New PiP Owners...More data please!!!

i decided to see how far i could go goosing my pip a bit on my commute. thought i was doing well when i got to work with 8.2 miles of range left and 7.1 miles to get back home. but as i was cruising the last couple of miles she dropped to the barred battery an 1 mile of range. i started nursing it hoping to limp home without the engine coming on. i got to the end of my street with .1 mile of range and about 7-800' to go. i crept down the street at 10-15 mph coasted into my driveway and just touched the gas to get her into the garage. as soon as i did, the engine fired up. arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
i let i t run until it shut off, took 3-4 minutes. i was completely bummed!

 

Perfect car for my short commutes. So far 152 miles on EV and 78 on Gas. Used 36 KWh and 1 gallon of gas so far. Now you know why I only had 56K miles on my 2005 Gen II. I've used it everyday since I picked it up on April 11th. And yes I have a full time job.

Monthly consumption graph says 150 MPG for April so far.

 

Why did you let it run ?

 

I accidentally did the same thing Friday. For whatever reason, my PiP failed to charge Thursday night. So I had to do my normal commute with no EV range. My commute to work consists of numerous elevation changes and speeds that range from 25 to 70 MPH. In my 2005 Prius, that commute was usually around 42 to 46 MPG. Friday it was 58. When The car is fully charged, that same commute is usually around 63 to 67.

 

someone correct me if i'm wrong, because i would prefer to shut it down as soon as possible. in the gen II, there was never an issue, but in the III, a short run and power down might lead to improper combustion or something on next start up?

 

Has anyone did a side by side test with a regular 2012 Prius
and a Plug in Prius for MPG without the use of charging the
battery.

It just seems like the Plug in Prius gets better MPG that a regular
Prius. I have to believe, if thats the case, its because of the
Lithium battery able to hold more electricity than the nickle
battery.

 

you're probably right. i suppose it depends on the type of driving and how much regen is available. on the other hand, it is a bit heavier.

 

Very true! It sure goes in to electric a lot and stays in electric longer when in HV than my 05 really like that!

 

This week, in my admittedly micro-sample of one week's worth of data, my 60mile RT commute came in at 59MPG, or about 12MPG better than my GenII on the same route. Coincidentally or not, 12 miles is about what I use in EV range every day.

I had two days worth of EV only (over the weekend), and about 114 miles of my mileage was driving back on the freeway from Carson Toyota.

 

Lithium Ion loses capacity over time, so I think it's likely that a PiP with fresh batteries will be somewhat over-provisioned.

 

Are you thinking of the shuddering ICE on startup Bob Wilson opened a thread about when the G3 was new ?

I didn't follow that thread closely, but IIRC the behavior was unusual, and was seen if the car had been started up for a short distance and then shut down; then sometimes on the following startup the shuddering might happen. I thought an update resolved the behavior; certainly I have not seen recent posts complaining of the problem.

In your shoes I'd turn off the ICE in the middle of warm-up. If I found that subsequent ICE shuddering was reproducible I'd change my behavior.

 

yes, that's exactly what i'm thinking of. there is a tsb thread and some updates but i don't think it's completely resolved because a lot of dealers won't perform the tsb unless they can produce the symptom. you maybe riight tho, 2012's may be immune. i hope so!

 

Ugh! 70 miles today, from a variety of driving. 2 recharges, I thought would be well used. But no. I ended up pulling into the garage with a warm engine and 0.1 of EV left. Unused electricity. That's terrible! Oh well. 78 MPG is hardly anything to complain about.

For this month, which includes my snowy & rainy 636-mile trip up north, the total distance traveled was 1,828 miles. By tracking plug-in activity and using 3.1 kWh as the per-recharge quantity, 128 kWh of electricity were consumed. Based upon the values shown on the display each evening, 27.5 gallons of gas were consumed. That calculates to an overall average for the month of 66.5 MPG.

I can't wait to find out what next month will bring.

 

How did you originally measure 3.1 kWh? I would watch using the same number across seasons as lithium batteries can hold more energy when it's warm compared to when it's cold. This could vary by 10% depending on the temperatures.

While it can be informative to use dash numbers, it's always best to go by fill-up so one can independently verify the numbers. The computers are never correct!

 

Observation from my ChargePoint account report:

2.989
3.129
3.125
2.986
3.032
3.109
3.110
3.201
3.117
2.947
3.067
3.136
3.126
3.088
3.022
3.021
3.081
3.117

That's not possible for monthly data anymore. It takes too long to use up a tank of gas. :rockon:

So, I'm stuck with using the computer estimates. Lifetime values (shown in my signature) will always come from measurements at the pump. That will be my next post here, probably the end of this week...

 

Thanks.. interesting data. I presume those are all full charges.
that seems to have almos 7% variation (min to max). I guess you could end the trip after a charge cycle or at the min value before a recharge. Or maybe its temps. Did you have the dates and temps?. I only measured my volt charging with a borrowed kill-a-watt for a few different days and only found 1.5% variations and that was strongly with temp. (> 80F was 13.1, < 50F over a weekend was also 13.1.. mid tems were 12.9)

Totally agree on the need to use the computer/car to keep track. on tanks that last ~6months. Besides the kWh is the major power source for me now. Part of why I love volstats.net as I get detailed battery SOC and fuel measured 4 times a day..

 

Actual measurements are the way to go. sure it means "some" extrapolation and daily stats would be an estimate unless you had some way to monitor your actual power used. i installed a meter that i simply added in line with circuit i was plugged into (there is no other outlet using circuit besides Leaf)

My Nissan Leaf Forum &bull; Metering my 240 Modded EVSE

granted the resolution is not wonderful, but over time the actual accuracy of the meter is like 99.996% so close enough for me. The Leaf also provides "info" on performance that is scewed to be a bit optimal to real life so i choose to track my stats manually. without gas to mix in, my job is much easier


Prelim Stats for April; Prius went 1386 miles at a cost of $121.76 and averaged 47.8 MPG. Leaf drove 1347 Miles at cost of $33.12 and averaged infinite MPGs!

 

I started out the month picking up my PiP in Tucson, driving 1,300 miles on the freeway to get the car home - 70-80 mph at 43.7 mpg. Then started plugging in and using EV mode. As of yesterday my overall economy is now up to 70 mpg. The last time I topped off the gas tank was Apr 25th @ 61 mpg. Since then I've driven over 200 miles in exclusive EV mode raising the MPG number to 70. To see my current numbers, go here and look at the first two links.

 

My average MPG on my 2006 tended to be 56 in the winter and 59 in the summer. I've gone as long as 8 months not dipping the average below 60 and I had one tank as high as 64.2 (actually came out to 65 dividing miles by gallons). That is with 62 miles commuting (round trip) 4 days per week. I also live close to just about everything so I would walk most places on the weekend and thus the warmup didn't hurt me. My point is that the Prius gets great mileage, yes 60 is VERY do-able, and the PiP is that much better. My first tank was 111 and I'm at 117 on my 2nd.