I own a 2012 Plug in. It is impossible to keep in EV mode and has not improved my milage. Regret the extra cost. My daughter is looking at the 2023 Prius Prime; has that issue been resolved? Most of her driving will be stop and start in town. The straight EV’s are out of her price range.
Short answer is yes, the 2023 (and even the Gen 4 2017+) Prime has much improved EV range over the original Plug-In. I think the Gen 4's give mid-20's EV range and 2023 is up to mid-30's miles EV.
Does it stay in the EV mode though? I am fine with the 11-15 miles it goes, if it would only stay in EV til that charge was gone. If the reather is just right and driving conditions are perfect it will drive in EV, otherwise it is more of a supplemental battery.
Yes. You can floor it in EV mode. As long as you don't use the front defroster or go down a long hill in B mode (the 2020+ models seem to have a slightly different program than the 2017-2019), you'll be in EV mode.There are other parameters that could kick in the engine that is unexplainable but generally it will be in EV mode until depleted. (The change in the 2020+ program is probably because of the extended warranty. Toyota changed the battery warranty to 10 years/240,000km for 2020+ Toyota hybrids vs. 8 years/160,000km for anything prior so Toyota is probably being conservative with the Primes, ensuring that the battery will last through the warranty period)
Thank you for the input both of you, going to test drive one on Saturday. Don't trust to get the truth form the salesman, they seem to tell you what they think you want to hear.
i don't have any trouble staying in ev, except occasionally in winter. the new ones are improved, and they have an electric heat pump for mildly cold weather. but how will you drive without the front defrost? why hasn't the battery improved your mileage?
I drive mostly to and from work, about 5 miles. Most on the highway and going over 60 almost impossible to keep in EV. Then if it gets cold (below 30) does not want to stay in EV ever. So generally the battery and hybred are working at the same time. My father get as good if not better milage by just driving slow. I had hoped that this would stay in the EV mode until the battery was dead and then switch over to the hybred engine.
gotcha. driving slow trumps everything. the gen 4 and 5 prime can go higher speeds without the engine.
I second third and fourth all the above. I never had any porblem keeping my 14 PiP in EV - summer and winter. But I drove it slower than normal. Even new the PiPs max EV speed was 64 mph so I'm not too surprised that you do have trouble keeping your 12 in EV mode at that speed. If it were me and I couldn't figure out any way of keeping the car in EV to my satisfaction, I'd just put it in HV and drive slow enough during the warmup cycle where you learn how long it takes to complete that cycle per the outside temps, than just drive the way you normally would and see if that helps even just a little bit.
I do try to stay between 60&62 on the way to and from work and then in town. Will try again starting off slow again. Keep car in a heated garage.
Even with the Prime, in HV mode, if the outside temp is below around 60 F the engine will start up at 20 mph or higher and run through it's warmup cycle. It usually takes the Prime about a mile to finish the warmup cycle, almost 2 miles if outside temps are below around 40 F. If it's above 80 F it usually takes about .5 miles. All these points are while driving the car at or below about 30 mph. Faster speeds take longer to complete most of the time except when it above around 80 F.
It been a while since it's been below 60 F and thinking back to when it was below 60 F I should have said, that as soon as selecting HV and temps are below around 60 F and both battery temps and coolant temps are also below 60 F the engine starts. The temps mix can vary slightly, but I think once a driver gets used to the every 20 degree F shifts the Primes programming "starts to" make more sense. And just because I see a difference the way I drive my Prime, doesn't always mean everyone / anyone else is going to see the same behavior with their Prime. So son't sue me if your Prime doesn't show you any difference at all when driving it in ambient Temps above 80 F and or below 60 F and 40 F.
