"Ready" mode camping for climate control

I haven’t camped, but I can tell you this....

The plug in, after the battery is depleted, acts just as if it was a regular Prius.

I am a delivery driver in the evening after my day job.

During the summer, sometimes I just in my car with the air conditioning running, with no orders to do. The Prius just cycles as if was a regular Prius, as mentioned above.


iPhone ?

 

your understanding is correct. even in the new prime, with force charging of the plug in portion of the battery available when driving, i dont think it would work in the 'ready' but sitting idle scenario.

 

Bisco is correct about the PiP, but mistaken about the Prime.Yes, charge mode works on the Prime while sitting, but the PiP has no such capability at all. Put the Prime in charge mode while at a traffic light and the ICE fires right up and the SOC increases. I tried it once just to see what would happen. But for camping, you'd have to wake up to do that, which is a little inconvenient. Depending on the A/C load, you might only have to do it once a night. Not sure. It's a pretty big battery. If you did that, it would charge the battery to 80% and then go right back to where you began, running off the battery till it got low and then running the ICE just enough to get the battery back up to regular HV level and then back to acting like a regular Prius (which ain't bad).

Back to the PiP. The PiP would get you quite a ways into the night if you started with a full battery, but probably not all night. It would not be hard to try it out, although it might make for a long night.

 

why cant you just leave it in charge mode?

 

Once the traction battery gets back up to 80%, it changes to EV mode. Charge mode is done till next time you ask for it. I suppose that keeps you from forgetting and it staying set like that since it's almost always less efficient.

A "Camping mode" would sure be cool, though!!

 

any idea how long the engine has to run to recharge the battery with the car in park?

 

I've never checked it. But I have read that while driving, it can charge in less time than the wall charger and that seems to jive with my brief tests.

 

it would be interesting to know. i thought it didnt work unless you were going over a certain speed

 

You put it in D and floor it while holding the brake, and it will charge the battery back into the EV portion. But it's noisy and wasteful, so not much point in doing it.

Also, you need the ICE for heat in these cars, the Gen 1 Plug-in has no other heat source (Prime has an electric heat pump).

 

I used to sometimes charge my PiP by something I call "stacking." While driving in HV, if you stop from highway speeds or even close, you can add as much as a half mile of EV range. Once stopped, put it into EV and then back into HV and that will lock in that new range that the car will try to keep. Do it a few times on a fairly long drive and it can add up to quite a bit. But of course, that's at the expense of more gas burned.

 

You're in a great stop for a plug in! Just remember to not charge it fully before you head down the hill. Gotta leave some room for all that charge to go as you drop.

Even though there's no need for AWD here, I would love one of the Rav4 Primes based on what I know so far. I wonder how they would work for camping.

 

On this old topic...
For the Prius prime. If I keep the A/C on all night. If after the battery is depleted to where the ICE starts up, how long does the ICE run until it shuts off and how much battery percent is it at that time.

I’m assuming on a hot day, it wouldn’t run as intermittently as a regular Prius would. Is this correct? But, if anyone knows, the details on the timing would be awesome.

 

After camping in my Prius in 48 states so far(49 and 50 before October 2021), I can tell you this... having a PIP makes no difference in the number of times or length of ICE between Prius's, I know because I've camped with many Prius owners.

The only thing that I've noticed that makes a difference is a higher AH 12v battery. with OEM 12v, my PIP woke up just as many times as non-PIP cars. When I added the second 12v as an 85AH battery I noticed a decrease in ICE. Now that I replaced the main 12v with an 85AH battery ICE mode does not kick on as much when no climate control is used. Depending on your settings, climate control also plays a role in ICE.

I'm to the point now that I have enough 12v battery to get me through the night not leaving the car in READY mode anymore, even in the snow(I have a heated throw now).

 

interesting. you would think the pip advantage would be from a full charge to hybrid mode.

granted, that won't last long with hvac, but it's something.

otoh, you lose all that camping storage space and spare

 

ha!!

with my current roof rack and new rear cargo box, I have more storage than a non PIP. Plus I removed my rear seats...

 

That's interesting that the 12V battery made such a difference. The AC compressor runs off the HV system, right? But I guess the blower motor and other related things are 12V, not to mention the ECU and everything else running in the background.

 

I'm looking at jumping from 09 Prius to 2012 PiP and I sleep/camp out of my car a lot. I've never been a fan of cycling the ICE for climate control, but on the PIP, could you leave the car in "ready mode" and then add an inverter to the 12v battery to run appliances + heated blanket off of?

If the car is in "ready" mode with a full battery, can you put it in EV mode so that the engine does not try to maintain an operating temperature? Prius camping is a whole niche and would love to hear of other advantages of the PIP

 

I might just be the only one with a PIP these days that has the info you are looking for.

Have a look here


https://black.jmyntrn.com/2024/11/14/camping-with-a-2012-2013-prius-plug-in-how-to-power-your-adventure/