Jerry's Evolving Thoughts on "new-to-me" Prime Premium

I know about it. I just probably won't have need of it till about December. Well, there is one other possibility. After we see my sister in AZ in May, we'll head up to Colorado. Might need it there in the mountains. The PiP was awesome in the Smokies. Can't wait to experience the Prime in the Rockies.

 

I confess that my knee-jerk reaction was, "Duh! Of course they are." Then I remembered that lots and lots of people don't know much of anything about how much of anything works, so I'm glad you added that detail for later visitors (if any) to the thread.

 

Thanks! That means a LOT coming from a pro like you. So far, I'm getting usually between 5.2 and 5.9 miles/kWh. But not needing heat and very little A/C is surely helping. We'll see what the summer brings.

Today was kind of unusual but it was also educational. An out-of-the-routine trip. For those who want to look at maps or know the area, it was from home in New Port Richey over to Carrollwood, run errands around there, and then back home. It was just under 80 miles altogether and I started with a full battery. This was about 30% rural roads with 45-50 mph limits and then 50% city with 45-50 mph limits. The rest was more residential at 35 mph. The PiP would have returned about 60-70 mpg over that distance with those conditions and a full battery. And that would have impressed me. For the Prime, the total mpg was just under 149.7 indicated for the trip!!! Ho. Lee. Cow!

Here's what impressed me besides the battery range:
From our last stop in Carrollwood to Sam's club near home was roughly 30 miles. The meter showed 78 mpg over that stretch. I only had two miles of EV left when we began that leg, so I just put it in HV when we started and kept it there except for one mile of 40 mph road. And now I think I know how it got such crazy mileage numbers. It seems to do its own version of charge mode at speeds at least up to 60 mph. That's the highest speed I've seen so far where it pops itself into EV. What I saw was that, when in HV mode with a couple miles or more of available EV available, at a steady speed on level ground, it puts itself in EV for one or two miles (maybe more), letting the EV range run down quite a bit. Then it recharges the battery. It does this all by itself with the cruise control set and just keeps going back and forth.

That's interesting to me because the prevailing wisdom here with other generations has been to not force EV mode like that because there were more losses involved in regenerating than could be saved running in EV. But the Prime seems to be so efficient that that's no longer the case because I was getting some amazing numbers in those rare times when I could maintain a constant speed for more than a couple minutes.

These are all from mental notes along the way since traffic here doesn't permit keeping records along the way, but the final score impressed me. Aside form a few ergonomic issues, I think Toyota knocked it out of the ballpark with this car.

 

When I installed my 240V outlet for L2 charging a couple years ago, I put in a meter that tracks that stuff. I'm pretty sure that you're right that the car doesn't track it. The PiP did show kWh used (but not received).

Yeah, I kew about that long ago with the PiP and wrote about it a few times. But with the PiP, I felt the change. It was subtle, but still there. So far, I've never felt it with the Prime. But I've only made the transition maybe 5-6 times since I got it. Almost all my driving is in EV (94% so far).

Florida is just weird.

 

A couple more things occurred to me this morning.
1. I think I like the lightweight tonneau cover in this better than the retractable one in previous generations. It's easier in day-to-day use and takes less space when stowed even though it's a little more hassle to stow.

2. It looks like I'll be feeding this about twice as many kWh per month from my own electricity as the PiP. But only getting gas when I go on vacation. LOL! Stats will come later. It's only been two weeks.

Edit to add: Here are a couple stats so far. 610 miles so far on this first tank. Gas gauge still reads "full." I've bought 68 kWh for it so far in two weeks plus lots of free plug-ins. PiP was usually 45-65 kWh over a tank of gas that would get me roughly 800-1,000 miles in 4-6 weeks.

 

Funny you should mention that! Ever since I got the PiP 2-1/4 years ago, I've been lugging around a Gen 2 full size tire and wheel as well as a plug kit and for real 12V compressor. Never needed either except to rescue my wife once when she put a huge drill bit through a tire.

Edit to add: I forgot to answer your question about what comes in the tire repair kit. It's just a compressor that blows tire sealant into the tire and pumps it up. It may or may not get you to a tire shop. And it's only for one use. And it's expensive to replace. And the tire shops hate them. And I think it's a stupid idea. Hence my plug kit and compressor that doesn't need to connect to the sealant canister for the easy-to-fix flats.

But, I finally sprang for a proper donut spare. Second hand from Ebay, but looks completely unused. The Prime does have threaded bolt holes right behind the rear seats in a similar place to where they are in the other models. The holes have plastic plugs in them. I discovered that you can't pull out the plug; you need to unscrew it. I was never able to find D-rings that I was sure would be the right size. I went to the dealer yesterday. He looked up the factory originals and they are $19 each!!! Plus I'd have to do some modifications to make it fit. I told him, "Thanks, but for that price I'll make my own." He smiled and said, "I don't blame you." So I made one myself out of two 2-hole D-rings. A little cutting, a little heating and hammering, a little welding, and a little grinding and I'm good to go. My wife says I should make more and sell them. But that one took about two hours so I don't think anyone would want to pay my rate for two hours. (Although it was kinda fun figuring out how to fabricate it and remembering how to use my welder. )

 

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

 

Looks OK to me. No cracking, but I will be replacing it when the donut gets here in a few days.

Edit to add, the tire was slightly worn, so it was probably not the original.