Engine Starts at 100% Charge in EV Mode?!

My Leaf worked like that. With a full battery the the brake feel was different, and required significantly more pedal travel to properly stop the vehicle. The first time it happened I thought the brakes had failed. Hopefully they have improved that in the later generations. The Prius Plug-in is much better in that regard, probably due to the extra buffer at the top. I do notice it is a bit different in Neutral, but nowhere near the behavior of the Leaf.

You can't really fault Toyota for designing the engine to spin up—consistent pedal response is a safety feature in my book*.

*Which makes me a bit annoyed the response is different in EV and HV modes. But the brake pedal is more important than the throttle.

 

At least on Tesla, my understanding is that the brake pedal always uses the friction brakes. You normally control speeding up AND slowing down with the accelerator pedal, and slowing down that way uses regeneration.The brake pedal is pretty much intended for emergency stops (and I guess also when the battery is completely full). On the Prius, slowing with the brake pedal uses either regeneration or the friction brakes (or engine braking?) as required.

 

I have this same problem. Sometimes the engine comes on while driving in EV mode with good charge. No AC, no heat, no seat warmers on, no windows down. Can't discern a pattern. If I pull over and turn the car off then back on, typically will stay pure electric. Any help?

 

sounds like you got one of the defective ones or 'friday cars'.

it's under warranty, have the dealer run it through the tech stream health check. it's probably a bad ecu or software upgrade needed

 

What do you mean by "friday car?" Are there really defective ones?

 

Sounds to me like a reference to 1980’S Slang about British Leyland where it was inferred that any Lemons leaving the factory were made on a Friday afternoon as everyone wanted to go down the pub at 4

 

that's it!

happens to every company in every country.

yes, there really are defective cars

 

I don’t think there’s anything wrong. Mine also comes on from time to time. But I don’t have any trouble making out a pattern. It has always been one out of three reasons:

• Pushing the pedal to the metal
• Drawing at or above 50% power for an extended period
• Regenerating significant amounts in a fairly short time

Having a near full or empty battery, high or low temperatures increase the likelihood of the ICE warming up.

 

How do get the display next to the 0 in this image? All I get is a duplicate of the green/blue coloured battery icon in the lower right of your image.

Edit: Found it in the manual.