EV switch right application

Ok... Let me revise my 2 reasons to 3...
(3) Lazy... I'll feather for the rest of my commute when I can so if I stay EV I won't have to.

 

Ah. I enter EV mode as soon as I start up the Prius. If I didn't, the ICE would come on and I would not be able to enter EV until the proper state was attained.

So... I'm in EV out the garage, up the street, back up to the top of the hill, down the hill, and down that last street before having the ICE on.

 

Yes. Two other pre-conditions... Speed is below 34 mph and SOC is 3 or higher.

BTW -- it will disengage when the stalk is pulled again, when you hit 34 mph, when you get to SOC 2, or if you are too demanding on wheel power.

 

On the differences between the standard EV switch and the one using the cruise control stalk from Coastal, the Coastal one takes something like 3 seconds to engage, and is reasonably impossible to engage while turning a corner. This is because the cruise control stalk rotates with the steering wheel, and is hard to keep held until the 3 seconds are up. It also takes 3 seconds to manually disengage. The only time this bothers me is when I am already on the battery screen, and don't get the usual beep telling me EV mode has been engaged. Did I hold it long enough yet?

All that said, I opted for the Coastal version because it was an elegant solution, and did not mar my dash with a button I theoretically shouldn't have... It is also quicker to find while driving without looking.

Another note on both versions, if you try to engage it when you shouldn't, you'll get 3 beeps.

 

Heh-heh, I knew this was the wrong site to say 3 when I wrote it.

Two is what the paperwork says, but I think they use an RC circuit to accomplish the timing, and the tolerance of the C varies enough to make the timing vary greatly from installation to installation.

I can usually slowly count to 4 before it engages...

 

??? If the engine isn't started, it isn't warming up. And you won't get any cabin heat either (except maybe a dribble from the PTC heaters). Some heat will be generated by the inverter/converter and motor, but not much, and it's on a separate coolant circuit from the engine.

 

Sooo - I ordered the EV mod from the coastal website, and now I'm finding all the topics about how bad the customer service is from these guys. Just curious - anybody have an idea how long I can expect to wait for this? (Not complaining, just curious.) Didn't have to wait as long as I thought I would for the car, so we'll see how this goes!

 

If I recall correctly, I didn't wait long at all... two weeks... maybe less. No complaints.

 

Great! Was this recently?

 

Pretty recently... I ordered it sometime in mid-November. Arrived early December if I recall correctly.

I got an email notification that it had been shipped too... confirmation number and all.

 

I don't have my EV mod yet...

I've noticed that it doesn't take much "accelerator angle" before ICE kicks in after a complete stop (speaking specifically of the time after the car is all warmed up and it's running in normal 'ICE off at a stop' mode)

So, I'm wondering, when you talk about EV disengaging if you are too demanding, is it possible to get a feel for what "too demanding" is? Is it the same amount of too demanding that makes my ICE come on in this example, or do you have a little more push available in EV?

Thanks!