First day with my Prius Plug-in

I agree that in your situation, the Leaf is not a good fit. But cheap gas got us into a mindset where living 86 miles from work (or 43 if you meant round trip) seemed acceptable. Now we are in an economy where living so far from work forces us to burn more gas than is good for national security, the national balance of trade, or our own pocktbooks. We've made decisions which are now having unintended consequences. The long-term solution will have to include reducing our commute distances, either through telecommuting, or living closer to work.

Not necessarily. HSD requires the battery in order to function properly. I don't think it's an issue, because I expect the PiP's battery to last the life of the car. But a PiP with a dead battery will probably be a dead car, same as the Gens II and III.

Yes, I know someone whose concern is exactly that: I believe he's less concerned with eliminating gas use than with eliminating those very short trips that are so hard on an ICE. Under 15 miles he'll be able to go electric, and over 15 miles he'll probably choose HV blended, to avoid having a short ICE run at the end of a trip that's just a little over 15 miles.

I assure you, you would not be disappointed.

 

I assure you, you would not be disappointed. [/QUOTE]

I KNOW

 

Track,
As you go to work with the drop in elevation, in EV mode you should GAIN Miles-to-go and get many more miles than the drive home. Check it out on the slower route.

 

I'm not able to move, nor is it possible for me to change jobs. Sometimes we need to leave Utopia and just accept what life offers us. I could PM you and explain the particulars if you really want, or you can take my word for it that sometimes you can't change your situation, which is about 85 miles roundtrip for me.

 

Nope.. While down-hill will help EV, it will never equal the loss from uphill side. Regen/charge/drive is not 100% efficient let alone > 100% (which is what it would take to get more miles than coming home).

His situation can inflate the EV milage and depress the gas MPG, a bit as the down hill is in EV but the uphill is in gas. (Mine is the similar with 800' net elevation to work, and 2000 to the airport, so any time I run errands and exceed the 40m I get in EV, the only "ICE" usage for me is always on the uphill section. ).

 

Consider less than fully charging at home to the point that the downhill regen the 1st 2 miles from home completes the charge. Otherwise, there will be wasted regen potential and you are buying too many kwh.

 

Don't know about the OP, but I drive 1-2 miles of surface roads before the hill, so no need. Its not that fast a hill so I don't waste regen. (I monitor my SOC via torque so I know). Never see the 100% after I start, not even 99%. But I can drive 17miles to work, leave with 100% charge and get there with 75-80% charge (depending on temp and style). . Coming home, I leave work and return home with about 5%-15% charge (unless I need to run errands).
Battery usage is about 20% to work, 70% on the way home.

But you are right that if one had a very big hill is right-away then it might be an issue. (The Volt does some interesting things to burn the excess energy. I presume the Prius PHV, would slow using un-fueled ICE RPMs. )

 

Toyota/Lexus hybrids have battery capacity overhead to store this excess regen. Fully charged doesn't mean 100% battery SoC.

 

Is the PiP eligible for the $7500 ... soon to be $10,000 rebate from the fed for electric cars ?


REV

 

See Qualified Vehicles Acquired after 12-31-2009

PIP only $2500

Why is the Volt $7500?

 

All PHEV's have room beyond full charge.. but the question is how much they will let you go above it (since overcharging full charge can damage a battery). I monitor both actual SOC and % of a full charge (which I defined via the max SOC I'd ever recorded after a week of charges).


Nice thread on this at gm-volt.com
What happens when the battery is full but you're decelerating in low?

 

Bigger batter -> larger tax credit. Up to the 16kw in the Volt, then its flat.

Conspiracy theorists on PC say GM pushed it to max out on the Volt's battery. Personally I think the number came out fo reports from Argonne, some of the same reports that lead to the Volt goals of 40m EV range.

 

With my 2006 model Prius, I always wished that I could recharge the battery because it would run low all the time as I used EV mode (add on kit) to get into the neighborhood. Now with my 2010 Prius, the battery hardly ever gets below 1/2 way, and the desire to charge decreases.

But, having 10-15 miles of EV available at decent speeds seems like a natural evolution of the Prius.

The one point that I keep thinking about is that if I can't charge at work, then I can only save 15 miles of gas usage per day. If I were to say that it was 15 miles getting 45 mpg, then that would be 1/3 gallon per day, or 120 gallons per year )-:
Even if it were at a crummy 25 mpg, then that is 365*15/25 ~220 gallons per year.

25,000 cars per year (very roughly) gives 25,000 * ~200 gals/yr ~ 5 million gallons of gas saved per year. Even though 100-200 gallons saved per year due to the plug seems like it may be a small number, when you do the numbers, it actually adds up.

 

Thanks for the reply, very interesting info...

I should have said "Glide" ability in EV mode. Meaning, while driving in EV mode can you lift your foot off the gas pedal(causing re-gen) then reapply just enough gas pedal pressure to cancel regen, but not use electric pwr to propel the car. Basically no arrow power flow on the ENERGY screen.....

OK, the ENERGY screen....On your Display Audio MFD you have a button the says CAR. Push it and you get the ENERGY or CONSUMPTION screens. either is accessible from the other. The ENERGY screen shows power flow to/from the battery while you are driving. In a GEN2 prius we would use this screen to establish a no-arrow(no energy flow) "glide" once up to speed, by lifting off the gas pedal and lightly reapplying just enough pressure to cancel the regen.

 

It can be done using the HSI also, by lifting off and then lightly reapplying just enough gas pedal pressure to cancel any regen , and have just the first little bit of HSI bar in the center-part of the HSI. The cool thing with a 2012 is you can have both the HSI and ENERGY screens up at once!

I'm curious if it works in EV mode, and its a 'must-know' technique in HV mode to maximize gas mileage, IMHO.

Ken1784, a longtime Japanese participant at Priuschat, suggests a slightly more moderate range for gliding with gentle electric use.