Problem - Can't get out of EV mode

When you say stuck in EV do you mean the engine doesn't fire up at all? You say the battery drains by the time you reach the end of your block - how do you get back home?

If the engine does run (the red arrows with show on the diagram) then what you are describing sounds completely normal. As part of the emissions control and under low load conditions at cold start the car will have the engine running mainly as a generator and the car will utalize the HV battery to power the vehicle also. This keeps emissions low and mpg's high. You will probably notice that the instant mpg bar will stick at about 50 mpg when you're driving in this warm up cycle (not bad mpg's for a cold start). Once the car has warmed up past a certain point it will run as normal and also if you floor the car into the red power area there will be a slight hesitation and the car will over-ride this particular warm up cycle and run as 'normal'.

Hope this makes some sense and some more technical members will confirm the exact reasons etc.

 

So you are moving the car without letting it warm up first. I hope you got yourself an extended warranty because you're supposed to let the car warm up for at least 1 minute (even if it's modern and all electric).

 

Most of this doesn't make any sense. If you drain the HV battery, your car will be stuck on the side of the road. How do you get back home?

Or, perhaps, what you mean to say is that the battery State Of Charge (SOC) drops as you leave your driveway. If so, how low does the SOC go?

A Prius can't go very far on battery power -- it's not an electric vehicle. The Prius HV battery is equivalent to about two tablespoons of gas, so perhaps your expectations are misplaced.

Here is what normally happens during warm-up:

1) The car starts to move on battery only.

2) The ICE kicks on, but doesn't supply much power.

3) As the ICE warms up it starts to supply power, which also recharges the HV battery.

Tom

 

Rubbish. Driving off immediately is acceptable with any modern automobile. These antiquated ideas about warm up come from old engines that took significant time to build oil pressure. With the Prius, oil pressure is up before the engine fires.

Tom

 

My car does not behave this way. Watching the HSI, any time that it goes past the center line, my ICE kicks on, regardless as to whether I'm just getting in the car in the morning (cold here still)... or if the car is warmed up. The ICE comes on when the engine is cold to warm it up, but I don't end up running in EV mode if over the center line.

 

Greetings and :welcome:

Most people fuss about not being able to get into EV mode.
How long are you expecting the battery to last? Usually I try not to worry much about battery usage, since you're going to get most of your mileage benefit from the Prius through throttle and brake frugality. The battery is only good for about a mile or so---depending on terrain and some other things, so it is going to discharge and recharge frequently as you drive about in town.
I'm not sure what your expectations are with the G3, but it sounds like you need some more stick and rudder time with the car so that you can determine what's normal with the car, and what's not.
From the limited info that you've provided....it sounds normal.

Good Luck!

 

Prius Warm-up Period: To drive or not? | Hybrid Cars

 

Thanks. This link supports my point.

Tom

 

Concur completely. Well said.
"Warming up" a Prius is unnecessary and wastes fuel.
Having said that....if you live up in the "frozen North", and you want to warm your car up---knock yerself out. It may be gas well spent in your case!!!
If you think that warming up a Prius is necessary, or even wise......you're wrong.

 

Yes the behaviour is normal, the car is trying to keep emissions low and mpg high by not requesting much power from a cold engine.

As you've discovered you can override this warmup (which should only last 50 seconds or so) by flooring the car. it will also do it itself once the SOC is low (i believe it's when it drops to 3 bars).

How fast are you driving on your "block"? is it uphill?

 

Where is this documented? I've never seen this requirement before...

 

Not a requirement.

In the warming up stages thread, Ken1784 suggests a 50-second warmup since the ICE fires past top dead center and produces little power. This mpg technique is a suggestion the benefit of which is debated and may depend upon how much power the commute normally uses during the first 50 seconds.

But not a requirement by any stretch.

 

Yes, my guess would be that your ICE is on, yet not producing power. If you get a scangauge you would know, but try it while parked and see if the ICE doesn't fire up when you start cold after 7 seconds.

If you are going up hill or fast the first minute, then try idling upon cold start for 50 seconds and see if it behaves normally. Ideally, leave enough room in the SoC at night to benefit from the idling in the morning.

 

It sounds to me like what you're experiencing is indeed the normal start-up process of the vehicle. You're welcome to let it warm-up while sitting in the driveway for a minute so that you have essentially full power from the start of driving. I start and go, but also know that I have limited power until either the ICE warms up per the warm up process or I request a significant amount of power so that it over-rides the warmup cycle. In fact, if you are paying close attention and are careful, you can kick it out of the warmup cycle, back off the accelerator, and it'll go back into the warm up cycle briefly. If you press the pedal a little further and slowly, you'll hear the ICE start to spin up even faster and it reaches the warmup temperature a few seconds quicker but not force it out of the cycle.

There are a few people that have to pull onto pretty busy highways before the warm-up cycle is finished. In these instances, I would recommend letting the engine warmup first for a minute and then drive. That way you'll have the power expected as you press the accelerator.

 

First off, I typically start and get going, no hanging around. The only caveat: be gentle on the gas for the first few blocks (actually: I'm always gentle on the gas, so pretty easy).

What I've noticed: the car get's a few feet out of the garage before the engine starts, and from there on it runs at a moderate fast idle, idling dropping as it warms. Also, as long as you're gentle on the gas there's no apparent* variation in engine rpm. In other words, the engine is just warming things up, and maybe charging the battery at the same time, but motivation is coming entirely from the battery and electric motor.

* Since the Prius has no tachometer, just judging RPM from engine sound.

 

What you describe is normal behavior. The Prius uses battery power (EV Mode) during warm-up. This lasts about 50 second for a cold start.

It sounds like you have to accelerate briskly or ascend uphill right out of your driveway.

I don't recommend flooring it to get the ICE to run.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-discussion/76501-gen3-warming-up-stages.html

Despite other people's grumblings, if you do not want to drain the power from the battery, you should let the Prius warm up for about 50 seconds. The ICE can not power the wheels, nor charge the battery, during the S0 & S1a warm-up stage.

Others may disagree, but 50 seconds will not hurt anything. If you read Mark57's MPG thread, he always warms up 50 seconds and he gets 76 mpg on an entire tank.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...my/91765-i-broke-my-old-mpg-record-today.html

IMHO it will only help the life of your battery and engine.

 

Sounds to me like another twit worrying about why the vehicle performs normally when he wants it to do otherwise.