Prius EV Mode Comparisons

Prius Prime - 25 miles EPA rated, some users are getting more.
You can charge while driving by descending a large hill or by putting it into charge mode.

 

For the Prime, you can regain EV miles by either going downhill for a period of time or using the Charge Mode.
You can cruise in Neutral for a good distance on a level surface. I have gone through a automated car wash where it pushes the car through and the push that the car gets causes the car to roll faster than the rollers that push it. It has very little roll resistance.

#1 in Easley,SC

 

what is 'neutral cruising'?

 

there might be a little more regen on the prime than the pip, but i think you'll find under normal driving that regaining ev mode is unlikely, since the burden would be lower gas mileage.

don't confuse gen 3 recharging with plug in's, the software must force recharge of the small battery, or you'd be driving on gas all the time, and the low state of charge in the nimh cells wouldn't be healthy. that's why you're around 6 bars most of the time.
and regaining 'ev mode' is not the same as a plug in. you actually do get the same ev mode in the pip as you get in the lift back, for ev driving, the ev mode symbol doesn't light up though.
once the plug charge is gone, it behaves just like the lift back.

the newest thing on the prime is 'charge mode', which allows you to recharge the plug portion of the battery to 80% whilst driving.

if you're referring to the ability of the gen 3 to start in ev mode if you have enough battery, and temps are warm enough, so that you can move the car around or drive a little until the engine fires, i agree, that feature is missing on the pip, and i think the prime. if there's no plug charge, the engine fires right away.

 

Is regen in HV-Mode faster than in the regular 4. gen Prius ?

 

I don't know about that specific comparison, but I personally feel that it seems faster than my 05 Prius I had. Of course, I don't have anything scientific evidence to back that up. Just my personal observation.

#1 in Easley,SC

 

It is much faster than my 2012 v. Also HV mode can be used over the 43 mph limit of the v.

 

you can, but there's no free lunch. although, if you have high electric rates, like we do here, it's cheaper to force charge the prime than it is to plug it in.
but for that matter, the lift back is cheaper.

 

The HV battery portion charges quickly just by driving and regen braking. I've used up most of my HV portion a few times every day and it will charge back up within a few miles.

 

Just bear in mind that doing it purposely (not because traffic conditions) is not the most efficient way to drive in HV. Just drive it would probably give you better HV mpg.

 

Not really. Most times it gets depleted by going down slight declines for a while, but not enough of a decline to use regen. Then going up inclines or flat driving it regens fairly quickly. I have about a 35 mile HV only commute coming home and am averaging about 68 mpg with a 76.8 max. I don't think I would do better just driving it. I'm trying to use the most HV battery that I can. Regen is basically free for HV.

 

I am not sure I understood this, if you mean slight decline in which you still need some power input - this is not in the category of purposely I am speaking about, more like just drive it.
Anyways, if this is the driving style you prefer, it is your decision, only my my experience shows that purposely depleting the HV portion to zero or almost zero has a price in efficiency due to the losses associated with using the battery and especially with regen.

 

Don't have the manual in front of me, but I looked at it again last night and saw that there IS a recharge-mode while driving. I believe you HOLD DOWN the EV/HV button for a few seconds, and a light comes on to tell you it's in recharge (while driving) mode. It did mention that the most it would recharge the battery in this mode was 80% (not 100%) but if your EV range was depleted, and you didn't mind using more gas (instead of electricity) to charge it, and were driving for a while, if you put it in that mode, I guess you could get up to about an 80% charge by driving it, without having to plug it in (though I've never tried it, so don't know how long it would take, as to me it seems probably better just to plug it in).

 

Spreading the incoming charge out over more cells could allow more charging of the larger pack over the same amount of time. It depends on whether the battery size is the limiting factor for regen in the hybrid.

The Prime has a charge mode. The car just burns more gas to do so. Which might not be the best use for the gasoline.