EV question - distance

It all depends on the speed you wish to go and how much acceleration power you need. If you wanted to, you could use Ev all the way up the hill. Or.. at least a lot of the way. Most likely the gas engine will kick in due to a strain. You could use the gas engine and downhill momentum to get better mpg when going back down the hill.

BTW.. congrats on being a new prius owner. What's your current mpg?

 

i am going through 5 weeks of multiple short trips and there is nothing you can really do to alleviate the problems really.

right now my tank mileage is 49.1 mpg from 51.1 mpg monday morning. but better than the 35 mpg from Friday night.

 

I'm not sure I would agree, but I am speculating.
If you do make it one way or better yet round trip, delaying the warm-up inefficiency for the next trip will certainly help, even if the ICE would be working to recharge the battery along with warming up, and propelling the car.
Give it a try. The flasher method costs nothing but time and a wire, using your own button about 3 bucks, and the costal mod $45.
Myself, I did the button approach.

 

Val:

you know it might be worth a try. aslo as far a car mods go, it s not really that much money.

i dont have the EV switch but i seem to be able to go up to 3 miles at times. it all depends on what the SOC is when you park the car.

but you say that the steepest part is at the beginning of the trip which means that a downhill part happens just before you get home. if you get a good charge from that, then that could be enough to get you to the school and back. remember, hills can help a lot.

but speed would be crucial.

 

Like you, I am thinking along the same lines - at what points in my various trips would being able to force EV be helpful.
For instance, my trip to the rink is mostly gentle downhill, both ways Well OK, only HALF of both ways, The mid point is the bottom of the topography. About 7 miles, 95% posted at 30 mph, the rest at 25. By the time I've gone through the midpoint and made some distance back up, the car is warmed up and the SOC is high, all blue or even 1 green, I can sometimes do the last 2 miles almost entirely on electric if the traffic lights are kindly and other motorist are sparse. It seems that frequently I can get it into stealth but if the ICE kicks in, I can't get back into stealth. I wonder if being able to accelerate a little harder with the EV switch, I could do the whole 2 miles or more, even with lights, stop signs and some other motorists.

 

Bruce:

for you, i would not recommend EV at all. you are going too far.

I would use it only for very short distances (about a mile at the most) at speeds of 35 or less.

there have been people on this forum that have run out of gas and have driven in a forced EV mode and most say that they only chanced going 1-4 miles or so before they were down to 1-2 bars.

 

Dave,
I guess I wasn't clear. I know I couldn't get all the way there in EV. But I think I could stay in EV with the switch the last 2 miles each way. The road follows the lake shore. There is a brook just south of my house so I have to climb some going north, then it levels out, then drops again going into Burlington at the waterfront. Another a climb continuing north, then there is a river coming out just north of the rink so the road is dropping again. There are, of course, some more minor ups and downs along the way.

At current temps, the car is warmed up by the time I have climbed out of the Burlington low point either direction. This may not be true in Dec, Jan and Feb. There are places where I expect it to go electric only but it kicks the engine on even if I was recently in EV. As it is, even when I do EV as much as I can, I park the car with no more than 1 blue bar missing and sometimes even have 1 green bar. Since I have to climb at the beginning of either direction, a lower initial SOC isn't going to hurt me. The engine will be running for warm-up the next 10 minutes anyway.

 

As I would expect from postings here. I chanced across an article on hybrids on netscape.com. The author said you could drive 10 to 20 miles on electric if you ran out of gas. I sent in a correction, saying 1-2 would be more reasonable unless it were all down hill plus a couple of other points. He said "good points, thanks". The article popped up again and figured he had corrected it. Nope. :-(

I also saw a Car and Driver thing in the Sunday paper. Mostly muscle cars. They said a Ford Escape Hybrid would go to 25 MPH on electric, then the gas engine would kick in. Not exactly an accurate representation.

I hope no one buys the vehicles and gets POed because of this sort of mis-information.

 

im pretty sure i read that someone ran out of gas and was on a slight downhill slope and that he still could only go a very limited distance.

apparently, gas is needed for other things besides charging the battery.

 

Varko: I'd have commented earlier, but I was on vacation.

You will not be able to make it all the way in EV mode, due to the stops. Those are a killer on EV distance. However, the EV mod can still be useful: Allow the ICE to run for the uphill leg, which should leave you with a nearly full battery. Then use EV for the downhill leg and if the downhill is steep enough, you may make it. That will leave your battery nearly at minimum, so that next trip, during the obligatory warm-up phase, there is battery head room to absorb the excess energy.

I do not have data, but it is my opinion that this strategy helps with mileage.

And in any case, the EV mod is fun to have. I have the Costal Tech switch on the CC stalk, which I like because it does not affect the functioning of the headlight flasher. Evan's mod with an actual button is the most elegant, but more complicated to install.

 

I think you will be surprised at how far a 5 year old can walk. Have you figured out how far it is Frontierland to Tomorrowland at Disney Word?

It could be a very special time for both of you every day. Good planning with fun songs, a treat to look forward to at the end of the walk, kicking a soccer ball all the way to school, word games, stepping in puddles when it's raining, waving to a neighbor on the porch... I remember the days when I skipped a rope all the way to school.

And the health benefit of walking... 4 miles a day for you and 2 for her. You can cancel your health club membership.
You will be teaching your child how to be fit for life.

Or just cut your gas use in half by walking in the afternoon and driving in the morning.

 

bicyclebabe:

where you from? around here, walking isnt an option for many. the weather is not predictable enough. i doubt that you or anyone else would want to walk in the rain along streets that for the most part, are not walker-friendly.