How to recharge your traction battery While in drive mode

The other thing to keep in mind is that charge mode charges the pack faster than plugging in.
Somewhere around twice as fast.
Than charge mode stops charging at 80% of the charge the pack gets when plugged in.

I'm still figuring how many Kilo Watts are in the EV portion of the pack --
around ~ 6.3 Kw from charge source when plugged in and
around ~ 5.5 Kw usable to the tires -- in EV mode.
Than there is the Top of the pack that is never used
around ~ 15% of the pack total capacity or
around ~ 1 Kw
And the bottom of the pack
around ~ 15% of the packs total capacity or
around ~ 1 Kw some of which is used in HV mode when there is no EV mode charge left.

as shown above both the packs total Kw and % of charge don't add up perfectly yet,
but it's close enough for me so far.

 

I haven’t used it enough to personally confirm this, but yes, that’s a interesting observation.

 

It only takes a few tests with no traffic to get a close reference.
2 hours to full charge
Drive in EV until that charge is used up
Put the Prime in Charge Mode and drive until it stops charging

Don't watch the mpg gauge while testing

 

Here's lots of detail for you to add to the understanding of how it all works:

 

From what I’ve seen in the 2-3 times I’ve used it, Charge Mode charges up to 80% (and I think I saw that documented in the manual too).

 

That is correct.

 

Charge mode is DC charging.
In some markets, like Japan, the Prime gets CHAdeMO, and can use DC chargers.

 

Besides the other things, I notice the pack temp only went up 5* F
I've watched the clip about 10 times both above and at youtube
and I still don't get all the stuff being shown... I also have the hybrid assistant and have
logged 3 trips all in EV mode so far.

hybrid assistant shows a lot more in HV mode than in EV mode.
maybe one day an app will show what mg1 and mg2 are doing both in EV and HV modes.

If both mg1 and mg2 can work as drive motors I wonder if they can both work as generators under
specific circumstances.

thanks for sharing another great video

 

One other time I might use charge mode. To put maximum range in car. Charge battery in charge mode, fill up with gas afterward and you will have about 25 miles reserve range in the battery. Handy when headed out in the boonies.

 

The 2-3 times I’ve used Charge Mode was on a trip back from Houston: The battery was empty, but I had a fairly-full tank of gas, initially.

Since, other than such (fairly-rare) road trips, I pretty much always drive on EV, I try to not to start with much more than a quarterish tank of gas when I begin a many-month stint of mostly-EVing around town. I don’t want the gas to get too stale.

About half-way through those return trips, it became obvious that I would land home with a depleted battery and a too-full tank. Soooo.... Charge Mode!

 

I almost laughed out loud. That's jacket weather for my wife and I'm practically in heaven at those temps.

 

I'm still mostly guessing what mg1 and mg2 are doing. I saw a bit with scanguage in the PiP, but prime is all different.

Getting used to new gauges showing up in place of gauges you are used looking at most of the time can be challenging at best.
So can organizing longer trips when most of the driving is only in EV mode. Don't ask how I know - OK !

 

Actually, I have found Charge Mode useful in one particular way:

I generally go to the gas station once every couple months or so, at which time I put in a couple gallons or so. That, since I drive around town pretty much entirely on EV, and road trips are historically rare. I don’t want to let the gas in the tank get too stale, over long spans of time driving EV.

When I do take road trips though, I sometimes find that I have more gas left in the tank than I’d ideally like. If so then, I often will kick it into Charge Mode to trade that leftover gas off against my first charge upon getting home.

 

You aren't saving gas. You are exchanging energy from the ICE (gas) for EV range later. It's all coming from your fuel tank assuming you start with a depleted HV battery.

 

Old thread, so hopefully someone sees this.

Does the car have to be moving in order to charge the traction battery? Or can I just put it in charge mode and idle the car (the charging coming directly from the engine)?

 

Leaving it in idle works fine, but it's the least efficient. The engine under a load (any speed) would be better.

 

Yeah, the car is more efficient to just drive it as a hybrid than to charge the battery this way and then drive on electric with the resulting battery charge. (I’ve measured it.)

There’s only one scenario I’ve found where charge mode is worth it: 2-3 times I’ve driven back to Austin from Houston, and found that I’ll end up with too much gas in the tank. “Too much gas” in the sense that, in town, unlike on such a road trip, I drive almost entirely on electric. I therefore rarely tank up with more than 3/8 of a tank, or else the gas will just go stale in the tank. So, those 2-3 times, rather than leaving too much gas in the tank, it’s better to burn it and not charge up when I get home.

 

I always learn something from this forum, thanks!
My take on this is:

1. Use the charge mode to get the heat operational on cold days Brrr, thanks, those heated seats are nice, but take a while to warm up!

2. Use the charge mode on highway to charge the battery. At my locus the break even v.s. ICE is ~$3.00 / gallon.
Gas is still less than $2.00 / gallon in these parts, so it makes sense to use this feature, at least for now.