Prius gen 3 help

I don't see the issue in my 08 or 12. It will reduce gas mileage but that's because you are running on the gas engine. Some have said towing up a long hill "might" drain the hv battery since it's like accelerating the whole way. Don't accelerate the whole way. With very few short exceptions, the grading of highways is usually less than 6%. On an interstate a 7% is allowed with a reduced 60 mph speed.

 

No. I travel on I-40 in NC with typical speeds in the 75-80 mph range. I try to stay out of the far left lane but never in the slow right hand lane.

The Gen 3 will typically go as fast as you want within limits.

 

you need to hear from someone in the same area.

 

Have you gone out through Asheville on 40? I've gone through there with the diesels, but never in a Prius and I'm wondering how it is on the way up that hill with the runaway truck ramps on the downhill side.

 

Not Asheville but Boone. I had no problem getting up the two steep inclines going in to Boone.

 

On a recent trip to Arizona we drove from Phoenix to Flagstaff in our 2013. Cruise control was set to 80mph and it had no trouble maintaining that speed up a 5-6% grade at almost 7000 ft. elevation.

 

Isn't Boone way above Asheville?

 

I'm new to Prii in general, but you're saying that your car is incapable of going over 45-50 MPH in the right lane?

 

Yes, it is the NW corner of the state, close to both Tennessee and Virginia borders.

 

Sounds exactly like that is what he is saying.
And if true, there is something wrong with the car.

I think it might just be that it has 230,000 miles on the engine AND the battery.
Probably the two together don't make enough power anymore to climb a steep grade.

 

I do not understand the question. Get your car looked at if you can not maintance highway speeds. I read a weak battery may cause this. I do not know myself.

 

Yes I agree that it can be a problem on long mountain climbs. I've done one or two ascents (in gen2) where the HV battery has drained pretty low and once you're running on engine (ICE) power alone the power to weight ratio of the gen 2 is not that great.

Yes the ratio of engine power to weight is better on the gen3. Whether or not it's still an issue for *you* will depend on how you drive, but in any case it should be less of an issue than with the gen2.

 

It's got nothing to do with the lane in which he's traveling. It's on long ascents that are either very steep and/or very high speed. Once the HV battery drains to a certain point then the power that you have available to climb with is not very large in relation to the cars weight. It's significantly less of an issue on the Gen3 than it is on the older Gen2.

 

Yeah I worded that poorly, but you answered my question. I always thought the gas engine made enough power to hold its own up hills. Perhaps that wasn't always the case.

 

Gen 2 can do the drive below at 70+mph without draining battery, but it does take some awareness. As I understand it the Prius controller steps the ICE rpm in discrete steps, and then varies the power/rpm of the electric motors to make finer adjustments in power to the wheels. By varying the pedal position either up or down a little you can find operating regions where it will hold speed and even accelerate up these sorts of grades without depleting the battery. If you keep the SOC on the battery high you will even have plenty of power to accelerate back up to speed when slowed by trucks or other slow moving vehicles in the left lane. If you don't keep an eye on things you can get into a very low SOC region on the battery that forces power to be diverted to bring the battery SOC up fairly aggressively, resulting in the kind of under-powered behavior noted. I would certainly expect the Gen 3 with its increased power and next gen electronics to do an even better job in these challenging conditions.

 

Playing with some numbers on evcalc, the 76 hp ICE in the Gen 2 should be able to maintain about 75mph on a 7% grade with no power in or out of the battery. At 98hp the Gen 3 ICE should be able to maintain 85+ mph on the same grade without power in or out of the battery.
Rob

 

But neither of those models likely would still be able to produce that rated HP after they have extremely high mileage......say 200,000 and up...pretty much ALWAYS exhibit a loss of power relative to when they were new. At 250K, you might be down as much as 50%. If your car was "new again" it probably wouldn't have the problem either.