New PHEV SE any hints

Yes, the use of AC or heat will eat up a little bit of range when in EV mode. We have had an SE prime for a little more than a year. With the insane gas prices, we have saved a lot of money because we now rarely buy any gas. And here are some of my gen5 PHEV suggestions:

When on local streets or stop/go traffic, say, 50mph and under, stay in EV mode. When getting on a highway or freeway, say, over 50mph for at least 20 min., put it in HV mode.

Keep track of all your gas purchases. For us, it is easy because we buy very, very little gas since we drive on electricity so often. Record the purchased gallons and then multiply that no. by the EPA rated highway fuel economy no. and the you'll get the number of HV miles driven. We then keep track of the cumulative HV miles for the purpose of not overdoing oil changes.

Change the oil the first time at around 500-700 miles, but not 500-700 total miles. Change it at 500-700 HV miles.

After the warranty period is over, consider changing your oil every 5000 miles. But, again, not 5000 total miles, but every 5000 HV miles. If you keep your HV trips longer than 20 minutes, this will keep moisture from collecting in your oil. If you keep track of HV miles, don't worry if your oil change interval is more than a year, synthetic oil lasts for years even when in a crankcase, as long as the ICE miles are low.

Do other recommended maintenance checks and tire rotations based on the total miles on the car.

Try to do your own oil changes to make sure they are done right (and they will be a lot cheaper too). Because the level of competence at many car and toyota dealerships is extremely low. And the level of fraud is very high. At dealerships, they very frequently mess up on very simple things that can be very hard (or impossible) to fix or reverse. I stocked up on toyota oil filters and l got a fumoto oil valve which allows me to very easily drain the car's waste oil directly into a container, vs having it splash all over into a tub.

Consider getting a MillerCat catalytic converter shield. The shield is big so we got the aluminum version to save a bit of weight. It is not super hard to install if you have some decent metric tools. I painted the main part of the shield orange so that it is more visible to a thief under the car, this makes it more of a deterrent. For additional deterrent value, I also put the included MillerCat decals under the car on a mostly vertical part of the underbody plastic so any thief trying to look under the car from either side will know that this will not be an easy sawzall job.

The gen5 has a big windshield and a big rear window. To reduce the heat load on the car when parked outside in the summer, consider getting a front window and a rear window reflective shield. l found that the ones made by the heatshieldstore are some of the very best available in terms of fit and cooling power.

Don't fully charge the car unless you will be fairly quickly (quickly after charging) driving a good distance on EV mode. Otherwise, just charge it partially if it is gonna sit for a little bit or if your local trips are shorter than the full EV range of the car.

When it is cold outside and you drive on local streets and then get on the highway, put the car in HV mode at least a mile before the beginning of the fast highway portion to allow the ICE to fully warm up. You can monitor ICE warm up by looking at the "energy flow" diagram on the center screen. The ICE has just barely warmed up when the engine block on the energy flow diagram changes from a blue color to an orange color.

Well, that's a start. If l think of other tips, l will post later. Good luck!

 

A question for you: how do you charge? At home? 120V ? 240 V ? Using the OEM oyota charging cable or a dedicated charger device (also known as an EVSE) ?