Just got my new Prius Prime but it won’t go into ev mode. Help!

I also very recently picked up a '22 Prime XLE this weekend.

I did not experience any trouble driving in EV after my first charges. When I turned the car on it was automatically in EV mode and all I had to do was drive. Battery discharged as normal while I drove. Did you perhaps jump in, start the car and hit the EV button and inadvertently put it into HV Hybrid Vehicle mode? I believe there is a time you gotta wait for it to initiate a gas engine warm up routine before you can go back to full EV mode.

Battery being low could be a few things - did you set a scheduled for charging? You may have had the car plugged in for 5 hours but if you didn't select (the rather fleeting) "Charge Now Yes/No" on the MID when you parked and got out it wouldn't have started charging until the scheduled time. Or were you playing with the climate prep settings and began using up battery to run the heat pump the included 120v charger that came with the car will not keep up and if you were trying it through the app you could have initiated it more than once before the battery recovered the energy lost to warm it up.

Lastly the app - it is trash. I'm sure folks here who have owned primes longer than us would agree, judging by the threads I've seen. Many options shown in the app are not actually available for Prius Prime. Prius prime really only has remote climate prep as available. Door locks, remote start, etc are just not enabled. I've heard some LE owners see those options and get the error you described. for my XLE locks and start are not even viewable. The battery charging card is also rather useless. You can view current charge status but it does not always load the current charge status. You have to select 'advanced settings' and click the little reload button in the upper right to force the app or the car to give you the up to date info (should have a time stamp for the last update the app is giving you that info for). It can only initiate a charge if the car is plugged in but not currently charging (waiting for the next scheduled charge). You can't edit charge scheduling or stop an ongoing charge. Just start it.

 

There are a few things amiss. HV mode is the regular hybrid mode that happens after all the EV range is depleted. You must mean you can't put the car in the EV mode, correct? You said "charged it for the first time today for the requisite amount of time", how long was that on what type of EVSE? If you used OEM L1 EVSE (charging cord) that came with the car connected to household 120v, then fully charging the empty traction battery takes more than 6 hours. For yet unknown reasons, PP's traction battery takes much more charge (kWh) up to over 7kWh for the first few charges when the car is new. So you would probably have to wait at least 6 hours or longer to have the battery fully charged. Usually, an empty traction battery takes ~6.5kWh of charge in 5.5-6.0hr.

While you had the change cord connected to the car, did you see blue lights (three LED dots) blinking on the front right side dash? While the charging is in progress the blue light blinks. First one, then one stays solid lit, then middle second LED blinks, then 2 stays solid lit, then finally third LED blinks and when fully charged, all three blue lights stays lit solid for a while. If you leave the car plugged in, then the 3 blue lights will eventually turn off even though the traction battery is now fully charged, since no longer active charging is happening.

If the battery charge is complete, then next time when you first get in the car and start the car, you will see the "Charging Complete" message on the MID.



If the charging was stopped before finished, then you will see the "Charging Stopped Due to Pulled Charging Connector" message instead.


But either case, if you have any charge in the traction battery, the car starts in EV mode when car starts. If then you push the EV/HV button, then the car will go into HV mode that is the engine will start.



At this point, if you have HSI on your MID, then you can check the battery level and EV range. If it was showing 3/4 depleted as shown below, then the charging did not take place. If the charging was successful, then it should show the full battery and either % of SoC or distance of EV range should be displayed in the HSI. One possible explanation may be that you might have a charging schedule on, and you just plugged the charging cord thinking it was Charge Now mode. Waited a 5-6 hours but the schedule did not start. Thus you did not charge the battery at all. Or other simpler explanations are that EVSE was faulty or the power outlet was not connected or somehow not getting power (maybe ground fault switch was tripped?). Any of those situations would cause the charging not to proceed.

As to the discrepancy with the Toyota App, I don't have a good explanation, but knowing how buggy that app is, I am not surprised to hear it is not accurately reporting the charge level.


Before going back to a dealer, I recommend you to connect the EVSE (charging cord) again with Charge Now mode then observe the brick on the EVSE showing a green light, the charging indicator in the charge port is illuminated and the blue lights on the dash blinking. And see if it is actively charging or not.

 

You multiple posted the on the same topic: My 3 day old 2022 Prime LE won’t go into HV mode. Help! | PriusChat

See my comment there. It seems you have corrected some of the errors I mentioned in your other post. Either way, I suspect either a simple error in charge scheduling or faulty EVSE or outlet is the culprit. As for the APP, my best advice is just to forget about it. It's not worth the frustration. It is known to be very buggy, to say the least, and IMHO, it is a useless piece of S**T.

 

If you saw the "Charging Complete" message pop-up and still could not drive on EV mode, then yeah, that may be more serious than I implied. Please check both "brick" on the charging cord and the blue lights on the dash as well as the green light on the charge port. If all three are indicating that the charge is in progress without fault, and then you still can not drive on EV mode after completing the charge, then the dealer visit is certainly warranted.

