Why I feel lose traction when switch from EV to HV?

AND......it could be because the computers have determined that the HV batteries are already drained to their lowest allowed point.......and won't draw any more from them at that moment.

 

when the ice kicks in on a phev, the battery is at it's highest hv charge point.

 

What ?? That makes no sense.

 

why? the plug charge has a computer set point. when it gets down to a certain level, the engine fires and it's operating like a standard hybrid.

 

Sure it does.

When the Ev mode range is drained all the way to zero, you still have tons of electric power remaining - at least as much as the entire battery in a conventional hybrid Prius. You can then drain that during Hv operation, but Hv mode will tend to keep it pretty charged up.

See that remaining charge in the right-most indicator?

 

The HV battery is NOT "at it's highest charge point".

Now.....if you are talking about HV as in HV MODE, when it crosses that threshold the ICE may or may not kick in depending on what is happening at the time.

 

He didn't say it was. He said, "the battery is at it's highest hv charge point". That means the battery is at its highest point in the Hv-only portion of the battery charge range.

When you get to zero on the Ev-mode range scale, the engine starts and goes through a warm-up cycle but the car continues to drive in Ev-only mode unless you demand nearly full throttle until the warm-up cycle completes.

 

what else would hv mean?

 

OK, listen......some of us don't have a plug-in car and thus aren't "up on" all the fine points of the jargon that applies.

HV literally stands for High Voltage.

I also didn't realize that the ICE doesn't "warm up" until the battery only juice is used up.

Some of us are slow; please have mercy.

 

In this context, it stands for "Hybrid Vehicle" as distinct from "Ev" or "Electric Vehicle".

 

mercy always granted to those who ask.

 

I have found it more "comfortable" to switch from ev to normal after the ev range reaches 0 and the drive train switches to hybrid operation.

 

After driving this car in almost pure EV mode for a month straight (only about 5 miles on gas the entire month), I am almost wishing I had insisted on a pure EV. It is just so smooth in EV mode and when it flips to HV mode it feels sluggish. You can talk about it having more overall power and such in HV, but the reality is how smoothly it can deliver that power is degraded. Merging onto the highway and getting up to speed is just so much easier in EV mode than HV. I find myself on longer drives, preserving EV mode for getting on the highway after rest stops because it is just so much smoother, then flipping into HV mode once I have reached highway speed. Not as efficient I know, but I just find it a more pleasant driving experience.

I am seriously looking at the Kia Niro EV as a utility vehicle to replace my truck in the next year. The truck only has 37k miles after 11 years, I think I can live with a 120 mile range on a vehicle. Anything less than that though and it isn't even going to be a consideration. Need to be able to go 50 miles in both directions with a pair of kayaks on the roof, I am hoping the 20 mile on top will cover up the range loss for carrying boats.

 

It feels that way at first because the pedal mapping is different. Actually, the pedal mapping in Ev mode feels good but it's really bad - the second half of the pedal motion does nothing at all (full-power is at around half pedal deflection).

Also, Hv feels sluggish during the warm-up process but better after.

A simple trick you can use is to change from Eco in Ev mode to Normal or Power in Hv mode if this pedal deflection situation is hard for you to overcome. I just got used to it.

 

agreed. my next vehicle may very well be.

 

I've done the math for several recent trips - several times - and to make an Ev convenient, it would have to have a real-world range on the open highway in lousy wind conditions of about 450 miles with current charging infrastructure. And I'd have to get it for what I paid for my Prime. Since no such thing exists, I'll wait until it either does or charging infrastructure improves to the point where 300-350 miles (the minimum regardless of charging infrastructure) is sufficient.

So, essentially what I want is a 120kWh Model S for $23,400 after tax credits.

 

agreed, it's all individually based. at this point in our lives, 50 miles of ev is sufficient for me, and we can use my wife's hycam for longer trips.
if we only had one car, it would be a different story altogether.

 

Unless you floor it and keep it there.

Not sure how that added busy of power comes about. My guess is the battery is holding back to find out if you truly need the burst.

 

Don't know what you're talking about. I've done runs from 0-65 and there's no difference between floored and half-pedal deflection.

 

Keep accelerating beyond 65.