Prius Newbie- Easy questions need answering

Does it "increase the regenerative braking"? I know the opposite is the case with a regular Prius, maybe someone else can chime in on the Prime?

FWIW, with a regular Prius, you want to reserve B for long downhills, basically mountains, protracted, miles of downhill. B will reduce regen. braking, utilize engine braking instead.

The reason for using B in that case is to avoid fully charging the hybrid battery, or at least postpone it. There's a danger that the battery will fully charge, the car will switch to using friction brakes only, and the brakes will eventually overheat.

For trivial around-town downhills, I'd be inclined (oy, what a pun) to just leave it in D, all the time.

 

I agree with Mendel.
For Gen 4 I find Radar Cruise tends to use B mode to slow down. On one particular part of my way to work I intentionally turn off cruise and use regenerative breaking to save some of that energy as I go downhill to a reduced speed zone. I usually get up to 7 bars of battery that way.

 

Im in US with advanced model

 

I just brought this window up in my plus and got the green over blue bar. IThe green bar disappeared shortly thereafter, so I really didn’t get a chance to analyze it. Never came back......?

 

That’s odd my 2017 Prime plus doesn’t show bars of charge at all, simply potential EV range, in miles.

 

The bars on my Gen 4 Liftback are like those in post 3.

 

score bars, green ev/ echo bars, too many bars for me. no mo martinis.

 

You can display percentage charge status on the multi-information display. It gives you a % number rather than graphic bars.

See this YouTube video:

If you have the heads-up display feature, miles remaining can be shown even when percentage is selected in the multi-information display.

I believe the percentage charge number is actual but the miles remaining is an estimate based upon your recent driving pattern and whether or not you're using the climate control.

 

OK not talking about drive coach, my bad. So you see the green/blue two segmented battery icon in the right Multi-Information Display with the Eco Score stuff. I believe that if you deplete the traction battery so it dips into the lower blue section of the icon it will change to the 8 segmented icon. Darned if I could find any reference to the 8 segment battery icon in the Owner's Manual, but there it is in post #3.

 

And now reviewing one of John1701a's great Prius Prime video, I see the two segment battery icon dip into the lower blue section and it does not change into the 8 segment versions of the battery icon. So I'm stumped.

John's video here post #3; Just got my Prime Advanced today | PriusChat

 

Hello and welcome to the group. I doubt that any one of us can answer all of your questions, but I'm pretty sure that you'll get them answered by various Prius Prime gurus.

If you watch the graphic showing when you're using power from the traction battery and when you're putting regenerated power back into it, you'll get a pretty good feel for how your driving style interacts with the car.

The graphic drive coach is also helpful but I find that it's hard to avoid going a little harder than suggested when accelerating in ordinary city driving. It may make sense to accelerate more slowly from being stopped at a traffic light, but you need to respect (within reason) the social norms of big city driving.

It depends upon how much driving you do in EV mode and how much in HV mode. In EV, you are using no gas so your mpg is infinite. (The mathematicians among us may argue about dividing by zero, but if you're using zero gas, it miles divided by zero gallons.) Your total miles per gallon will be your EV + HV miles divided by the amount of gas used when you're in HV or when you're running the gasoline engine to produce heat for the cabin and front windshield defogger.

It's pretty cold in Chicago, so you're probably having the ICE (internal combustion engine) turn on more than you would when the weather is milder. And that drives your mpg downward.

As I understand the "charge mode" feature, it was designed for places which are beyond your EV range but which require zero-emission driving. An example mentioned to me was someone driving into Paris which, for reasons of air quality, restricts gasoline and diesel engine passenger vehicles in the city center on certain days. If you know you're heading in town on those days, you can use the charge mode when you're outside of the city to assure that your battery is fully charged for EV mode once you arrive within the zero-emission zone.

Because I prefer the feel of EV driving in the city, I have used it this way during longer commutes. It's probably less efficient in terms of mpg than plain HV driving, but it has its virtues in certain situations.

I believe that's what it's for. It provides some guidance and lets you know when your asking more of the car than you need to. As noted above, my experience is that I need to accelerate a little more than the optimal range, but that's just the nature of where we drive.

If you're really obsessive about trying to squeeze EV miles, the concept is that you use minimal energy to get to your cruising speed and then use the electric motor to nudge yourself back to that speed only when your car slows down because of friction, air resistance, or up-hill gravity. Personally, I think it's great in theory but not worth the effort for normal human beings.

I will note one thing that was suggested here and which I find useful: "B" mode in heavy traffic. By heavy traffic, I mean that city stuff where you move about three feet and come to a stop before moving again. It those situations, "B" mode feels a little like the "single pedal driving" mode on a Tesla but still needing some braking to bring the car to a full stop. I think this is a matter of personal driving style, but I've found it is less stressful that constantly shifting my foot from accelerator to brake. Still need to brake, but often the Prime just slows down enough for the car in front to start moving again.

Normally, "B" mode is intended to be used when descending steep hills just like low gear on an internal combustion engine. I uses the regenerative braking force of the motor acting like a generator and taking up some of that down-hill kinetic energy and putting it into the battery.

Please note that my opinions are my own and that I depend upon the corrections and clarifications so generously offered by other members of this forum.

 

B is brake. It should be used in long downhill applications. Such as asending a mountain. The manual has some information on it but it’s sort of lacking in good description.

 

And a creator of long debates on this forum. Some users describe scenarios where it is advisable to use B; others disagree. In general, if you are in EV mode and have capacity to spare in the EV battery, it just adds to the level of regenerative braking in the long downhill scenario, pretty much equivalent to lightly pressing the brake pedal. In HV mode or if the battery is full, then B causes the gasoline engine to turn without fuel to provide engine braking. The classic use of B in conventional ICE cars, which is to prevent the brakes from overheating, is rarely an issue with the Prime.