While the 110-volt outlet in the 2023 Prime might be useful when the car is stopped, it could also be useful when the car is driving. Eg. my sister needed an electrically-powered oxygen concentrator, and she had a big battery pack to run it when in the car. Presumably she would have been able to plug it in the Prime's outlet and use it for trips without its battery. But my question is: Does the 110-volt outlet have power if the traction battery is showing empty? Is this why you might want be charging the Prime battery while driving? In other words, if the Prime were running on EV alone, my sister had the concentrator plugged in, and then the traction battery ran out of juice and the car switched to internal combustion, would that 110-volt outlet still have power?
it should work all the time, whether there is wall charge in the battery or not, whether the engine is on or off. easy enough to test wit a 120v appliance like a small lamp or what have you
You might have to test this, but (unless there is a software block) you should have power at the 120 Volt outlet whenever the Power button and the 120V button are actuated.
The traction battery is never "empty" First of all, there's a buffer at the top and bottom of the battery capacity that is never used in order to preserve the life of the battery--it's bad to ever completely fill or empty this battery. Second, there's an HV buffer at the bottom of the usable battery capacity below the EV portion that is used when the car switches to HV because the EV portion is drained. This portion is always available and is plenty to power the accessories and charge the 12V battery when the car is in READY.
The Prime has charge mode, which can be switched on if the Primes state of charge ( SOC ) is below 80 % So, if running out of EV range is an issue, switching to charge mode with add EV range and fill the battery as you drive. I don't know what the exact conditions are for the 120 volt outlet to produce usable power and / or how much usable power to expect from it. But I believe it's not that much 120 volt power, so it always good to know how much power the device you're plugging into that outlets requires.
The mains output is nothing to do with the plug-in capability or EV range of the car. Non plug-in Priuses have mains output in Japan. It's just tapping 1500W off of the hybrid system (a relatively small number compared to normal electric motor/generator load - similar to air conditioning load).
sorry, is there an OEM 120 volt outlet somewhere in the Gen 5 Prime? And if so are you asking how it performs or if it performs when there is no EV range left in the high voltage (traction pack) battery of the Prime.
I just purchased a 2024 Prius Prime Premium. It has what is described as 1500 watt inverter. I am trying to find the complete specs on the inverter. Is it a pure sine wave inverter? I have been unable to locate this answer to this question. Thanks for any info.
