Toyota's Engineering Choices on Gen IV and Prime

I'd really try hooking both of the outlets in parallel to see if you can get sufficient power out of them before running additional wires. Worst case you can just run a jumper between the two inside the center console to give you the added oomf and not have to worry about adding additional wiring.

 

That sounds a lot like false advertising, which is illegal in the US and many other countries.

 

The air condititioning compressor in a Prius runs on high voltage AC (around 300V) from the inverter.

 

On the Prius, they make a big deal that for safety reasons the high-voltage traction battery is physically disconnected by a relay until the control unit is convinced that all required self tests have passed and the system is put in READY mode. I wonder how Tesla is going to get around this issue and tap the high voltage battery when the system is "off"?

 

Maybe there will be another battery but not a regular 12 V as we know it. This is total speculation on my part.

 

You mean something like a large capacitor?

 

Some versions of the Hyundai Ioniq and Kia Niro (including the hybrids sold in the US) already run with no 12V battery; they use a partition of the traction battery for 12V power.

OP, my desktop runs on 65W, and my laptop on 19W, and they're both several years old. An easy solution here might be to get a new laptop.

 

Have you looked into using a dedicated automotive power brick for the laptop? They aren't available for all models, but they are easy to get for some. It's a DC-DC converter that lets you escape some of the inefficiency of an inverter in the middle.

As to why they did it? I buy the idea that they aren't charging the 12v battery as aggressively as in past models in order to extend service life.

If you can't find a direct DC-DC brick, I'd put in a dedicated high current socket. It sounds like you've been running on the ragged edge of performance anyway given that it only needed a 1.5v drop to expose trouble.

 

Better yet, why not DIY a high amperage circuit from the 12V battery?

You'll need a m-LVD Low Voltage Disconnect, a car amplifier install kit, patience, and wiring knowledge to do it right.

The m-LVD Low Voltage Disconnect prevents you from draining your battery past a set voltage and has an override switch to still "start" your car if you do drain the battery. The Prius battery is tiny and they use an expensive AGM that you don't want to be overdrawing from which will ruin the battery.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/7635/m-LVD_Low_Voltage_Disconnect/FAQ

Amp wire install kit:

From there, you can go nuts and put 200W of flexible solar panels & an MPPT charger on the circuit if you wanted. You could also skip the 12v system altogether and use a 300~V DC to 12V DC converter to power off the lithium pack, but I'd suggest making damn sure that you have a low voltage cutoff and know what you are doing.

1 Output 200 V to 400 V 12 V Isolated DC/DC Converters | Mouser

 

universal laptop chargers are on Ebay and Amazon they are DC to DC boosters that work well for my laptop just make sure you get a 12v one not a mains version