English Prius C Manual Available

Here's what I'm thinking..I should go take a look at 2011 Prius II's while I can. Right now? They are going for about $22,500...color choices becoming more and more limited as supply dwindles.

Why? Because I'm afraid while Toyota is presenting the Prius c as >$19,000? You start adding some of those extra's? Some of which I think are almost undeniably needed...such as rear wiper and center console. Then once you get The "c" up to a decent level? Probably going to be very close in price to what Prius II's are going for now.

Really? The potential just to get a "normal" moonroof is the only difference that really makes me want to wait.

But since really, as a whole the MPG average is pretty equal? I do ask myself why I'm waiting for a smaller vehicle, that simply will not have some of the "standard" ammenities of The regular Prius?

Sometimes I simply wonder, since the efficiency is going to be about equal, why not get the midsized vehicle, where cruise control is standard? That comes with a hatch tonneau cover?

I really want a moonroof, but Prius's solar package is too expensive just to get that option. But is a moon roof enough to wait on the "c"?

I also think I'm going to like Prius c's more standard rear hatch...non-split and not as sloped as Prius...I'm guessing better rear visibility.

So I guess I wait.

But I'm afraid to get the "c" I would want...it's probably going to be very near current entry level Prius II prices....

Damn You Toyota! Either drop the ball....or run it in for a touchdown...but don't leave me in limbo here!

 

It's a political boondoggle. The original intent and purpose of ethanol in fuel legislation was to increase E85 use. For whatever reason, the E85 stations never popped up. I actually wanted to experiment with it back when I had a flex fuel vehicle, but the closest station was out of the way in the center of Philly.

Without the increase use of ethanol in fleet fuel from E85, the EPA was pressured into putting into the standard fuel supply. I don't have a problem with E10. It's better than MTBE, and I believe most problems blamed on it can actually be traced to poor maintanence practices.

But that still wasn't enough for lobbyists. So E15 was proposed. Which ran into the oil lobby. The refineries stated that, without liability protections in the law, they would refuse mixing E15.

So E15 may vary well be fine in cars, but no one wants to hold responsibility in case it isn't.

 

I notice the fuel tank is only 9.5 gallons. I wish they would
have kept it at 12 gallons as the regular Prius.

Looks like your driving range will be less than the normal
full size Prius.

Toyota could have done better than the Prius C in my opinion
Toyota has over 10 years of hybrid expierence and this is the
best they could do!

When Kia, Ford, or Huyandi comes out with a small size hybrid
like the focus or elantra and obtains a true 50 mpg, toyota
will have a lot of unsold hybrids in their dealer lots.

For now we will just keep our full size Prius, which we are
quite pleased with now with over 65,000 miles on it.

 

And once Peugeot comes out with a true 60mpg $15000 luxury sedan, Kia, Ford and the sister brand of Kia will have a lot of unsold hybrids in their dealer lots!

See what I did there?

 

they want cheaper prius that is actually more expensive to make

 

If that happens it's only due to demand and supply.

We have a 2008 Honda Civic LX. Stuff missing from the base c that's in our Civic:
- Cruise control
- Center console.
- A trunk.
- One touch driver's window.

That's it. Our Civic doesn't have heated mirrors, rear wiper or split folding rear seat. Rear wipers aren't essential due to the rear window being behind you and having a heating element in the glass.

When you look at the list of things the Prius Two has that the c doesn't it's really not that significant. It's mostly small items of convenience of comfort that some people will need and others won't.

 

I see that as an easy choice. The normal Prius gives you more space, probably a better ride (because of weight), better fuel economy at high speed, better interior (Toyota will be shooting itself in the foot if the c interior uses better materials) and if you get a 2011 you don't have to bother with the noise maker! I would get a new 2011 if I could get it comparably equiped at nearly the same price.

 

The press information also says the max voltage is 520V.

Ken@Japan

 

Thanks OP for this thread, especially for joining the sections together! Does anyone know where I could download the Canadian version (with metric units)?

 

The power control unit needs to be nearer the motors than the battery, because of the power-split path carrying current generated by MG1 over to MG2 - potentially up to 50 kW delivered to MG2, where the battery only supplies ~20 kW, so MG1 has to provide the other 30 kW. The two motors aren't directly connected, because they're revolving at different rates, and the pulses of power from the inverters to each phase of each motor have to be in sync with the position of the motor to keep it revolving in the correct direction. When used as a generator, MG1 delivers current to each phase again based on the position of the rotor as it passes the windings.

The large amount of current handled by the motors and the PCU means that they would indeed get very hot, so they're water-cooled. One-third of the main radiator cools the PCU and the transaxle, the other two-thirds cools the engine. There are two separate coolant loops, the pipes in the radiator are completely separate, and there are separate reservoirs and pumps for the two loops.

Cooling is an interesting issue on hybrids, because the engine works most efficiently around 75°C, which is pretty close to the point of damage in most silicon circuits!

DC/DC conversion is actually a fairly minor part of the PCU as the most it can deliver is something like 1.8 kW (14.8V x 120A).

 

Automotive grade components are rated from -40C to 150C, and are *required* to work 100% in this temperature range. This is also because the "ambient" temperature, that is the engine bay, can get hot around 80-100C, so you need the extra 50C-70C to make sure the electronics continue to work while current is flowing through them. This is true for a 100mA voltage regulator, or a xxkW IGBT in an inverter.

The special cooling circuits, etc., are necessary because the high currents generate a lot of heat even in semiconductors with low resistance, like in the IGBTs used in the inverter (hundreds of amperes). The cooling has nothing to do with the heat generated by the engine. Actually in hybrids the situation is likely much better and easier to handle than the engine bays of most conventional cars that get much hotter (around 85/95C or more) since the engine is running *all* the time especially when not moving (whereas at full speed there is plenty of air cooling off the radiators).

The IGBTs are mounted directly coupled to copper radiators, cooled with liquid. Without this, even with a cold ICE (0C) and low outside temperature below 0C, they would burn and stop working in a few seconds as they would exceed the 150C junction temperature very fast as soon as you start accelerating. Likely you would not even be able to move the car as in fact they do not burn down: all modern semiconductor components have some kind of in-built current limitation and temperature sensor that shuts off the device before a "catastrophic" event occurs.

 

Thanks for putting this together in one document!! I was about to spend my evening downloading the numerous separate files!!

 

Some expert you are. (j/k) It requires the simultaneous pressing of the trip and display buttons if I'm not mistaken.

 

I wonder if that works on the Prius as well - I mean for those EU models that do not have any MPH/kmh switch.

 

Actually on the C it's only the Trip button that you need to hold down. You have to make sure you're in ODO mode though, not Trip A or Trip B (in which case holding down Trip will reset your trip mileage)

 

Here's the official owner's manual and manual supplement as downloaded from http://clubtoyota.ca, the Canadian equivalent of http://us.toyotaclub.com

View attachment OwnerManual.pdf
View attachment ManualSupplement.pdf