ICE coming on first thing in the morning

okay, i just searched 100 posts, and couldn't find your posts mentioning the ice coming on until #90.

 

My garage is not heated. It shares a wall with the house that could use better insulation. Anyways, parked outside in the lower 20's a week ago for 4 or 5 hours while I was at a party should have cooled things off very well - still no ICE when I drove 8 miles home.

 

it's out there, keep searching

 

How was your second test drive? Did you manage to drive in EV?

Found the below (bolding is mine) in the on-line manual, could be that your ~2 miles forced charge did not transfer you to EV mode and you was still in HV mode (battery in blue even that you have 1-2 EV miles displayed).
With the PiP we can manually select EV in this situation but maybe this was cancelled with the prime, allowing only automatic selection when there are more EV miles.

■Display of the remaining hybrid battery (traction battery)
●The current amount of the remaining hybrid battery (traction battery) is displayed in the Hybrid System Indicator or the sub-screen on the main display. (→P. 202)
• The remaining battery for EV driving in EV mode is displayed in green, and the remaining battery used in HV mode is displayed in blue.
• The amount of the remaining battery displayed decrease as the vehicle is driven and increase when the hybrid battery (traction battery) is charged, electrical energy is regenerated using the regenerative braking (→P. 86) or electricity is generated by the gasoline engine.
• If the remaining battery is not displayed in green, HV mode is automatically selected and EV mode cannot be used. To enable EV driving, charge the hybrid battery (traction battery). (→P. 102)
●The amount of the hybrid battery (traction battery) in HV mode is automatically controlled by the hybrid system. The amount of remaining hybrid battery (traction battery) in HV mode may not reach the top line* even if electrical energy is regenerated using the regenerative braking (→P. 86) or electricity is generated by the gasoline engine. However, this does not indicate a malfunction. Also, even if the display of the remaining hybrid battery (traction battery) exceeds the top line, the display is shown in blue until the vehicle returns to EV mode.

 

i haven't had a second test drive, probably not until this spring/summer when they have more, and i can take an extended drive.

i wasn't looking at the battery icon, just the 2.0 on the remaining ev miles indicator. but some here say theirs stays in ev until zero like the pip. perhaps you need to start with more than 2? does it say that anywhere?
btw, the 'ev mode' light was on.

 

With the PiP, being in HV mode and regenerating enough so the battery icon changes to EV icon and about 1.6 or a bit more EV miles are displayed, you are still in HV mode but can manually switch to EV mode. I think the text I quoted indicates that this manual switching is cancelled with the Prime. Further regeneration will cause automatic switching to EV in both vehicles.
What you missed in the test were the battery icon and the HSI (which looks different from HV to EV).

 

so i should have stayed in ev mode? even when the engine pulsed, the ev mode light didn't go off.

 

I have just edited my post as you answered, sorry. I think EV drive was not enabled although EV indicator was on as a result of your pressing the button. What you missed were the battery icon colour and the HSI display (changes look from HV to EV).

 

correct, we couldn't find that screen. as mentioned above, you really need to look in the manual to see how to get to it.

 

The one time I switched to HV mode manually I could not return to EV with the button. It said EV but the engine kept running. Didn't someone else note that the engine will stay on until it warms up? I turned the car off for a few minutes while I used an ATM and it still started the engine. When I stopped for an hour for breakfast and let the car get cold, it started up in EV and remained so for the drive home. I had at least 15 EV miles displayed in the HUD when I did this experiment.

 

a lot to learn about this beast.