Could someone direct me to or give me a low tech explanation of my Prius hybrid engine system? I have owned it about one month and was happily driving until two recent occurences: (1) the urban interstate I was on was shut down due to an accident and as traffic crawled, I realized the "bars" on the battery graphic were disappearing. Would the car shut down suddenly, I wondered, and how should I be managing the system under these circumstances (stopping and starting for 2 inches at a time, for an hour)? (2) I didn't know about the gas bladder and thought I had enough gas to get to a station when the pip started flashing. I had no gas but I think the battery powered me up the exit ramp to the station. The car never stopped running but it slowed considerably, again on an interstate highway. My Toyota dealer did not educate me about the system, any special driving techniques, or the gas bladder and the flashing pip. This car has been around too many years for them to do such a poor job of preparing new Prius drivers, especially when the situation could be dangerous.
Don't worry too much about the battery bars. The car will manage the battery without any special work from the driver. I have run in lots of stop/start traffic, just running in EV (electric engine only) and watched the bars drop down until the last two, then the computer basically kicked the ICE on to recharge the battery to a level that it was happy with and then turned off. Happened a few times as we crawled along. I cannot comment about the bladder, as we don't have that option in Australia, or so I have been told. As far as gas is concerned, there are lots of threads, especially in the fuel economy forum, that talk about how close people get to running out of gas, or even actually running out of gas. The simple solution - don't leave it until the last minute to fill up. Set a mark of, say, three pips and fill up then. If you do it that way, you should never run out of gas regardless of the traffic.
JUST DRIVE IT! That low enough for ya? If you want more, check out the document links on my homepage. Much reading of discussion and lots of owner feedback helped to compose them... in a format intended for the typical consumer. Suggestions are welcome. I'm always looking for newer perspective, as the hybrid market continues to evolve. .
As others have pointed out, the Prius requires no special care or skills to drive. Just drive it as you would any other car, and when the gas gauge says to get gas, get gas. It's that simple. Tom
Thanks for the help. Maybe it would be best for me to ignore the screen animation and just enjoy the ride, even though I'm fascinated by it and wonder about the color changes, etc. Now that I've experienced the gas bladder going empty, I'll be filling up at 4-5 pips. I've been reading other threads and see things about (not) jumping the battery. Is this something else to think about? I don't know how to jump a battery myself anyway, but people are saying to be extra careful about who does this.
Hi Ohcat..., You can think of the Prius HSD system as an electric torque converter. The engine runs real fast when you accellerate, and what speed that cannot go to the wheels, because they are turning slow, goes to the generator (MG1). Which generates electricity for use by the torquey motor (MG2) which is designed for the slower wheel speeds. Is that low tech enough for you ?
Hi Again..., Maybe not the only thing special about driving a Prius, is when the SOC gets down into the pink, you want to accellerate slower, so more of the energy goes into the battery. That way, it will get charged back up into the cool blue! In the morning, the engine does a little warm up thing, and even though its running, its not doing much to push the car for the first 57 seconds on the road. This is when the battery often gets down to the pink, if your unaware, and the car had low SOC when it was turned off. So, just drive slow, and avoid going up hills during this first 57 seconds, and try to avoid using the battery. Which is actually driving real slow. This will help the battery last longer.
OHCATWOMAN - drive the car, enjoy it and get gas when you get down to 2-3 pips. drive it nice and docile for 500 or so miles, then come back and renew this thread. we'll all give you the P&G, stealth and such tips. just drive and fuel up!
