Solar Roof Info for 2023 Prius Prime

I think, the usable battery is actually 9 kWh, because 1/3 of the battery !should! be reserved for hybrid mode. At least that is RAV4 PHV usage, and new Prius should operate in the same fashion.
It seems I love to use the word "should" :-D

 

new battery technology may mean that you cannot extrapolate gen5 stats from gen4.

 

In Gen 4, 6.30 kWh is useable. I verified it many times with ChargePoint Level 2 public EVSEs.

From the BEV range/mpge numbers, In Gen 5, about 11.5–11.7 kWh is useable. We can find the exact number using ChargePoint Level 2 public EVSEs, but it requires dozens of measurements to average.

The EPA formula for the BEV range/mpge is as follows:

Useable BEV battery capacity (kWh) = 33.705 × BEV range (mi) / mpge

Gen 4: 33.705 × 25 / 133 = 6.3 kWh
Gen 5 SE: 33.705 × 44 / 127 = 11.7 kWh (with uncertainty due to two significant figures in the BEV range)
Gen 5 XSE/XSE Premium: 33.705 × 39 / 114 = 11.5 kWh (with uncertainty due to two significant figures in the BEV range)

 

I think the solar roof is a gimmick. Just for the cool factor. I’ve got a 2023 XSE w/ solar roof and I question if it even is working. Seeing this thread I think told me why. I live in Hawaii so basically right under the sun, and optimal charging conditions… but reading here it says the solar shuts off if the car get hot. Well Hawaii is hot and the sun is closest, and hot.

I was shipping my car inter island so it sat outside for several days with the shipper. The range barely went up. Maybe 3 or 4 miles over 5 days. This was when the car was new to me so I didn’t know how to look up all the info. I plan on doing a test in the middle of a clear sunny day, with the sun directly overhead, for 2 hours to see how many kW or I should say Watts are generated. So far I’m 100% disappointed with the solar roof.

 

Don't look at the range. Look at the SOC. It should be a lot more than that in five days.

 

Any assistance on helping locate one with a solar roof? I used the inventory feature but it's only for new vehicles and slim pickings.

 

If you contact a dealer, they will locate and get a new one for you.

 

Alternatively Truecar.com and cars.com allow you to search new car listings. If you are willing drive 500+ miles you can enter zip codes for different areas into truecar.com and set the distance you would be willing to travel to see listings. With the listings from truecar.com you can then find the Toyota dealers and look at their new car inventory page. The one catch is that to use the service for truecar.com you have to provide a phone number. I used a google voice number to avoid the hassle of getting contacted every time I wanted to see the sticker.