Worried sick about coming of winter

Blackthirteen, where is the Toyota dealer in the coldest Canadian city? Fort McMurray, AB? Whitehorse, YT? You might phone their service department and ask your questions. Let us all know the answers.

 

@m8547 with around 2 hours use ours plateaus, around 25c above ambient. I get engine shut down much sooner.

 

I don’t think electric/battery is efficient in cold climate, heating alone drains the battery fast. I use my prime as regular hybrid in the winter (meaning that not charge it at night). Engine heat will help with the cabin heating and take a lot of burden off the battery, at least that’s what I thought.

 

i thought the canadian prime got a special battery heating feature

 

How many feet (or meters) is too far ?

Try to be accurate with your answer.



Rob43

 

The feature is, the battery heater will run for up to 30 days when plugged in (maybe to a lower temperature because they use different words to describe it), instead of just three days (which would save power). It must be important to keep it heated when it's very cold.

Electric driving in cold weather is definitely less efficient, but the battery doesn't mind being "burdened". You might as well use it if you can, unless your electricity is very expensive.

For example, EV driving is perfect for short trips where the engine wouldn't be able to fully warm up, and wouldn't be able to to run as cleanly and efficiently as it can.

Most of the United States isn't too cold for the Prime most of the time. Connecticut certainly isn't that bad. I would be hesitant to get an EV if I lived somewhere extremely cold like parts of Canada or Alaska.

 

I have been driving Prius in southern Ontario and Quebec (visit family) for since 2006, and the worst the cold has ever done is burned more fuel. I would say the chance of the frost “killing” your battery is pretty close to zero. It’s designed for it, just enjoy.