Highest outside temperature?

Father's Day, my car posted 113 degrees for outside temperature where I live in the OC.

 

A long time ago, my 2005 Prius was parked in the sun for a while in 123°F weather. It still runs perfectly. The car was really hot inside though.

I wouldn't worry about how hot it is outside. The batteries are built to last and Toyota wouldn't make a car that breaks when it gets hot outside. Normal people buy this car. Park it regardless of the temp.

I always park my car in as much shade as possible so the paint doesn't get damaged and the interior stays cooler.

A week ago, it got really hot and my temp gauge reached 109°F in my 2016 Prius.

 

I was wondering the same thing. I went out and purchased a wireless thermometer last week ( I always wanted to get one anyways and this was a good excuse). The highest temp so far has been 107. I did a brief internet search for research on lithium ion batteries. Most of what came up was pretty technical and over my head. But in one section of one of the papers was the statement that li ion batteries should not be used or stored in temps over 140 degrees farenheight. I'm not an expert but that eases my my somewhat. I agree with one of the other posts that said Toyota and other car company's would not put out cars with batteries that could not withstand inside car temps of just over 100 and probably into the teens. I suppose if temps inside got to over 130 I would be concerned.

The one area I think car companies haven't been innovative enough is they should after all these years come up with a simple way for the car to release hot air out of the car. It could save the lives of children left i a closed car.

 

Thank you for posting this question. This is my first Prius, and my car is parked in the sun all day; every day. I had concerns about the car's interior temperature, and how it will affect the hybrid battery.

But then I remind myself that the Prius has been around for many many years, through all kinds of extreme cold and heat. And I still see millions on the road... I hope my 4th Gen with the L-ion battery holds up as well.

 

All car electronics need to be rated -40/+125C operating temp. Other non vital electronics have less restrictive ranges, up to 80C.
Modern well built cars have ways and "tricks" to deal with temperature extremes. And cabin temps can easily go up to 40-60C even higher temps in the past.
This is way all glass is now tinted to reduce UV and infrared.
Park the car where you want, and before getting into it, remember that outside air is always cooler than the interior one before opening.
I usually open the doors, start the AC without recycling, and then after 1-2 mins I drive still with the windows open. 35C is still less than hot plastics....

 

If you can get the global window opening set-up (not sure if it's available in all countries - I've asked them to do it for mine if it's possible) where you press the unlock button for 3+ seconds, and all windows open, that releases a lot of heat almost instantly.

I've always suspected that the on-dash outside temperature readout over-states the temperature if parked in high temperatures - I can get into my FORD parked in the sun and it might read 35C, but at home, 5 mins later, the outside temp of both my car and my home are reading maybe 32C. Unless, of course, it is actually hotter in the carpark due to the heat from the hot tarmac.

 

If anybody knows about heat... it's the good people of Australia. Any heat-related problems with your previous Prius Alan?

 

I bought the Carista adapter and it allows you to put down all of the windows and moonroof with the long press of the unlock button or turning the key in the door.

 

No - this is my first Prius - but this was in the news last summer - re dashboards on a Camry.

 

Re: GLOBAL OPENING AND CLOSING WINDOWS: I picked up my 2016 Prius today - I'd asked the salesman (who is also a mechanic) to have the GLOBAL OPENING activated - which he did, so that's working fine now. It was off by default.

I also had the reverse beeping adjusted to one beep!!!

 

This wasn't my Prius, but this was taken last week in Las Vegas.

 

Good points. I should have specified my 107 reading was inside the car with the windows shut. The outside temp was 86. Az, Ca, NM have a different set of circumstances than the rest of us. I don't know this for sure since I never took temps inside ther cars I have owned but I think the 2016 Prius doesn't get as hot.

 

Ya, that was my hottest day too (in the 2016).

I was in Hawaii a couple years ago. I parked my rental Chevy Traverse and left my old iPhone 5 in a hidden compartment on the dash because I didn't want to get it stolen on the beach. I didn't know it would get really hot (because it wasn't sunny at the time). When I came back, my phone said it was too hot to operate and it took about a day to "cool" off. It sort of broke the phone because the phone would always die at 76% battery.

Lesson learned: don't keep things on or in the dashboard. They will melt!

 

and i've been whining about 84 degrees.

 

Fortunately, the AC seems to perform pretty well in the new Prius. I'm giving mine a hard workout, using it about 90% of the time. ​

 

Been in the 90's here a few days since I took delivery and after parking in the sun I was pleasantly surprised that the softex was not hot at all, like leather I've had in the past. Perhaps it is the moonstone color, but dash and seats were really not even hardly warm. J

 

Well, it doesn't get hot here, but the folks escaping Ft. McMurray last month had plastic molding melting off their cars as they crawled down the highway (bumper to bumper).

 

I work in the Colorado Desert in Southern California. No shade or covered parking. A week or so ago we had a few days over 115 degrees, with the peak at 124 degrees (official measurement, which set records). The car cools off nicely, no issues so far, but long term issues are unknown.

One note is that cars will eventually achieve the temperature of the surrounding air based on the reality of thermodynamics. The temperature rises beyond the outside temperature when moisture in the car absorbs the heat and cannot escape the enclosed space. This heating effect is limited by the amount of moisture in the space. So an easy way to avoid "excessive" heat in the car (heat beyond the level outside the car) is to simply leave a couple of windows cracked so the moisture can escape. It is important to understand that window shades and tinting do not reduce interior heating, but do protect interior components from damage due to sun rays of various wavelengths.

As I have stated in other posts, one feature that is missing, in my opinion, is the ability to park the car in a "ready" mode where the car can be kept locked and at a reasonable interior temperature but not driven. This could be considered a safe "pet" mode. Of course it kills mileage. On a recent camping trip sleeping in the car on a 115-degree day resulted in .8 gallons of fuel being burned for an 8 hour sleep time at 71 degrees inside the car (left in the "ready" mode). The temperature outside never dipped below 90 degrees.