Plug-In Prius: real winter driving

Yes my cabin heater was heating at full blast all the way & with heated seats on. (Man it's my first car with heated seats, I will NEED heated seats in all my future cars now)

Today, temperature was at -4°F (-15°F with windchill). The car was programmed to charge just before I leave so the battery temp may have been higher when I started. The EV mode was not as sluggish as yesterday. I could not be in pure EV mode on the highway but hey, the car used the EV-Boost mode on the whole trip. When I got out of Highway, the EV mode kicked-in and I could do the remaining mile or so to work in pure EV.

However, on the highway, I had to be a little in the PWR zone to maintain speed at 65 mph. I did a little experiment on the way. While in EV mode, I had to stay a little in the PWR zone, I then switched to HV mode without changing accelerator pressure and saw that the throttle bar dropped to only 3/4 of the ECO zone in HV mode for the same power. That confirm that the PiP is limiting EV power when temperature is very low.

I arrived to work with 3.4 miles remaining and a better 67 MPG reading.

I suppose that the highway speed limitation is somewhere between -4°F and -13°F. Or maybe the battery was warmer due to the morning charge.

 

thanks, hiccups are gone now.

 

glad I could help

 

This would be reasonable. I would be more concerned if it didn't. As the temperature of the battery gets very low drawing too much charge will strain the batteries. This is one of the other reasons I am so nervous about the LEAFs passive battery management.

 

Thanks for that experimentation/confirmation.

Usually, it is the other way around. The bar in EV mode is shorter than the HSI bar in HV mode.

It is great to see you adjusted and maximized PiP operation through understanding of the car.

 

You are right, usually, the EV bar seems to give more power & torque than the "ECO" portion of the HV mode. In very cold situations, it is the opposite.

I'm glad that the PiP still run great in these extreme temperatures.

 

Yes but I think that all Leaf sold in Canada are equipped with a winter package that includes a battery heater. (Which activate at temperature below 14°F and draw little current.) So I think the cold temperatures are not an issue for the Leaf. I heard that the 2013 Leaf may even come with an heat pump to allow more efficient cabin heating.

2012 Nissan Leaf Battery Warmer: More Details - KickingTires

 

John Nice to see. My 2.7 mile run to coffee today, -13 degreesF Just the flip flop of yesterday today ICE started going to coffee and all EV going home 3 hours later at -4 dgrees F. Mind of it's own!

 

16 degrees here today. Unfortunately my engine came on after about 1 minute accelerating to 35 mph on my 5 mile round trip. I just let it run....I don't think it is good to turn off the engine until it is warm. Overall I got 130 mpge.

 

agreed. i don't like to shut it down until it's warm.

 

I guess you were right! Today I thought that may be a good idea to use my 2004 Prius for a ride since it remained in the cold for several days. I don't want the 12V battery to go bad after all.

So I started my 2nd Gen Prius at -22°F (-30°C) this morning for the exact same trip. Ouch! I think the gen 2 would have preferred to stay in bed this morning with this temperature. I did reach my job but RPM was around 2200 to maintain highway speed. At some point, I even checked if I had forgotten the emergency brake or something When I reached my destination, I was at 39 MPG.

The PiP is really doing a good job after all! That put things in perspective. 51 MPG was awesome with the PiP

After my work day, I climbed back in the 2nd Gen Prius and I was welcomed with a P2112 check engine. (Thanks SG-II). The "Ready" display was blinking for around 10 seconds and the engine just stopped. I tried to start the car a second time with the same result.

I returned to my work place to have more information on this code and this is apparently a "Throttle actuator control system - Stuck Closed". Yeah right! I supposed it really was THAT cold and the throttle was frozen in position. I popped the hood but did not find where the throttle spring was in the dark so I decided to try to start the car again. And it worked this time! Whew!

I returned home and my final consumption was 33.6 MPG. (Yikes!) I think my 2nd Gen Prius might be jealous of the PiP and it is telling me the hard way.

Note to myself: I really need to find that throttle plate in the daylight in case this happen again.

 

that's great stuff drake, it was 10 here today, and you're starting to make me feel like i should be out in shorts and a tee shirt!

 

The secret is to wear warm clothes. But these are not "usual" temperature even here. It should warm up later this week. (Fingers crossed)

Bitter cold causing problems in Quebec | CTV Montreal News

 

Tire pressure on the RX450h was down 4 psi with the 60f drop in ambient temp from when they were adjusted at the dealer a couple of weeks ago(placard). 70f to 10f approx.

Lower pressure=increased rolling resistance= less mpg/EV range?
Might be interesting to see what the pressures are in the pip tires and how various commutes warm them up.
hello Kitty

 

Not mpge, just mpg. MPGe means you'd take the electrical energy consumed, convert it into gallons, and add that to the total gallons consumed to calculate the MPGe. The Prius does not show this number anywhere.

 

62-63 MPG jumped to 117 MPG if the air heater is not used?