Prius Prime XSE/XSE Premium dismal BEV range

Hypermiler here too in The Volt. 82mpg at 60k miles. Here's my best range based on how far the previous electric usage went.



The 3 longest cannonball runs, (only stopping for gas) we're from SoCal to Nashville &back, so Cal to Canadian boarder & the Northwest Montana/Canadian border to Nashville & back.

Just replaced the LRR tires w/ all terrain tires - so these will likely be that best numbers it gets.

Still loving PC as you can see by the homemade rear bumper sticker


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CooCooCaChoo: I did all my driving in ECO mode. Having just graduated from a Gen1, changing modes isn't in my thought process yet--hence doing my launch up the mountains still in ECO mode too! Mountain driving was OK in the Gen1, but genuinely fun in the Gen5.

For the first time I'm having to learn how to moderate the throttle. Before it was either flooring it, coasting, or breaking. Now I have to actually be careful. I have two hills that I treat as tests, seeing what speed I can get to with the specific speed at the bottom of the hill then floor the throttle to see what speed I can get to at the top. For the first time I've had to abort both test before the top of the hill due to being scared of the excessive (to me) speed! This is not a "normal" Prius.

will

 

Still learning to use the car but range seems pretty good so far....

My commute one way is 13 km, and this morning the car tells me I only used 6 km of range. No air or heat, just fan.

Mode is set to 'normal', not 'eco', and definitely not 'sport'.

 

Addendum: round trip of about 25 km… the battery gauge went from 51 to 38km remaining.

The algorithm’s probably just learning my driving style, but initial consumption was better than i was expecting.

 

Using watt-hour meter gives different results closer to EPA estimates for MPGe.
Trip up and down the hill gives me 7.5 miles per 2.7 kWh of charge or 3.57 mi/kWh or 120 MPGe.

 

If I understand you are asking what was the SOC at before charging. The Toyota app said 89% charged after driving the 7.5 miles. The charge energy was 2.71 kWh. That would put my range at 68 miles. Is SOC value displayed anywhere but in the Toyota App?

From yesterdays charge I took a pic and it showed...

Power = 2.759 kW
Voltage = 238.7 V
Current = 11.61 Amps

 

First you got some weird math: 7.5 / 2.7 = 2.78 mi/kWh not 3.57

Second the top end of the charge is quite non-linear so your data is not going to be great at predicting for longer trip usage.

My “wall efficiency” averages 3.2 mi/kWh with 13.5 kWh drawn for full charge.

My “MID reported efficiency” averages 4.3 mi/kWh with 10.6 kWh EV mode battery capacity derived from the corresponding range achieved.

 

You should not use those numbers! The Toyota app is bogus!!

The app uses bogus SOC values in a bogus formula:

delta bogus charge remaining * 10.3 = bogus battery power charged

Change your eco meter to percent and believe the car displayed SOC percent.

Get a wall watt-meter for level 1 charging or use Level 2 reported power (but only for serious charges not less than 30-40 percent replaced)

 

I’m am looking at the % of charge on the display or miles/ kwh. Usually the %. I bought a $12 watt o meter a few days ago, but all I have learned is my coffee maker draws 980 watts and the voltage drops from 120 to 118 v when the coffee maker goes on, for that circuit.
Of course % charge reflects regen added too. My Gen 4 gets about 20% better efficiency than the 2014 Volt I had on electric, and 40% more efficient on gas roughly. Maybe more, huge difference.

 

That ∆kWh is from the watt-hour meter. The ∆SOC is from the Toyota App.

 

Good catch. Had accidentally divided by 2.1.

 

Set your car to show SOC as percent not as "range remaining" and use that delta SOC - it is still an estimate but it is usable.
As I mentioned the area close to full not great but lets see how the numbers work with a guess at your Car SOC being 80% when the app registered 89%.

∆SOC of 20% took 2.7kWh charge so extrapolating would predict a full charge would take 13.5 kWh.

But it will be what it will and by keeping record of your Car SOC% at the start of charge and the corresponding total wall power you will start to know what that number is and how it varies.

 

Estimating SOC in lithium chemistry cells has less variability away from the extremes. I have measured increased variability of ∆kWh/%SOC in the top 10-15% which I attribute to some combination of less reliable SOC values and a greater ratio of battery cooling power to battery charging power.

As I reported prior, the measures using ∆SOC vary by 6% while measures using miles / (reported mi/kWh) only vary by 2% but both vary about the same means, leading me to believe the car_reported_SOC is a lower quality "measurement" but still a quality "estimate".

Case in point: One 89%SOC charge took 50% more power than predicted by ∆SOC, but very close to the power predicted by the miles/(mi/kWh) - adjusted for the charger efficiency. I don't see this magnitude of discrepancy for larger ∆SOC charges.

 

Today's numbers.

7 miles round trip
∆2.36 kWh (watt-hour meter)
∆16% (MFD)
2.97 miles/kWh
14.75 ∆kWh/∆SOC (2.36kWh/0.16)

 

By way of comparison our base Tesla Model 3 has averaged 212 Wh/mile (4.3 mi/kWh) over the past 6 months and 7500 miles. On some drives you can do much better, others require more energy (heating/cooling, wind, speed, acceleration, pre-conditioning the battery, etc.).

This is coming from a couple who drove a Gen 2 Prius for a long time. We probably drive a bit faster in the Tesla and accelerate faster. We don't hypermile and use the A/C on auto and pre-heat/cool the car before getting in. One could do better if you really tried, but why not just enjoy we figure.

 

Out of curiosity, is that miles per kWh at the battery or the wall?

 

It is as measured by the car, so it should be at the battery not the wall. It would be tough to figure at the wall since we charge at home, on L2 chargers, and the occasional supercharger.