Can you drive 100+ miles in EV (no charging)?

Mountains/big hills and the PiP is a great combo. I don't know about other areas with 100+ miles EV only, but for us Californians, just about anywhere through the Sierra Nevada and even the costal range, the regeneration benefits of the PiP are awesome. I have not tried to eke out a strategy for 100+ miles, but have probably done 40+ miles inadvertently down from Tahoe and Sequoia. The cooler mountain air (for battery longevity) and slower mountain road speeds (for efficiency) are probably favorable too.

Yeah, would be great to hear form Volt, Leafers, others on this.

 

Top of Rocky Mt. Nat. Park to Empire Colorado. Just might do the trick also! Not sure, but about 80+ miles down hill!

 

So, everybody's under the illusion that going down mountainside gives you 100 miles of EV? Taking a regular ICE in neutral achieves the same result. You still only get 11 miles of true EV in a PIP.

 

I think one of 3PriusMike's points was that it's not simply a straight downhill glide. There are lots of ups on the overall way down that not even a regular PiP has enough regen to get over in only EV. A regular ICE would not be able to do it in neutral. That can potentially add up to much more than 11 miles true EV.

 

One should add that this is why his total round trip mileage was much better than even in his prior non-PiP Prii.

 

If you run ICE with the engine off then no gas is used. Thus "EV"

 

Understand, but that only works until you get to the first trough on you way downhill, then you are stuck and have to push your car up to the next point to glide if you want to keep the engine off.

 

I don't think it's possible to shove more EV into a 4KW battery than what it's capacity can handle

 

You are right, but you use some of that going up the small hills on the way down, then regen back even more down the next leg. This is all lost on ICE vehicles and mostly on the non PiP Prii.

 

And by "small hills" I mean some uphill sections that use up a great portion of a fully regenerated battery.

 

You still only have a 4kw EV capacity no more, no less.

 

Respectfully, this is not the same thing as saying "everybody's under the illusion that going down mountainside gives you 100 miles of EV...you still get 11 miles of true EV in a PiP". That is not true in the scenario 3PriusMike describes. If you can regenerate multiple times on the way down without using gas or plugging in, you can absolutely get 100+ miles of true EV and can use way more than 4kW total from the battery. Just because the battery only hold that much at once does not negate his argument.

 

true, but not at the same time you are using 4KW. the battery capacity is 4KW so 100+ miles will not "fit" into a 4KW battery.

 

Agree, but that does not seem to be the argument the OP was making. The point is compelling that one can theoretically get 100+ true EV miles in the PiP.

 

depends on your definition of "true EV"

 

The key words down down "up" down down "up" down "up" down "up" ....see? not at the same time, you are discharging the battery then regenerating, so, not 100+ true EV

 

Yes, the original post made it very clear that it was not at the same time - that was a big point. A very reasonable definition of "true EV" would include gain in miles attributable to the PiP EV/regen system alone. To see that it is "true EV", look at his round trip length - 551 miles at 63 mpg. He notes that even in prior non-PiP Prii, he got 45-52 mpg on similar trips. If my math is correct, that looks like 96-157 miles of this improvement came from the PiP's EV/regen system recapturing otherwise lost potential energy on the down down up down down up... Again, the OP said from the beginning that it didn't come at once - that was his point, and he restated it. No one is claiming the battery hold more than ~4 kWh.

 

well...ok then