Gas on to heat car - does it defeat the purpose

The pre-production phv tested here in canada since 2012 had an electric heater so you could heat the car using electricity and even remotely preheat the car using power from the grid while the car is plugged-in. You cannot have this electric heater on the US version. When we preordered our phv in july I was hoping that we would get it on the canadian version since everybody here have to deal with winther and the price of the car is much higher but from what they told us we won't get it either. I live five mile from work so for me it's a disapointment. It means that 4 to 5 months a year, I won't be able to do my daily commute on electricity alone. I hope it will at least be available as an option. Maybe Toyota judged that the system wasn't worth the money cause the engine need so few gasoline and time to get hot enough to heat. I should get the car before winther and with the coldest nights here as cold as -40 in january I should be able to tell you if the phv can be driven by electricity in winther but I doubt. For me it's a nonsense to have to let the car run alone for 5 minutes when the car is designed to run on electricity and save as much fuel as possible. I'm not sure that people at toyota realised that heating is more about safety than confort as is the remote a/c.

 

maybe Toyota figured that heating the PIP by electric (not on grid, plugged in) would completely deplete any EV you may have.

 

How about someone on PC calculate energy consumed via EV for heat vs energy consumed via ICE, taking into account the "quick" warm up of ICE. gallons of gas consumed/vs kwh consumed?

 

I think a kwh from the grid for most folks is about $0.11 and from gasoline is about $0.35.

 

you must have a very long extension cord to drive to work still plugged in

 

Yes, maybe you're right. Heating takes a lot of energy and we have to consider that when we drive a conventional car, the energy used to heat the car would be wasted anyway. But I would still like to be able to heat the car when it is plugged and then drive it in ev mode.

 

just a bigger battery....

 

How much EV is used up in your Volt by heating the interior, defrosting the windshield?

 

Then keep it in a heated garage?

 

Since I pay a flat rate to my landlord $15.00/mo. I'm using an oil filled heater and plugin into the grid. The outlet comes on when the parking lights come on, so I will have a timer on the heater so it comes on two hours before I go to work, (7:00am)

 

one of the guys over at Gm-Volt came up with these numbers....

Measured power usage of various items and est'd impact on range

• Rear Defrost - 475 watts - 0.95 miles miles (335 Wh)
• Climate, Fan Only, Full (Climate Power: 17%) - 270 Watts - 0.4 miles (190 Wh)
• A/C, Eco, LO, Auto (Climate Power: 34%) - 1,535 Watts - 3.55 miles (1,020 Wh)
• A/C, Comfort, LO, Auto (Climate Power: 59%) - 1,875 Watts - 4.3 miles (1,220 Wh)
• Front Defrost, 72F, Auto, Comfort - 1425 Watts - 3.29 miles (950 Wh)
• Heat, Full Fan, Comfort (Climate Power 75%) - 6,250 Watts - 11.85 miles (3,200 Wh)

 

Here in the province of quebec, electricity is cheap at 0.075$/kwh and the gasoline isn't at 1.44$/l. Considering that a liter of gas is equivalent to 10 kwh it means 0.144$/kwh but efficiency of the ICE is far from electricity so it may be around 0.35$/kwh like Mr Hatchett told.

 

that explains why it's not very practical for the PIP.

 

It should be looked at as a percentage of the vehicle's regular EV range. For the PiP think of it as about a 25% reduction in the EV range, so maybe 3-4 miles reduced.

 

for me, I drive 2.7 miles to work, heat car from lowest temperature at the beginning of my trip to work, drive home, repeat same scenario.

 

So if you could heat your cabin and defrost the windshield with electric, your ICE shouldn't crank on at all. Or am I mis-understanding?

 

If the volt's heater is about 6 kw it means that it would empty the 3kwh used for ev range on the prius battery pack in half an hour and this is without driving the car. This give me a good idea of the effect it would have on ev range and it's a huge effect!

 

If you mean my option to plug in to the grid at my apartment, maybe, I don't know yet, and that's only from my apartment, there's no plug at work

 

The inverter in a Prius is liquid cooled, so would not that heat also be avalible to heat the coolant and provide heat for the heater ? Interior heat should in part be supplied by the inverter cooling system which would be battery / electric waste heat, so not 100% ICE heat in a PIP..

 

That is a very good point, but you should probably look at it in terms of EV range reduction at your expected travel speed. If your EV range is 13 miles (PiP) and you travel at something like 30mph you are travelling for 26 minutes. With a 6kw load, you will go 9 miles for 18 minutes, and then switch into hybrid mode. double check my math, I'm just swagging.