In cold temps, ICE turns on at the begining of a trip when I have plenty EV. Why?

Aha! You may be onto something. That might also explain why after I stop and power down, the car will stay in EV after I reboot... It may have just warmed up the battery enough to keep it in EV without the ICE firing. Hmmmmm......

 

It's probably more due to the fact that EV initially ran before ICE kicked in thus warming up the battery due to the aforementioned current draw

 

Ah, yeah... That's what I meant. The draw on the battery before the ICE started warmed up the battery enough that the ICE didn't start after I rebooted the car. Or Sumpin' like that...

 

This is actually a really good idea.

 

like a dumb blonde indicator

 

I wonder if this strange phenomenon happens with model 2013 as well, or only 2012?
I, for one, have never experienced it, but temps here are still above 62 F at night.

 

There may be a chance they tweaked the software a bit for the 13's.

 

Near future will tell...

 

I just got back from Sam's Club, I drove down side streets at about 15 MPH, then when I could no longer do that because the side street option ran out and had to resort to 35 MPH (about 2 miles of side street) The battery had ample time to warm up (outside temp: 37 degrees) All EV all the way.

 

So you are saying you need to warm up the battery to use it at a higher output as to not have the ICE come on?

 

that seems to be the consensus.

 

Maybe, but I'm pretty skeptical of this theory in my case. It has only happened to me when my HSI is less than 20%, usually less than 10%, and again, never gets very cold here.

At the same time, when I first go up a small hill, I have pushed the HSI up to 80% trying to use up more battery capacity to see if this would keep the ICE off on the ensuing gentle downhill. The ICE never kicked on going up the hill but still would come on sometimes under 20% HSI downhill. I'm still at a loss. In a couple months should be able to test this further.

 

Yeah, it looks like two different scenarios, in my case I have no hills to climb or go down, in your case, you do.

 

KISS has worked extremely well and the parameters are too complicated. The heater threshold is varied for PiP but not for the regular model. Confusion from that alone would be an issue. Then when you interject the reality of battery-temp in addition to power-draw and speed, it becomes a mess. Aftermarket gauges are cheap now, making that data readily available. So, it's not like we can't just add it ourselves.

Think about how many issues there are with the presentation of the data now. How to display SOC continues to be a point of on-going debate.

 

Yes, but it is because there is no explanation that people don't understand why range has decreased. Not saying there should be, but if there was something that came up that said why the range is lower than it was last time, there wouldn't be as many questions. Obviously that is near impossible. But a very simple explanation of why the ICE fired would actually keep it much more simple IMO, very doable for Toyota.

 

Well, that's if you want to display the parameters themselves. (Some of which are already displayed in some form or other). The car is supposed to displace a portion of gas use, and when it chooses to use gas despite not "needing" it... (or, in a broader sense, using more gas than expected/necessary given what it should've been able to displace) it can be nice to know the reason.

Sure, it may still not need a lot of gas, but... when the expectation is no gas, some gas is more than no gas.

 

I understand this sentence to mean that a little gas is better than no gas. I agree. The whole car needs to be used.

I used to be really irritated when the ICE came on. Then I realized that except for REALLY short trips (which would not warm the ICE) , the warmth from the heater, the quick defrost and the ready power were all really nice and after the traction battery was warm (from the heated air in the car) , the all electric range was dramatically better for the trip home. The amount of gasoline used turns out to be VERY little. With grill blocking, the ICE gets warm quickly.


My view, now, is that we spend more energy than is deserved worrying about the ICE starting. Used well, our car is amazing! I just filled my gas tank for the fourth time in 20 months. It took 8 gallons and I had travelled 1300 miles on the last tank. With EV, that averages at 150 mpg actual which is no record, but it is good.

 

I agree with KISS, but this seems like a reasonably basic feature many average drivers would appreciate. If you consider all the data displayed on the PiP, some of it semi-technical, readout on why ICE started up in layman's terms could be useful info to a lot of drivers.

I'm not looking for the display to spit out technical limits/parameters for why the ICE started, like "exceeded X kW draw from battery" or "internal resistance of battery exceeds x"... just basic terms like I mentioned. It would work like the HSI to coach better driving technique. Maybe it could be on one of the screens we can toggle through. A lot of us on PriusChat like a good amount of technical stuff, but this seems like it would be nice for even your average Joe.

Also with avoiding gas, I think we're all neurotic about this to different degrees - that's a big reason many of us have the PiP. But yes, one can get too carried away with the game.

 

It is in theory, but those of us who drove a gen III Prius know that they lie like rugs. They will disengage EV mode at 12MPH under light throttle and say the reason is "excessive speed" for example. Do we really want our PHEVs to be telling us bald-faced lies too? ;-)

 

It is excessive speed for that small of battery pack. They weren't lying. It would be bad use of your EV anyway on a regular Prius to go over that. (I did drive a Gen3, fwiw)