Is it fine to drive PHEV at 0% charge?

It's fine, but you could have saved a few thousand dollars by just going with a Prius HV.

 

you can drive it forever without plugging i. no harm, no foul. thousands used to buy plug ins in cali for the hov sticker, and never plug in.

no need to worry about conserving energy. it's just a regular prius when you run out of wall charge. that's how plug ins were designed.

 

Perfectly fine - The Prime is designed to drive with the most efficiency it can muster given the circumstances.

Yes, If the SOC is showing ----%, the car will use the power reserved to start with the electric motor for backing, or from stop lights and parking, then the engine will take over. You will see both the HV Mode and EV driving icon light up when the car decides it should use some of that reserve for maximum efficiency.

Absolutely. The car will optimize with what you give it to work with. If you don't have grid power, (or regenerated power from a long descent from Tahoe to Sacramento for example) the car will still give you some of the best hybrid vehicle MPG available, with no harm whatsoever.

This is a more complex question to answer because you have varying costs for both grid power and gasoline, and the miles per kWh and miles per gallon depend on how you drive, what the weather is, and the terrain you have to travel.

In general the car is designed to prefer EV driving when power is available, but the manual does suggest manually forcing HV mode for extended highway driving to save available EV Mode power for stop&go driving on the way to the high speed segments and afterwards.

When gas prices are low and electric rates are high, charging may not save money, (but the thrill of EV driving may be worth the extra cost to you. EV driving is very rewarding emotionally to me, but I am also very lucky to have low grid power cost.)

 

You should ask around for the nearest charge point to your work place, and investigate if there are any free charge points convenient to you.

While the Toyota phone app is a mess, it does have a find nearby charge stations but does not give the charge costs. Using chargepoint.com -> find stations ->San Francisco -> filter free: shows a bunch, and without the free filter will tell you the rates for their network charging points.

To use the free charging at ChargePoint stations, I had to request an "Extension" to my local power company's free charging program by entering my tag. I was approved in minutes and tried a free charge at a nearby park. Free charging has its complications and may not result in any savings, but it was fun to experience. BTW, I skipped entering my credit card, since I only intend to charge when it is free.

 

It's fine using it just as a hybrid. Long term, it may not be the best for the battery, as the charge level will be sitting below where Li-ion is happiest. By long term, I mean life of the car, and there are other variables that affect battery life. If you are putting a charge in once in awhile, I wouldn't worry.

For the second question, depends on your drive. If there is portion of highway driving with higher speeds, put in HV mode for those miles. This will stretch out the EV miles at lower speeds. Otherwise, just use EV Auto. The car will go into hybrid operation more often than in EV mode, that will extend the time between charges.

If asking about the drive modes(Eco, Normal, Sport), those don't matter much. You can drive just as inefficiently in Eco as in Sport. Eco might make changes to the HVAC operation to reduce energy use, but for the most part, pick the one you find comfortable.

 

Do you mind saying why you went with a lump sum lease payment? I ask because if you total your car tomorrow, you're not going to see a cent of that back. Insurance companies don't send a check to the car renter for the value of the car.

 

I thought I saw a way to get on a waitlist for a charger

 

Welcome Linda,
Driving the car around in HV isn't an issue, the on-board computers will automatically adjust. The only thing I can add is, allow for a little extra spacing - while cutting across traffic or merging. When the HV battery portion gets really low, there are slight delays between gas pedal response and the car actually jumping forward. You can mitigate this issue by placing the car in either 'normal' or 'power' mode - NOT eco mode. If you get used to driving the car in EV mode and it suddenly drops into HV mode, while making a left turn - across traffic; You'll get 'honked at' if not hit.... Safe motoring.......

Hope this helps.....

 

I remember that lag from when we test drove a 3rd gen prius (why we didn't buy one), but I have not experienced this in our 23 Prime and I've done about a thousand miles in HV between vacations and running HV for the 600 mile break-in.

 

In the 700 mile trip home with my 2023 Prius Prime XSE (with ----% showing the whole trip), the blue HV battery reserve section never lost more than the one tiny pixel separator getting on the highway, which was quickly restored as I drove. I was watching that especially to gain understanding of the car's reserve management.



In my 2009 Prius (non-prime) the battery was allowed to get down low to two bars, but the 2023 Prime seems to maintain the reserve at its maximum.

I did not detect any lag in the power curve in the 2023 Prius Prime XSE (temps were 95F plus the complete trip).

 

In addition to state of charge, battery temperature also can lead to such behavior. Which has improved with the generations.

With the 2L, I don't expect it to be an issue in the gen5.

 

I've seen the same in the 2023. Once it gets to the zero-ev-range, it pretty much maintains the level.

 

If the station is occupied some Chargepoints have a 120 outlet secondary option. Full ev’s tend to scoff at 120, making it available. There has to be parking within reach. A free park charge point with hiking nearby would be great to use the 120 outlet. The one I often use is behind a metal door on the post that unlocks after authorization. Free. I don’t have to hurry back either as the fast charging actually fills it too quick. Plus rarely anyone uses or even knows about the 120.
You can drive it without charging but the added energy from external charging is the whole idea to get a Prime I think.
Where I live pay Chargepoints and the other companies charge a lot for the electricity, usually near 40 cents per kwh. I don’t go to them can charge at home for less.