how long can you drive in EV mode? mine can only last about 10mins...

Totally normal. Once the car is warm, you do NOT need EV mode in that creep & crawl; the car will shut off the ICE under 45 mph when it deems appropriate. It is better to do this generally than to force EV, because frequently depleting the pack may shorten its life, and because all that charge is ultimately traced back to use of gasoline.

Plus, why fret a 25 mph limit when it goes up to 45 mph without EV?

 

Yes but you need to go down a long hill to get it to light up. Also, the car will do bizarre things when the battery is full in that it will run on electric only with much better acceleration etc, but only for a short while until the battery indicator drops the top bar again.

 

Internal Combustion Engine. You'll see that one a lot here.

 

Normal is around 6 bars. Above that it will use the pack more. Below that the ICE will kick in quicker.

 

EV mode is pretty useless unless you really really really really want to be stealth.

Its better for MPG's in almost all circumstances to use the ECON mode.

One situation where EV would work is right before a long steep decline. You can coast down or brake regen down and gain back the power lost in EV mode.

 

i just got my prius on 3/6/10 (sat)

its my wife's car and we're trying to figure out when it would be best to use EV mode.
only thing i thought of is when we are in parking lots like at the grocery store

just wondering if you guys think its a good idea?

 

i got my priusII on 3/4, (hello everyone!) and i have found as stated before EV is pretty useless. in EV mode it'll cut off at 11mph if you are accelerating too fast, and at 25 in normal circumstances. but i can get up to 35mph on my street in normal mode using no ICE. i say don't bother with EV mode and just learn to balance your foot on the gas pedal to keep acceleration slow and easy, and you'll stay on electric power.

 

That's it exactly. If you want to move your Prius from one side of the lot to the other, EV will do it. Likewise backing out of the garage to wash your Prius in the drive. Other than that, uses for EV are very specialized.

Tom

 

I think that you have to look at it this way. All the energy in the battery comes from the gasoline, since you do not "plug it in". Even the regen on the downhill segments comes from the gasoline, as the gasoling took you up the hill in the first place. So knowing this, if you take out the energy in the battery, it will have to be replaced. If you are on a flat surface, then if you use the energy in the battery, it will have to be replaced by using gasoline. On a flat surface this will generally mean less MPG during the recharge. If you are going up a hill the MPG hit is even worse. Going downhill, sometimes it is prudent to have some space to regen and not waste the potential energy that you have at the top of the hill. You can do this be using some of the energy in the battery before you get to the top of a hill.

Generally speaking in most cases, if you use the energy in the battery, replacing it will cost you more MPG in the long run.

Hope this helps.

 

Not all crowded freeway driving is the same and not all charging is traced back to the ICE. A lot of rush-hour freeway traffic is true stop and go where you actually move a little and then the tail light of the car in front of you randomly comes on. The benefit of using EV in traffic that is like this and is mostly less than 25 mph happens when you are forced to acclerate on a slight incline. You will see the HSI go in the "ICE" right hand side. In EV mode the ICE will not turn on, but in non-EV mode the engine will turn on when this light incline acceleration is required. Therefore, you save the gasoline if you force the engine off on these slight inclines that would normally turn the ICE on. The HSI seems to be more of a "demand" meter than a true indication that the gas engine is on.

In such creeping conditions, you can keep the HV battery charged in this type of driving by maximizing the regenerative braking. I have gone miles and many minutes in this type of stop & go driving without forcing the ICE engine on in EV mode because the battery stays charged by all the regenerative braking. In those infrequent times that cars go more than 25 mph around you, I just do not accelerate to that speed. When the predominant speed in the slow traffic is over 25, then I turn EV off and do as much pulse & glide that I can. This will not work in traffic that moves at less than 25 but where braking is not required. However, this kind of slow traffic does not really happen without a lot of braking, unless the speed limit is forced to 25 mph by temporary construction signs.

Of course, the least frustrating method is not get in this kind of freeway driving.

 

I haven't found a situation yet where ev mode has any use for me. Rarely is the conditions good enough where it can last more than 5-10 min. I think one person stated it runs electric anyway at a low speed. Ev mode is cool but from a practical standpoint it's uses are extremely limited.

 

Ah, but it is traced back to the ICE, because the acceleration comes from the ICE or the pack, and the energy in the pack came from the ICE or from wasteful regen braking of inertia that came from the ICE or the pack. Gasoline in, motion out. There are no other external inputs.

In EV mode, if you accelerate up to X and regen brake down to Y, and repeat, the SOC is falling, both from the energy used in the acceleration and from the conversion losses coming to and from chemical energy to mechanical.

 

I ran out of gas one and it lasted me abt 3 miles driving abt 30 mph on a highway with traffic. Time was abt 5-6 minutes. Does last long if you are out of gas on EV mode!

 

Au-Toe, I like to use mine in EV mode while going between holes at the Golf Course in Glendora. j/k!

Parking lots are about it. Word to the wise about that one though.... I also got my Prius on 3/1/10 and was at work in the parking lot... Mine is black and tinted all the way around... showing one of my co-workers how quiet it was as we drove around the work parking lot around midnight blacked out and nearly hit someone because they didn't hear or see us. lol! So be careful!

 

I agree with most of the posters that EV mode is limited use at best. I only use it in two places. At the end of my drive home (car is warmed up) I have a 1 mile hill through my neighborhood to my house. The incline is steep enough that the car will use the ICE in ECO or Normal mode at 25 mph unless I really really creep up to 25mph. In EV mode, I find that I can accelerate faster to 25, keeping the ICE off, and keep it at 25 all the way home (the stop sign in the middle adds to using the EV mode for accelerating back to 25). The other place is within an hour after getting home, I'll go pick up my daughter a few blocks away at the school. Since the car is still warm, it will go EV all the way there and back. And in the morning when the ICE / Interior has to heat up, it re-charges the battery and I'm ready to go. I think it's help my mileage a few tenths using this method over just ECO / Normal.

Again, it's always very route specific for EV usage.

--MXFanatic