Loosing 3-4 bars within minute of startup. Normal?

Are you allowing your car to "warm up" for a few minutes before driving off? If I don't allow mine to do this (where the engine will actually quiet down) then for the first 10 minutes of my drive, my MPG is very low and my battery is often used more. Just a thought.

 

This is normal for a cold start. Most of the propulsion from a cold start is done by MG2 and the battery. This allows the engine to warm up off load and so reduces emissions by keeping engine load low.

John

 

It sounds like you need to block your grill with pipe insulation.

 

Mine does exactly the same. If I let it warm up then it usually drops just one bar on none bar at all. Try that method and you will see the results

 

Goede dag, R-P.

I agree with John (BritPrius) and would encourage you to allow the ICE to go through its warmup cycle of about 50 secs (which seems like an eternity), kick start the warm up by pressing on the go-pedal immediately after the car is READY. While you might think you are "wasting" fuel doing nothing, you will find overall your fuel consumption will go down.

Also, if it is cold and your HV battery is 5 bars or less, I'd say you will benefit from waiting for a minute before moving off.

Finally, actively try using EV less and use the ICE more to get up to speed, and also glide more using neither motor. E. g. use the ICE to get up to 52 kph and glide down to 46 kph. (Personally, I use 54/48). Repeat as many times as you can get away with. Try not to use the electric motor at all. See how that goes.

Alle beste.

 

Yes, you are right, I did get that. But even so I have found that I do better if I do not encourage running in that mode, I accelerate a little and glide and find I can do that even when following traffic, as no-one seems to be able to hold a steady speed anyway, so it works in my favour.

That first situation is about the only time I will use the EV button. I wouldn't use it on the second.

In this situation either hope for a reason to stop completely for about 10-12 secs (say a traffic light), or actually pull over and stop for 10-12 secs to allow the ICE to shut down as the car transitions from stage 3b to stage 4. Read more about the 5 stages of hybrid warm up by clicking the 5 modes of Prius Operation link in my signature.

With enough practice the glide "sweet spot" becomes so automatic that one can locate it without reference to the MFD, so is quite possible in denser traffic after a time.

Even without dutch heritage, we are taught in school the origins of how our country was named after the Zeeland province of The Nederlands by the dutch explorer Abel Tasman. So, again you are correct.

In regards to fuel economy, after adjusting the nut behind the wheel (me), the next biggest thing one can do is have good LRR tyres and run them at a slightly higher pressure than what is in the owner's manual (here it is 240 kPa Front/228 kPa Rear) but I run mine at 270 F/255 R, this seems to give good even tread wear and lower consumption. The Nederlands is ideal for the Prius being so flat and the speed limits off the motorways (50/80 kph) are perfect for the low consumption that the Prius can deliver. I did better in The Nederlands than other places (4.5-4.9 l/100km). Even on the motorways 100-110 kph is ok.

Yes, indeed that looks like a bug has crept in, it used to be correct and it should say km/l, (they use that in Japan, South Africa and probably other some places). I've made a note in my sig until it is fixed.

I can't help think that you might be trying too hard to get good fuel economy. Accelerating too gently, trying to drive only on the electric motor too much, etc, but, even though it seems counter-intuitive, the opposite is better - Accelerate at around 12-18 l/100 km (22 or more if you need to) then ease back to around 4.0 l/100 km to hold your speed; slow down from as far out as possible, especially on the motorways; try to drive using the ICE as much as possible, the electric as little as possible. The only time I don't worry about driving in electric is if the battery is green, otherwise I try and pulse & glide using the ICE to accelerate.

I hope that gives some food for thought.

Nogmaals, het allerbeste.

 

I didn't fully read through all the coments so excuse me for asking but are you on the original 12v battery?

The reason I ask is that I am and some times my car can be parked for a week, do a short 3 mile run and then be sat for a week again - obviously doing my 12v no good at all. I have noticed that if I then take the car out for a run after it's been sat for weeks, the first 10 miles or so I get below average fuel economy however hard I try. Yet if I do the same run when the car has been 'worked' the few days before the economy is much much better.

I'm guessing the car is struggling to top up the low 12v for those first 10 miles or more, hence the poorer economy. Is this the OPs problem?

 

Somewhere in there he said he knows that he should change the 12 V, but has put it off for the last year or 2.

He probably needs to revisit the 12 V battery's state of health.

 

One other thing I have noticed, is that once the ambient temperate drops below 11-12 ℃, it is definitely harder to get fuel consumption readings in the low to mid 4's (4.0 - 4.5 l/100 km), especially once it gets to 8℃ and below. I don't think it is particularly anything to do with the battery, more the car as a unit.

 

Yeah, found it.

Yes, if you know your 12 V is bad, then you should really bite the bullet and get that replaced. It probably isn't helping.

 

I've been advising people to do this for years. I allow mine to warm for 45 to 50 seconds every morning and it definitely help stop the rapid loss of SOC in the first few minutes.

TBH I think this is related to slight deterioration of the battery, and whether people realise it or not, most batteries are going to be somewhat deteriorated after 8 to 10 years. Allowing the car to warm (so that it uses the ICE instead of pounding the battery too hard in the first minute) is more important for those of us with older and more worn battery packs, but probably something still worth doing (in terms of minimising wear and tear) even with newer battery packs.

 

I know you said you didn't want to hear this (and it sounds like folks have advised you as to what may be going on), but here's what happened to me:

I experienced the "Loosing 3-4 bars within minute" thing also. Then the display would show that the battery recovered all the way to full green and then it would drop off again slowly/not fast.

If it doesn't cycle like that, then you can probably stop reading this irrelevant post.

If it does exhibit cycling-like behavior, you may be in need of a new hybrid battery.

The longer you've been dealing with this issue, the less likely it is you need a new hybrid battery (because after one to 60 days, the computer will disable the car [sometimes without any warning]).

I wish you the best!

 

how many miles/km on her?