Hello all, 1st time newbie poster here. Before my question, a quick public thanks to Evan who gave up the heart of a day earlier this week to give me a rather comprehensive introduction to the Prius. It's a shame Toyota doesn't have a referral program for new purchases. A Scenario: I live 1.5 miles from my workplace, level roads between. Speed limits along the path are 30 MPH. I've seen claims that EV mode can have a range of to 2-3 miles. For the sake of this question let's assume that the 1.5 miles between my home and workplace is within the range of EV mode assuming a full SOC. Given that the ICE will not warmup to most efficient operating modes in the distance of my short commute (less than 5 minutes), is driving one leg of the commute (say mornings) in all EV mode more or less efficient than driving that leg with a cold ICE? (Let's also assume that the battery is charged during a driving session where the ICE was warm). Any thoughts/instincts on this scenario?
My instinct says that savings in a 1.5 mile commute are negligible. Impact on the battery in the course of a year are measurable. I would not bother. Your commute is so short that you would not consume 13 as much as me even if you drove a hummer. Driving the Prius at 25 MPG for a 3 mile round trip will use only a pint per day. At this point, if you could double that, you would save a gallon of gas every 16 days. What is that, 15 cents per day?
In most cases the EV button is for fun, quiet operation, whatever. Most people won't get a mileage benefit, but a few could. In your case for such a short commute the only way to tell would be to try it. Likely there'd be little difference. So if you get the button, for fun you could try both ways and see what's better. But you'll likely not get the gas savings to make up fro the cost of the button.
I agree with all the various points made above, but my curiosity re the root question remains--- Does anyone know definatively (or think they know) how the efficiencies compare between using EV vs a cold ICE, assuming the charge for the batteries came from a warm ICE? IOW which is worse, cold ICE performance or the inefficiencies introduced by battery storage?
some where along the line your going to burn gas to keep the battery charged. There is no free lunch and in 1.5 miles your never going to get it warm enought to even replenish the thermous never mind charge the battery full. This is probably a case for an Echo.
