How Often are you doing a Prime Traction Battery 120v Recharge

I recharge mine everyday, sometimes multiple times per day.

On long-distance road trips, we also use the feature to recharge while driving.

 

I haven’t plugged mine in for the last 18 months. I have about 51000 on it now.

 

Mine gets charged every day based on our driving schedule, sometimes twice a day if we are taking trips far enough apart to get a decent charge. 3,700 miles and we've only used about 15 gallons of gas!

 

Hi Sgt.Bill here;
This is just my second post, Bought a new 2021 prime limited in April this year .Have 3700 miles on it have put 11 gallons of gas in it so far.I charge it every night and my year to date is 250 so far.The wife and I love it.

 

Been doing it for over a year now. If it was a problem, I think something would have popped up by now. The only time it's sort of been a problem is if I have something else that uses a bit of juice plugged into one of the outlets on the circuit which is normally any outlet near water like the bathroom, kitchen, etc.

 

2018 Prime, 80K miles, 60% is EV. Charged 2X a day, 5-6 days a week, L1 at home, L2 at work. Still average 25-31 miles flat ground on EV depending on ambient conditions.

 

Although many people may wonder why you bought a plug-in and never plug it in, from what I've read it can be a less expensive purchase than a conventional Prius hybrid once one figures in the various tax credits and incentives.

However, it good to know that the gas-powered engine is doing fine after 51,000 miles of hybrid only use. After four years of ownership, I doubt that I've run my Prime on gas for more than about 2,500 miles. And now I feel more confident that the gas engine should be as reliable as the electric drive.

 

I plug mine in after every trip, and I've had the car almost 2 years. I bought it to use as an electric car when running local errands. My errands tend to run from 2 to 15 miles each. It would not meet that objective if I only charged once a week.

After a discussion with the people here about getting it to charge throughout the day, I set the schedule to start charging frequently. I use an L2 charger and get a full charge in just a bit more than 2 hours. It's set to charge at midnight and then, if necessary, every 2 hours from 6 am to 1 pm. My electricity costs go to punitive pricing (about 40 cents a kWH) at 3 PM and stays that way till midnight so I avoid charging during that time span. Doing it this way, it's always charged and ready to go when I am.

I checked the power consumption when the car is not charging. Draw from the wall was minimal, as in milliwatts.

 

Then we can conclude the traction battery will be likely gone before the engine

 

Please correct me if I misunderstand the way a hybrid vehicle works. I thought the gasoline engine worked in conjunction with charging and discharging the traction battery to augment and smooth out demand on the gas engine. In other words, a basic Prius works the same way as a Prius Prime except that the only charging of the traction battery is done by the gas engine or by regenerative breaking.

Supposedly the battery lasts over 100,000 miles or maybe 8 to 10 years. That's consistent with Toyota's warranty on the Prime's traction battery.

And, therefore, I believe the statement "the traction battery will be likely gone before the engine" probably holds true for both the Prius and the Prius Prime.

 

I disagree with Old Bear. My understanding is that the Prius hybrid system works by filling the battery whenever there is excess power produced by the ICE or regenerative braking. It then turns off the engine when the power demand is low enough and there is surplus electricity stored in the battery. The battery in past models have easily reached 15 years of use. Mine did. There's no intrinsic reason that the Prime traction battery won't last.

In California, the law is that the warranty covers 10 years/ 150k miles battery or other energy storage device. * This suggests that the battery will last in excess of 10 miles.

Without knowing the exact chemistry of the batteries as well as the physical construction you can't even pretend to make an educated guess about battery life. You also need to know the charging / discharging / cooling parameters to help estimate the lifetime of the battery. It's been shown that a gently used NiMH or Li-Ion battery will last a lot longer than one that's charged a high rates and subjected to high discharges or overheating.

I expected my gen 1 Prius battery to last MAYBE 7 years. I was delighted to have it still running in 2019 when I sold it. I'm hoping that the same level of engineering and design have gone into the Prius Prime.

Dan

* California Vehicle and Emissions Warranty Periods | California Air Resources Board

 

Dan, I think we both have the same understanding of how the Prius hybrid system works but you may have articulated better than I did.

And your observation about battery life is very reassuring! Thanks!

California is good that way. Years ago, I had a car I bought new in California prior to moving to the east coast. When the catalytic converter died several years later, I had to insist that the east coast dealer check with the manufacturer, because otherwise it would have not been covered under the warranty period mandated in most states. It was replaced here because the California warranty runs with the car, not the location of the car when service is needed.

My 2017 Prime has been an absolute pleasure. The only maintenance I've had to do was the normal oil change and tire rotation kind of things. This is the first Toyota product I've owned and I am very impressed with both the engineering and the manufacturing.

 

I charge it twice per day.

 

It depends on your needs. If you need more charge cycles with less degradation and weight is less of an issue, I think NiMH may still be a better technology.

This is standard for Toyota, and it makes switching to other brands very difficult. I'm amazed at what people accept from other car companies. My sister, my mother, and my father all drive Hondas (and I owned two for a few years also) and they're not nearly as put together as Toyota IMHO. They all have weird problems like A/C that blows cold one minute and then warm and moist the next, as if the compressor is cycling on an off even though it's set to max. My Accord's battery died one year after purchasing the car new. The Civic chewed through brake pads every 15,000 miles, and this is a guy who's 2012 Prius Prime still has the original pads with 50% left. I won't make a long list, but other cars just aren't put together like Toyotas.

 

@dbstoo @Old Bear

I know you both have MY2017
but Toyota increased ALL Toyota hybrid/plugin/fuelcell battery warranty to 10yr/150k from MY2020 moving forward

Now less to worry about...
Toyota Extends Battery Warranty for Model Year 2020 Hybrid, Plug-in, and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles - Toyota USA Newsroom

 

why?

 

Because NiMH batteries can be charged and discharged from 0% to 100% thousands of times without loosing significant capacity. They are also less prone to thermal degradation AFAIK.

If I was selecting a battery technology for a remote radio transmitter, for example, I would choose NiMH over lithium any day.

Just as an example, I have a weather station with a battery-operated fan. It has a solar panel that charges the batteries during the day. The same NiMH batteries have been in there since 2014. 2500+ cycles at temperatures ranging from 30°F to 120°F and still working fine.

 

So just like our "mpg" estimates, it seems the EV range is also greater than advertised...good to know! I wasn't able to get a Prime so settled for an AWD but happy with it.
Has anyone had a problem with forgetting it's plugged in and driving away? When we lived in Alaska, the vehicles need plugging in to keep them warm enough to start in the winter so I had a little orange cone I would place in the front seat when it was plugged in...helped remind me that it was plugged in.

 

The car won't let you do that. If you try to start it while it's plugged in you'll get a message on the dash that the charging door is open.

 

gotcha, but does any of that apply to plug in vehicles? seems toyota li-on are meeting and exceeding nimh performance