Prius Prime in winter

Probably not any different than any other car, possibly better traction. The Prius owners from Canada and the Northern states can give you a better idea. Buy one, it’s a great car

 

This year will be my 18th (yes, 18 years) driving Prius in Minnesota. I started with a 2001, then upgraded to a 2004, then a 2010, then a 2012 PHV, now a 2017 Prime. I haven't ever had the option to disable traction-control in any of the older models either. Prime has that option.

Travel in several inches of snow (deep enough where you follow the path of others, regardless of lanes) just fine. You obviously don't want to travel where you'd be pushing snow the entire drive or with worn tires. But that's all. It simply hasn't been a concern for me.

 

Hi John, How are you doing?

 

I thought the new models are a bit lower than previous, so it will be interesting to hear if you notice any slight difference.

 

The Prius will have trouble with clumps of snow/ice that other vehicles drop. They can break the front plastic if you hit them at a high enough speed. Even the ones that don't hit the front airdam will hit the undertray, though it probably won't break, just bend a bit out of the way. I hear them scrape all the time. I have seen other cars in Edmonton that broke the undertray and were dragging it (a brand new Hyundai for example). Probably on severely rutted ice side streets. I've scarped Pearl S on those a few times. When it starts scraping don't back up! Go forward. It will probably just ride over the ice.

I have the lower grill plugged with pipe foam for better warming so the issue of snow coming in isn't a problem. The new Prius has the grill shutter. Not sure how well it works though.

I've just switched to the FJ Cruiser (Pearl S is hibernating in the garage with a "Battery Tender" looking after the 12V battery). The FJ doesn't have a problem with deep ruts or deep snow. Even it will hit the occasional very large clump of ice, but it's all steel underneath and has metal aftermarket bumpers. It just rusts.

 

I think the grill shutters will stay open (or partially open?) below a certain ambient temp, due to concerns about freezing in the closed position. Maybe more info in video here:

More Details on Active Grille Shutters (Video) | PriusChat

I'm just wondering: could you put a foam tubes on the grill slats, even with the active shutters? If they're staying open in the cold anyway, it might be useful.

 

I live in Maine. Prius' work fine around here. Most of our 'big' snow storms will drop 4 to 6 inches of snow. A Prius is great for up to 8 inches of snow.

Once the rivers and lake freeze over we have to shift to studded snow tires, to safely drive across the ice.

 

Adding foam could interfere with shutter operation.

 

Could or will, that's basically what I'm wondering. If the shutters are far enough back, it'd be ok I think. Might be an option in bitter cold, when the shutter stay open due to the freezing closed concern.

 

If the car senses the shutters are blocked from movement you will get an error. I trust Toyota to weigh the risks vs benefits of the shutters, at least for the lower grill.I do not know how much partially blocking the upper grill would help.

 

I've driven through Sherbrooke and Montreal, and in my opinion, your roads are nowhere as messed up as what I have locally, where we have more hills, the roads are in constant need of repair and people drive on studs like rally racing and just rip everything up. I used to have a Prius c, with its 5.5 inches of ground clearance. That faired fine with winter tires and slush, and I felt like a boss. Prime has 4.8 inches of ground clearance. But I can also raise my tire PSI up a bit to get a tiny fraction of an inch better clearance on either car. Besides, you need winter tires in Sherbrooke by law, so just up the PSI and I think that you'll be fine even in a few inches of slush.

 

Yeah understand that. But maybe they'll be none the wiser, if they're (say) 1.5 inches behind the grill slats, and that tube foam is perched on front of the slats. I'd only see this being utile in extreme cold, where the active shutters go "on strike" stay open all the time.

One thing, you want to find out where the radiator for the inverter coolant circuit is, and be very conservative with any grill block there. On 3rd gen it's behind the upper grill opening. The recommendation from @ken1784 was to NEVER block more than 50% of upper (again, applicable to 3rd gen).

I took that to heart, basically never block upper grill. FWIW, around the time I put the snow tires on (where ambients are getting below +7C), I'll put one tube foam on the lower, basically 50% of the lower. If ambient drops and stays stubbornly below 0C, then I'll put a second foam tube on lower, 100% block of lower, just short term.

 

I'm very happy to learn that traction control can be disabled in the Prime. That means I can drive on my driveway even if it has snow on it! This car sounds better all the time!

 

Just for giggles: try it with traction control. You might be pleasantly surprised.

 

I keep the lower grill on Pearl S -fully- blocked from October to May. I watch the coolant temp using the Scanguage. In winter, on years I actually drive the Prius, the coolant rarely reaches "operating temp" of 85 to 90C in the city, mostly hovering around 65C. I suspect this will be even worse with the Prime. Remember, the engine is your furnace in Canada. You need it to run to keep you warm! So don't expect to be gloriously EVing down the road often during the cold. If you have cabin heat turned on the engine will likely be running. Electric heat doesn't have much effect when it's "cold" out (-10C or lower). Seat heat IS nice though and I'm looking forward to steering wheel heat!

 

It sure is disappointing to realize that the shutters won't operate when they are most needed. I'm wondering if Toyota is just being ultra conservative or if there is an actual risk. Just seems counter-intuitive that the engine will need the airflow from the grill when the ambient temperature is so low that the shutters are frozen shut. I guess in theory the weather warms up but your car is parked in the shade so the shutters are still frozen, then when you drive off the engine overheats. But seems like that could be solved by simply keeping the shutters open when parked (maybe they already do that), if they freeze open, oh well, but at least they won't freeze closed. Unless in theory they could freeze shut while you are driving, but again in that case the engine probably doesn't need the airflow from the grill anyway.

But if it's really a concern, at least hypothetically, then maybe there could be a backup air supply for that situation, like a fan which would be activated in that situation which can draw air from the wheel well or behind the bumper or something. Similar concept to the fan which draws air when you are stopped in hot weather. In this case I think we can safely assume that if the shutters are frozen then it won't be 90F outside so not even that much airflow would be needed. Yes the backup fan would be some additional weight but if this allows the shutters to be closed in freezing weather it might be worth it.

 

I wasn't by the gen2 on ice in our alley way.

I think the concern is more with snow. The shutters are behind the grill work, and that lower grill can pick and hold snow. If the shutters were closed, the snow can become packed, and when they tried to open, they could break.

 

It's frustrating, but otoh, if you can easily do an end-run around the situation with pipe insulation tube or two, assuming (need to verify) it doesn't interfere with the shutters if they were to activate. I'd think ten months out of the year the shutters work normally, and a couple of months, dead of winter: you push on a foam tube or two.

 

Or just leave the tubes on all the time. A car's cooling system tends to be over done for those few driving through Death Valley with a full load.