Gas on to heat car - does it defeat the purpose

there are lots of benefits, is there anything in particular you're looking for? the battery still provides motive power, even if the ice is warming the coolant.

 

I hear that the PIP cures premature baldness

 

too late for me.

 

wha? it's not retroactive????????

I want my muny back!!!!!!!!!

 

hey, who knows, maybe after a few years...

 

now that you mention it, I now have a monobrow that I didn't have before

 

tinfoil time!

 

If you never drive more than ten miles and you never get above 0 outside, no. Unless you have HOV lanes, or state rebates, or some other non vehicular reason.

 

that doesn't sound good for me (of course it's not never, there's always spring, summer, and fall) My trip to work is 2.7 miles, one way

 

Disagree.....i think the PiP always is a benefit. It typically gets 85mpg using it in HV and EV mode, and when you use more EV its always a win win.

I think on its worst days it still gets 65mpg which is always better then NON Pip.

with the lease deals now, its a win win IMO

 

I would have thought heated seats could get you 2.7 miles but I have never driven below -40

 

I will let you know this winter (last winter was pretty warm tho)

 

It will be interesting as we experience winter. The discovery process of a new Prius is always very exciting. Clever aspects of the design often don't get reveal until driving in extremes.

And I have 3 years of data to compare directly to, so we'll be off to a good start regardless of how this particular cold season plays out...

 

Of course. If you live where it gets really cold, you have to warm the engine before you drive, in order to defrost the windshield and drive safely. But you are confusing that gasoline consumption with the gasoline used to propel the vehicle. You'll burn that "warm up" gas no matter what vehicle you own. All-electric vehicles have electric heaters, but these consume more electricity.

The air conditioner, rear window defogger and seat heaters are all-electric, but the cabin heater needs has engine heat. But the electric motor will still propel the car, and the engine will shut off once it warms.

 

Can you put a block heater on a PiP, pre-warm the engine, and get cabin heat without starting up the ICE?

The various designs all have some kind of trade off in these matters. My neighbor had one of the early Ford Escape hybrids here in Texas and the air conditioner compressor ran off the gasoline engine, so all summer his gasoline engine would be running, even at traffic stops.

 

Don't quote me but, I think I read some where that anything colder than 14 degrees outside will cause the engine to run. So do not plan on puting on snowmobile gear and holding a window heater for the defrost. Just drive the car and enjoy!

 

you can put a block heater on, but it only speeds warm up time (which is great) but the engine will still have to run to provide heat, it will run less in the beginning until the block heater effects wear off. don't know how much gas it will save but that and grille blocking are never a bad thing.

 

If the production PiP has a supplemental electric heater, that would be a big surprise for us early purchasers, who have been told from pre-order times onward that there was NO electric heater in the PiP; just a very fast ICE warmup cycle. Whether the Gen II, or the standard Gen III, or the 2010 PiP prototype has one, is not directly relevant to whether the production PiP has one.

 

Interesting. How did the subject come up?

 

The PiP always starts in EV mode if there's charge in the battery. Whenever I start on a cold morning (not that it gets very cold here in Northern California, but we get cold foggy mornings sometimes)... if the heater is on, if climate control's on and it's temp is higher than what Prius thinks is the outside temp, the engine will start.