Hybrid Battery Shows Full, yet No Range?

When the battery icon on the MID display shows bars rather than a solid color you're either towards the end (usually .8 miles) of EV range or have already used it up and no in HV mode. Only EV mode shows a solid color battery, HV mode (or like I said the very tail end of EV charge remaining) shows the battery in bars like a regular Prius.

 

If you run the EV charge down low enough that the car is forced into HV mode itself basically forget about getting back into EV mode unless you plug in.

What I do, if I will be going a lot more miles after EV will run out is switch into HV mode myself with say 2 miles EV left. Then everytime I coast, brake from a high rate of speed (say 35mph or more) or especially coast down a long hill I go back into EV. That builds up the charge. once you need to give it gas again, go back into HV mode. Each time you do this it'll stack the recharge you gained and you can do some serious recharging of EV range without plugging in if things are 'right'.

You ask, why not stay in HV mode and build up the charge. It was my experience that if you do this, yes it will build up EV range on braking or hill descents but if you gain .5 miles range through recharge the car uses that gain to help better MPG by assisting the engine more. On a trip I'd rather the charges stack so I have more range upon getting off the highway at my destination since I know at my destination I cannot recharge.

 

When you first kick over into hv it uses a lot of battery, as if you were still in ev but after about 45 seconds ' real' hv mode takes over. after a bit in hv mode the engine brings you back to what your range was when you kicked over. If you go into hv manually right before going up a hill though you will still continue to use alot of range so kick over with enough time. It takes practice and experimentation to perfect it and even fully understand it...

EVO 4G ?.

 

As long as I'm not away in a 'foreign place' and don't know the roads, I activate HV mode about a minute before I know I want the engine because I'll be going over a long uphill climb. If you wait till the last minute, you will further waste EV range needlessly. But, if you anticipate it, and activate HV mode in advance you will use the engine instead of 'mega-range' while going up and even regenerate back up to what you EV distance was when you performed the switchover from EV into HV. Then, once I hit the top and begin my downhill descent, I pop back into EV mode and coast the rest of the way.

To add more, if you switch over into HV last minute on say an uphill climb, you will continue to use EV range for the uphill climb until the engine warms up appropriately for say 45 seconds to a minute. Then by the time you hit the top and switch back into EV you lost your range anyway and there is no benefit to what you can recapture. If you switch over early enough in anticipation, you'll use the engine for uphill climb, but pretty much keep EV range intact. Then, on downhill descent, go into EV and you will recapture a decent amount of range in addition to what you had before the hill.

I've used the technique I mentioned quite a few posts above and on a trip into Queens which was only about 20 miles I was still able to go from 5 miles EV range to 8.5 miles EV range by the time I got there... That was all by switching over to EV while in HV on the highway for braking when traffic was ahead or getting off ramps, going downhill etc.

 

Yeah, I hear ya' John, I did that too when coming back from Lancaster PA. But because of that, I learned where I need to be at in terms of EV range while descending from the Goethals Bridge so now I know how much to have at switchover to make it home within .5 miles EV range.

For trips you do often around your home area, it is imperative you experiment to maximize efficiency or what works best for you. I had someone over the other day from Con Edison, the local electric utility in the NYC area for a test project they are going to perform for discounted rates for Plug-in/EV vehicle owners, and he came in a Volt. He said to me how he wished he had to ability to switch over when he wanted to to use the engine and essentially preserve his EV range. I said funny, my Toyota Prius Plug-in has just that option. He was quite impressed how they built the car that way and further impressed when I explained to him how I could stack my EV range at will on a semi-long/long trip and arrive at my destination with a full charge again.