Good luck, and please post an update whatever you find out.

 

Any chance that it had BEEN running in EV mode for most of that hour........and you really did not have enough battery left to engage EV again ??

Then......it is BRAND NEW car. Take it to the dealer for a fix or driver instructions.

Might want to test the 12 V battery just for grins.

 

Either you did not have the battery charged and could not derive EV mode, or it did have charge and you did drive EV mode and used up the battery charge. Did you drive yesterday after changing was supposed to be completed?

No, you do not need to set the schedule to be able to charge the car. If you have no schedule then it will default to Charge Now mode, so every time you plug the charging cord, it starts charging immediately provided that the traction battery has some room to take a charge (i.e. not full).

You don't have to charge completely to check if the car goes into EV mode or not, but if it is saying 5hours 50min to complete the charging, then when it is over, the traction battery should be fully charged and the HIS should show 100% SoC on the battery and EV range should show anywhere from 20miles and up. The guess-O-meter EV range tends to be very low at first before you start driving on EV mode, but it should go up after several EV mode drives.

 

Use the left steering wheel TRIP button to change the odometer to EV miles remaining.

 

when you think it is done charging, press the trip button to see if you get the estimate millage in EV,that should be ranging from 25-30.
If you don't see it, best is to bring the car back to the dealer for further testing.

 

Cannot comment on what is happening with the EV charge
(remember no HV/EV buttons need to be pressed after the START button while pressing brake pedal)

But when you have the app open with the battery gauge, then pull down on that screen,
and it will update the battery gauge.
At least in a normal working app and normal working Prime.

 

Go back to the dealer and have them walk you through the vehicle setting and options. Have them walk you through setting it up to the way you want it to operate. They should have a vehicle telemetric?? specialist - they sell you the monthly subscription service that connects your phone to the car. They're suppose to show you how to control your car through your cell phone. They should also know what does and doesn't work on your Prius model; since the app is programmed for a fully loaded advance?? model. You've got a LE, so some functions don't work. Even if you don't purchase the monthly subscription; it's their job to show you what does and doesn't work. Technically speaking; Toyota America requires all dealerships to walk their customers through all operations of their new vehicles; don't be shy about asking them - it's their job.

Change the MID to the 4th picture in Salamander King's post. I find that display more useful than the default MID.

Hope this helps

 

Something sounds wrong, although it's not clear yet what. It's possible there is an issue with the Brick (the black box in the charger cable or a host of other possibilities. Do you hear a click when you plug the charger cable into the cars charge port? That click is important. Even so from your descriptions above of the car showing a screen on the MID (Multiple Information Display) [that little square screen just below the dash where you've seen the amount of time left until full charge] shows the charge complete when you put the Prius in READY mode.

The 3 blue LEDs on the passenger side dash are really hard to miss. If there is little of no charge in the EV portion of the Traction Pack only 1 LED will start flashing, than after 2 or 3 hours on your home 120 volt electric, the 2nd blue LED will light up and start flashing. Than with 30 minutes to an hour left to charge the 3rd LED will light up and start flashing.

One suggestion I'll make, if the car doesn't charge again this morning. Go to plugshare.com (close that nasty popup) and look for a green charge location in your area that is free or a reasonable price and see if the car charges using a commercial charger. On a 220 volt commercial charger (which most are these days) it should only take 2 hours to fully charge the pack from empty. The second LED should start flashing in less than an hour and the 3rd LED with 30 minutes left until fully charged.
That way if it doesn't charge for you on a commercial charger, you'll have that info available if and when you need to bring it back to the dealer.
I hope your Prime treats you right and charges for you. That's gotta be the biggest bummer not being able to drive a Prime in EV mode.

 

Sorry, I left out the most important part yesterday.
With the Prime LE, the app has a lot more functionality than is available for the LE model.
Getting to know which functions of the app work with your model and which are reserved for the
XLE and Limited models can be seriously frustrating for a new owner. Since the instructions for the app don't always say which features work with which model trims.

 

Which is precisely why I will NEVER have a vehicle that depends upon my PHONE to make any of it's advertised features actually WORK.
Never ever.

In addition to their generally piss poor implementation, some of the apps won't work at all with some phones.
Terrible idea. TERRIBLE.

 

Yes Sam, it may be horrible for some who would rather not mess around with figuring out how the new and very often times flawed tech works or more often than not just frustrates endlessly. While others can't seem to live without the shiny new stuff that bombards everyone with many times, x x x x x, obnoxious marketing campaiGns and commercial ads.
It's not only the phone apps that doesn't indicate what features are available per model trim, it's also the Prime Owners Manual.

How to tell if the Dynamic Grille Block and Pedestrian Warning features were turned off before purchase or even included with a specific model/trim without having to pony up the $100 the dealer wants to plugin techstream, turn them on and than tell the customer they were already on and working correctly.

The car is a great piece of machinery as long as the owner doesn't always have to depend on the dealer network for much of anything other than selling the cars.