BRAND NEW PIP owner (2 days)--advice, plz

Yup. The pattern makes it easy to notice when something changes.

Colder temperatures are definitely affecting my engine warm-up (as expected), but the EV driving is still as it was, down into the 40's anyway. Of course, up in the 80's it actually exceeded what I had experienced during normal morning commutes.

We know that lithium chemistry responds differently in conditions below freezing. Resistance is quite a bit higher. So, there is no expectation of consistency then.

20% seems fairly realistic. Of course, running the engine for cabin & emission warm-up results in battery warming in addition to battery charging... making it quite a challenge to quantify. Then there's the reality of headlight & seat-heater electricity consumption that wouldn't normally happen in warmer temperatures.

 

oops, duplicate post

 

G.G., you might want to search for "engine block heater" on the Priuschat threads, because of your Northern location.

Also, search "grill blocking" as that makes a very easy-to-install difference in cold weather for both better MPH and for faster cabin heat.

Enjoy the car!

 

i definately noticed an increase from april to may june sometime. i thought it was the car breaking in, but perhaps it was the warmer temps.

 

+1 for you. Timing could easily give that impression.

The seasonal effect is something EV drivers have been aware of for ages. The thought to point that out to the new audience we have here was forgotten. I observed it firsthand many times throughout the summer. Now with winter approaching, it's easy to see the difference.

The increased capacity during the warm season was something I intentionally delayed getting on video, wanting to avoid giving a misleading impression of expected performance. That's a big reason I waited until the cold season returned to begin filming. If people are pleased with what they observe under demanding circumstances, they'll be thrilled later to discover it gets even better later.

That's also a great way to endorse the technology. Way back in 2000, my Prius experienced the second coldest & snowiest December in Minnesota recorded history. Documenting details of those driving experiences proved quite valuable when rollout expanded. The hope is that very same thing will happen with the plug-in model.

Having studied the design for over a decade and now driving it, there are particular normal behaviors that those new to plug-in technology could easily assume incorrectly about. We need to make sure to be explicit and routinely provide exposition to have prevent that. This is a perfect example of where that effort will be helpful.

 

Err, ummm, I'll have to go out to the car to take a look.

 

That's great as far as qualitative data goes, but unless there's some extreme change, such as significantly colder weather, there's not much way to notice smaller changes. That's why I'd really like some kind of qualitative data. Maybe just using the numbers from the OBD would suffice. I just don't know how much I trust them.

I'm not going to lose sleep over how much potential charge I've lost. But it would be nice to be able to measure it somehow.