warming up...???...not sure I fully understand

It's just explaining how the car will behave in different stages of the warm up process. I was in NC a few weeks ago and mine set outside in 30° temps overnight. All I did was go out and start the car and let it warm up till the heater started working so I wouldn't be freezing. I wouldn't worry about it any damage acurring.

 

Absolutely no risk of the damage. Just drive it. There is much more on this forum about. And - yes - the "warm-up stages" is an info "how things work" not the indication for the driver.
Besides - extended warming-up may ruin the MPG strategy not to mention increased emission.

 

Agreed. Just drive it. The car will take care of itself.

 

Just like any car, driving it before it has warmed up can be rough on parts. However, you aren't going to kill the engine, battery, drivetrain, etc by doing so.
As far as extremes, hehe. Come visit MN some time

 

Mind you, if you drive right away, you are driving EV only for a portion of first mile or so. Drive slowly or you are depleting battery too much hurting MPG and putting wear and tear on hybrid components.

 

The Prius does not need to a warm up period to be driven and can be drive within seconds of powering on the computers. The Prius warm up stages runs the gas engine(ICE) to heat up the coolant/catalytic converter to insure its near zero emissions ( and has the additional effect of recharging the traction battery at the beginning of each trip).
The Prius initial warmup stage uses quite a bit of fuel so during the first few minutes of operation while it is warming up the Prius fuel efficiency is very low; however, once the Prius warms up its fuel efficiency can be very high.

If you get stuck in a snow induced traffic jam set the Prius to "PWR" mode to run the gas engine sooner than later and to avoid draining the Traction battery.

hope this helps

Walter

 

I don't get it. What do you mean by switch to PWR to avoid draining battery?
From my winter driving (every day 20 minutes in stop&go traffic) I found I'm unable to drain battery even if I want to.
When it's below freezing and I have interior temp set at 18 deg. C my car starts ICE to generate heat. If I avoid using battery by pulse & glide I end up with 7 bars of charge. When 7 bar is topped the car will avoid charging and will just idle to generate heat. It such situation it is better to go through ICE -> Battery -> MG2 -> Wheels path rather than ICE -> Wheels + ICE -> Battery + ICE Idling.

 

Now I don't get it. Let's try to explain us - newbies - which buttons sequence we have to press for such combination

 

You already read it in Polish ;-)

My version of driving in winter (below freezing with heater on) and in traffic jam.
1) Prius when cold heats up catalytic converter and the engine (50 - 60 second since READY)
2) Depending on heating setting it will keep on working until engine coolant temperature will reach 70 deg. Celsius and interior temperature will rise.
3) Then - on EU versions (US is more restricted) it will begin to turn off ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) on stop but keep on working on any power demand (with cold battery mine starts ICE on less than 1/4 of HSI)
4) When in traffic jam ICE cycles periodically to keep at least 70 deg. C coolant temperature.

Points above are true when car in in ECO mode (ECO mode indicator above speedometer - not eco word over HSI Hybrid System Indicator). When in Normal (no icons) or PWR (Power Mode icon) coolant temperature is kept higher and ICE is working longer.

When engine is working (point 2 and point 4) in traffic jam energy provided by the engine is feeded to battery. This way battery is charging even when car is standind still or crawling. After 5 - 10 minutes battery can reach 7 bars.
After 7 bar is full hybrid system will refuse to keep charging the battery. It will just idle engine to generate heat and waste all the energy.
To avoid it I'm trying to use battery only (first half of the HSI) in long traffic jam in winter (below freezing with heater on). Most of the time I'm unable to use more than 1 - 2 battery bars before engine kicks in again only to generate heat.

That's why I said that I prefer to use battery power in winter in traffic jams.

If (as walter Lee said) you switch to PWR mode and use ICE power most of the time it will result in:
1) Higher coolant temperature => longer ICE working time
2) Less battery use => no place to store excessive energy produced by engine
3) Longer idling time (ICE will not charge battery with full 7 bars of SoC and idles always when driving less than 8 kmh with foot on brake pedal)

Of course it all applies when car is cold, it's below freezing and traffic jam is longer than 10 to 15 minutes.
You can reduce ICE working time and use P&G strategy when:
1) you decrease interior temp
2) turn of heating (if you like cold inside the car)
3) lower heater fan speed
4) use electric block heater if you have garage or power outlet nearby car

My shortcuts used in the post above are energy flow descriptions.

ICE -> battery -> MG2 -> Wheels means: Energy from combustion engine through generator to battery. Then from battery through electric engine to the wheels. This process according to various posts on PriusChat is about 50% effective total.

ICE -> Wheels + ICE -> Battery + ICE Idling means: Energy from combustion engine to the wheels and with battery full, combustion engine idling, wasting fuel, because there is no way to store produced energy.

 

OK, some explanation.

The term "just drive it" applies. The Prius is much smarter than most of us. It knows when and how to protect itself and does so.

When started, cold or hot, the Prius -must- go through the "cat warmup cycle". So the engine will run for 20 to 40 sec then shut down. Shorter if already warm, longer if not. Ignore this. Just drive it.

When the A/C system is calling for heat the engine will run to produce that heat. Once the coolant reaches a certain temperature (which depends on generation, what "stage" the car is in, the colour of the sky, etc etc) the engine can shut down until the coolant temp drops to some -other- temperature, then it starts up again. Note that in the GIII even the "mode" you are in will affect this.
Want to go crazy? Try to guess what the car is doing! Just drive it.

In "real" winter (ambient temps below 0F or -18C) the Prius will take forever to warm up if just idling. It's a waste of fuel! Just drive it!
In "real" winter the effect of the "block heater" is next to unnoticeable. 400 W just won't cut it!

I once had a Subaru (very compact aluminum engine). It had an 1100W block heater. Now -THAT- was a "block heater". The heater blew warm air right away after starting, even one day when the ambient was -50C and the car was outside. Brrr. But the electric bills!
Oh, and how cold is -50C? When I put it in gear (manual transmission) and tried to go I stalled the engine due to the high load of trying to move the diff and transmission oil, which was "solid". I had to rev it up to get going and then drive at 20-30 km/hr for a few miles to loosen it up! Oh, and none of the interior electronics worked properly until it warmed up a bit.
Fun with winter! (all this in Blue River B.C. at 6AM one very cold winter morning).

 

-50C?!? wow.
I agree with other posters. You can marginally increase you mileage (about 5%) if you use some strategies in the winter, but there is no need to over intellectualize it. The car will take care of itself. You cant harm it unless you drive it off a cliff or something.