Several technical questions: 1. What information is available for display to the driver regarding energy in the traction battery? (e.g. % charged, miles remaining in EV mode, etc.) 2. I’ve seen literature about minimum (20% and maximum (80%) as recommended range of charge or the battery - is that the guidance of Toyota as well? 3. Does the driver have any control over minimum and maximum charge allowed? If so how is that controlled? 4. Stated range of EV use is 45 miles - is that from 0% charged to 100% charged or? 5. How does the range of charge allowed/recommended impact the EV driving range in miles? 6. What is Toyota’s recommendation for how often the gasoline engine should be used? (and minimum number of minutes it runs each time?)
1) %charge and miles available 2) toyota limits the charge in the software so you don't have to 3) unsure if there is a user settable charge limit within toyotas allowable charge range 4) range 'guesstamit' is for 100% of the user allowable charge range 5) there is no visible impact, but toyota is limiting the top and bottom to protect the battery, so you don't get to use that charge, for howevermany miles you would get from it. 6) idk what the manual recommends, but running through a tankful each year would be a good practice 7) keep in mind, this is a phev, not a bev, and should be treated as such. 8) batteries don't hold miles, they hold energy. the number of miles you can travel in ev is limited by many factors
6) If the engine needs to start it will keep running long enough to warm up; which is just a few minutes. The engine will start when the EV battery range reaches 0 miles but if you start driving down a hill at that point the gas engine will continue to run for a while. I have also experienced the engine starting due to hard braking downhill with a full or almost full battery.
#6 - from the manual (pp 86,87) ■Notice about fuel ●For Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, fuel may remain in the tank for a long time and undergo changes in quality depending on the how the vehicle is used. Refuel at least 5.3 gal. (20 L, 4.4 Imp.gal.) of fuel every 12 months (refuel a total of at least 5.3 gal. [20 L, 4.4 Imp.gal.] over a 12-month period), as this may affect components of the fuel system or the gasoline engine. If the vehicle has not been refueled for a certain amount of time and it is possible that the quality of the fuel remaining in the tank has changed, “No New Fuel has been Added Recently Please refuel” is displayed on the multiinformation display when the power switch is turned to ON. If the message is displayed, refuel the vehicle immediately.
Here is some useful information about the high voltage battery of the Prius 2023 to 2026. Toyota keeps safety margins to protect the HV battery, the bottom margin is 15 % SOC and the top margin is 10 % SOC (SOC = State of Charge). This means that the SOC battery is used from 15% at SOC 90% when the dashboard indicator indicates 0% to 100%. So there are only 75% of the 13.6 kWh available, this gives 10.2 kWh usable. For maximum HV battery longevity, it is recommended to use it between a 20% SOC and an 80% SOC. A 20% SOC is obtained when the dashboard indicator gives 7% and an SOC of 80% when the indicator gives 87%. So, looking at the dashboard indicator in % mode (not in km mode), if you want to use the battery between 20% and 80% SOC, it must be used between 7% and 87%. Being a long below 7% damages the HV battery and being 87% long, especially when it is also hot, also damages the battery. It is still recommended to load the battery at 100% (90% SOC) from time to time for the balancing of cell voltages which is carried out by the HVB (BCM) when loading from 90% to 100%. This is why the last 10% load is longer because the controller will unload cells whose tension is too high for all cells to be at the same tension. For those who want to see the value of the HV battery SOC, you have to go through an OBD2 scanner or even an OBD2 dongle with software like Carista. It is possible to display on the infotainment system (Android Auto) in real time the value of the SOC using a combined dongle with the Torque Pro and AATorque and/or Performance Monitor software. When the thermal engine starts, it will be in heating mode until it reaches a temperature of the Prestone of 60 degree Celcius and it is at this time that it will be in hybrid mode. Noted that a temperature of 60 degrees Celcius is insufficient to prevent and evaporate condensation into winter oil (white oil), you have to reach 90 degrees Celcius for a few minutes.
Both. 0% is not really 0%; as there is the buffer and HEV reserve (the former being about 1.5 kWh and the latter being about 0.9 kWh). For long-term storage, I would leave it at about 20–30%. Never leave the car at a high SOC during long-term storage, as it will seriously degrade the battery. 0% is OK for daily driving. 100% is OK only if you drive the car immediately after you charge. If you are not going to drive the car immediately or store overnight or for several days, leave it at no more than about 50–60% SOC, perhaps 70% at most. Leaving the car at more than 70% SOC overnight will degrade the battery. No. Yes. I am not sure what you are asking, but the range is proportional to the SOC difference. If it is 50 miles for 100%, it is 5 miles for 10%. Run the engine occasionally. I would say at least once a month or so. If not, the car will do it for you automatically. Ideally, the engine should only be used (the car should be driven in the HEV mode) for at least about 15 miles. Shorter trips are bad for any engine, especially for Prius engines, which stay off for most of the time while driving in the HEV mode. So, use the engine for highway driving and the electric motor for city driving. That will optimize the life of both the battery and the engine and be very economical in terms of the fuel cost, as you need more kWh for highway driving than for city driving.
I bought the Carista dongle two years ago when I bought my car and am using currently with OBD Fusion on Apple iOS which I purchased 10+ years ago. I imagine other dongles will work and there are a bunch of OBD apps without a subscription. My current set up displays the hybrid battery pack remaining charge like Danny Dan is saying where ~89.5% is the point where it stops charging. The miles remaining for me that corresponds to ~89.5% currently is 35 miles which changes depending on the way I use the electric battery, my driving mode(sport, normal, eco) and the use of Predictive Efficient Drive. I use it for driving on the highway which reduces the EV range a couple of miles. I have just started using this set up so I don’t have a number for percent remaining charge when the MID is displaying 0 miles but I suspect like Danny Dan says it is around 10%. With my current set up I can also see the EV battery voltage, EV battery current, and EV battery power. There are a couple of data fields I have displayed which I am not sure what they are reporting for example Enhanced Hybrid/EV Charging State and Support of Hybrid/EV Vehicle System Data. Both as far as I can tell display static numbers 3 and 14 respectively.
