New Prime Owner w/ a few questions

I leave my lights on all the time. They turn off automatically after awhile.

I prefer being seen.

 

The car learns by how you drive how far it can go. So that number will gradually change for everyone, in different directions.

"The headlights and tail lights turn off 30 seconds after a door is opened and closed if the power switch is turned to ACCESSORY mode or turned off. (The lights turn off immediately if [lock] on the key is pressed after all the doors are locked.)" https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om-s/OM47A88U/pdf/OM47A88U.pdf page 341. On page 738 it discusses how to change the 30 second delay to off, 60 or 90 seconds. This can be helpful if you have a long walk from the car or park in a garage.

 

I think there is only one owners manual for the Prime.

 

If you've been tending to drive it fairly hard, or in harsh temperatures, then it could be giving you a low number because the distance is its estimate based upon your recent battery consumption pattern. I got mine recently as well, and have noticed that number going steadily up as I drive it carefully within the Eco range recommendations, run low A/C on eco mode, etc. even though it's been charging to 100% every day.

Alternatively, depending upon when you leave in the morning, it might not have finished completely charging. You can try setting the charging to finish at a certain time rather than start at a certain time.

 

I've been curious - we read here that the number goes up over time. True for me too! Is that due to battery break-in or the car teaching us how to drive? Or both?

 

More like the car getting used to how you drive. The estimate seems to be a short-term average based on your last few discharges. Not sure how many (and it could be infinite depending on how they do the averaging).

 

Congrats and welcome to the Prime Time Family.

 

The most efficient way to charge the battery is to set the timer function so it finishes charging when you are due to leave as it will slowly dischage after it stops charging.
However if your electricity company has a tariff where it is cheaper to charge during the hours of 01:00 - 06:00 like I have then it's financially better to charge during that window and take a small hit on the range.

 

Our estimated EV range has been going up as the temperature rises, lower on colder mornings. Best so far was 34+ mile range... not too shabby!

 

I noticed that the OP is a new owner of a 2017 Prime. Wonder if it is possible that the car has so many miles on it that the battery is starting to degrade?

 

No. Someone resurrected an old thread from 2017. The OP's initial comment was Regis510, Jun 22, 2017.

 

If you start the charge at midnight what time do you program it to shut off? You may not be letting it fully charge. If you have set to stop charging below 5.5 hours from empty that’s not enough time to fully charge.

 

You can't set both the start and stop time. You can either set the start time, and it will charge to completion starting then, or you can set the end time, and it will start the charging at some time before that so that it will complete charging at more-or-less the specified end time.

This completely bizarre counter-intuitive behavior was also in the 2012-2015 Plug-In Prius.

 

I was under the assumption that’s how it works. Let’s say start midnight then departure 3 am. I’m assuming that it’ll shut off at 3 or maybe a little before. But you’re saying it doesn’t work that way.

 

It's hyper simple. You have three choices.

1. You tell it when you want it to finish charging and plug it in. It finishes at or before that time, if you've plugged it in early enough to complete the charge and you don't unplug it before it's done.
2. You tell it when you want it to start charging and plug it in. It starts charging at that time and charges till it's done or you unplug it.
3. You tell it to charge now and plug it in. It starts charging immediately and charges till it's done or you unplug it.

It's just that simple.