who lived 12 miles from town. I was running errands in town for her and the ICE kicked in just before I got back to her house. Many people worry a lot about PHEV range, but I've found it to be a non issue for me. 25 miles is a LOT when you are running daily errands in a mid sized town. If you ever run out, a few miles on gas will use only an ounce or so.
The EPA driving range estimate posted on new car stickers is flat and level driving only. You must understand that driving with even slight hills will effect your mileage. Mountain driving can drop your mileage be as much as 70%. Stop and go driving also effects your mileage.
EV range is effected by use of the heat pump for heating and cooling, use of the seat heaters and steering wheel heater, how fast you go, how quickly you accelerate, how frequently you start from a stop or accelerate from slow travel, slope of the roads you drive on, how much weight the car carries, tire inflation pressure, open windows, rack on top...gotta be more things as well. 30 miles is a good ballpark figure.
40 is the official rating here in Canada. 40…km (so about 25 miles). I have a few friends who’ve made the error depending on which review article they’ve read. If I’m doing purely local suburban driving I try to stretch it as far as I can, but my daily work commute is 200 miles round trip, half in quite hilly interstate like terrain, so I aim for best combined efficiency (so far, switching to EV Auto mode once on the autoroute has the best results).
Having driven my new 2022 for two months, I am now convinced that it has a longer EV range than my previous 2017 PP did. AFAIK, same battery basically same car, but I suspect Toyota has changed the usable battery threshold. Today, I drove 37.2 miles all on EV round trip to my work and back without trying hard. On the rural road some residential below 30mph, some state highways up to 50mph speed, and plenty of hills to go up and down. The only thing was I did not use A/C. With hypermiling speed, the car will go above 40 miles easily.
