EV only at 35mph +

I think what you're referring to is the ~34mph limit of the EV-Only button mode, the car will only go that fast in EV mode. Stealth mode which is the normal Electric mode that the Prius does naturally will run up to about ~42mph. But there is also a "Warp Stealth" or an "ICEspin" mode which is an Electric mode above 42mph. All of these modes are perfectly safe to use and what the car was designed to do. With a Plug-in Hybrid kit that I've got installed in my can I can run in Electric modes for far longer than normal. 10 miles or so in EV-Only mode and stealth mode, or about 20 miles on the freeway at high mileage with extended warp stealth, you might call it Super Pulse and Glide.

 

If you use an EV switch to engage electric-only drive, the car will kick out of EV mode and start the engine if you exceed 34 mph.

When the car itself initiates electric-only drive, it generally starts the engine when you exceed 42 mph, because above that speed the engine must spin, to avoid spinning MG1 faster than allowed.

Sometimes, the car will drive on electric-only power above 42 mph, but the engine is spinning.

None of this is bad for the car. It's all how it was designed. And 37 mph is not the limit for anything about the car's operation.

D0li0: I've read that there are lubrication issues when driving the Prius farther in EV than it was originally designed for. Have you addressed this in your conversion?

P.S. Thanks for the link to EAA. I'll have to look deeper into them and maybe join, now that Yvette the EV E 'Vette (a souped up ZAP Xebra) is my primary car, and the Prius mostly sits in the garage.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GottaGetOne @ Jun 4 2007, 05:30 PM) [snapback]455342[/snapback]</div>

With the EV switch, you can press slightly harder on the accelerator than you can when the car goes into electric mode on its own. But not very hard. The problem is that MG2 is not designed to propel the car entirely on its own, and the car is not designed to operate as an EV. It's designed to use the gas and electric systems together. That's why it's a hybrid.

The EV mode was actually intended to allow you to move the car very short distances without starting the gas engine.

Also please note that if you use EV mode to accelerate from a stop, you will WASTE GAS! This is the most inefficient possible use of the EV mode.

As for the maximum safe speed with a plug-in conversion, such a conversion will not change the speed at which you can drive your Prius. These conversions do not turn the Prius into an EV. They merely allow you to incorporate some grid power into your energy mix. You will be able to drive as fast as you do now, and the car will still be a HYBRID and will still burn gas, but it will burn less gas because it will be drawing some of its energy from grid power. The conversions are also very expensive.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(D0li0 @ Jun 4 2007, 01:37 PM) [snapback]455159[/snapback]</div>

How do you go 20 miles on the freeway with warp stealth? There is no way to accelerate using warp stealth -- it simply allows your vehicle to coast -- so unless you are doing this on a slight downhill, I don't see how you can go 20 miles utilizing this method. I've tried and can only "warp stealth" for a small amount of time on flat terrain.

Is there some special way of doing this?