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LE AWD rear electric motor

Discussion in 'Gen 5 Prius Technical Discussion' started by jeremnyc, Oct 16, 2023.

  1. jeremnyc

    jeremnyc Junior Member

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    How big is the LE AWD motor? I realize the AWD car as a whole has an additional 2 HP, but what does that mean technically? Is the car identical to the FWD version and just adding the 2 HP motor, or is the front motor smaller and the rear motor a bit larger, netting the +2 HP.

    Thanks
     
  2. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

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    The motor is my 2021 AWD LE is pretty small...takes up the space where the spare tire used to be. But it does produce 7 hp, not 2, and I've tested it on a steep hill here when we had an ice storm and the little bugger worked amazing...I was able to climb right on up.
    The only maintenance on it is to drain and fill it at about every 25,000 miles (I asked my mechanic). Only took 1.4 Qts of Toyota WS.
     
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  3. Hammersmith

    Hammersmith Senior Member

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    Rear motor is about 40hp.

    The three power sources are not additive. You don't go: ICE hp + front motor hp + rear motor hp = total hp. The rear motor allows the car to put a little more power to the road(the extra 2hp), but it's really there to respond to slippage. If you end up in a situation where you're using 40hp at the rear wheels, it's because the front wheels are seriously slipping.

    Another way of looking at it is that the high voltage power systems of the car can only handle so much power at a time. The battery can only provide a certain amount of electricity per second. The car's computer can route that electricity to different locations, but it can't force the battery to give up the power any faster.

    That's one of the big differences between the regular Prius and the Prime; the Prime's bigger battery can provide more of its power per second. And that's why the Prime's total hp is about 25hp more than the regular Prius.
     
  4. jeremnyc

    jeremnyc Junior Member

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    Is this "recommended" or officially on the manual for service=included with first 2 years service? I recall the transmission fluid on the main motor/ engine is "lifetime fill."

    Anyone inspect the service procedure for this? Like a traditional rear end differential top fill and bottom drain plugs? Need any special tools?
     
  5. Hammersmith

    Hammersmith Senior Member

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    Never believe "lifetime fills". Those are predicated on what the manufacturer deems is the lifetime of the car. That could mean as little as the life of the warranty; though it usually means around 150k miles(+/-50k). I think most of us view the lifetime of a car should be well over 200k in this day and age.

    That being said, the transaxles in the Toyota hybrid system are pretty much bulletproof. You should still change the fluid in them, but you can probably go up to 9y/90k before the first change and still be safe. I'm going to go with 6y/60k, but I always err on the side of caution.

    Final note: Toyota changed the transaxle fluid on the gen5. It now uses something called: e-Transaxle Fluid TE. Little tough to find right now as I think the Prius is the only car to use it so far(maybe the bZ4x does), but it should be easy to find by the time our 2023 and 2024 models actually need it.

    Here's a video on the topic. Just remember the fluid is different for a gen5.
     
    #5 Hammersmith, Oct 16, 2023
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2023
    PrishopAWD, roleohibachi and jeremnyc like this.