ICE in EV Mode ... Again

gotcha, it's a conundrum. or an enigma. or something.

 

whatcha need is sum1 to "loan" you a ScanGaugeII

 

If he has an android device he could also just buy a BT dongle for $20 and torque pro for $5 or whatever it is…much cheaper than SG.

 

Yeah.....driving the car while gazing at your cellphone.....very smart

 

I was thinking "handsfree"

 

Wouldn't he be gazing at his SG just as much?
Also, torque has a "heads-up" mode that inverts the display so you can put it on the dash and have the info be reflected off your windshield

 

but.....maybe you're right because you could data log it and save the file to his pc

 

I haven't figured out how to listen to Pandora and use the Torque App at the same time, so I have the ScanGaugeII

 

Everyday when I leave in the morning I'm in EV, then I go down a slight grade--car picks up to 35-40MPH with very little accelerator and the ICE always comes on. Nothing on. On the way home, even going up the slight grade ICE never comes on. High temp 28 degrees. It is not like its a hot day warming up the battery. Next morning , cloudy and 38 degrees and ICE comes on again when I hit the down grade and only 35 MPH. Go figure. My PIP is definitely female. No way to figure it out.

 

When ICE comes on during your descent does your MPG take a hit also? Or is the ICE just revolving due to the descent?

 

Filled the car up with gas and charged up the battery last night and set consumption at 0. This morning, the temp was 32 and the windshield was frosted up. Since I wanted heat, I turned HVAC on at 68 and the fan at the second speed from the bottom as soon as I started the car. I left EV (which had a range of 11.1) on all the way for my 16 mile ride into work. The ride is a mix of anything from 70 mph to traffic jams with the last 3 miles on local roads. It was interesting to find that there was still .9 left for the EV range and the consumption was showing 92mpg.

 

Well it is only a short decent. After it comes on it stays on for the standard 2.5 miles then it cycles to EV. Get about 66 MPG for the 4 miles with about 2.5 miles when ICE is running. 999 for the trip home.

 

Ah......so ICE comes on, and EV runs at 999, but because of EPA requirements (catalytic converter) gas is used, bummer! ( I live in an area that is mostly flat so I don't run into that situation)

 

so…do we have another candidate for putting into the FAQ? that ICE comes one when there is no room in the battery for regen?

 

The down hill is not steep enough for recharging. I still use a little pedal to get up to 40 MPH. This cold morning EV never engaged and when I parked the PIP i noticed 75 MPG! All in HV. That is still amazing is it not?

 

However, you still get EV-BOOST while warming up. In other words, it takes advantage of the extra capacity available to reduce the burden caused by warm-up... which is why you can still exceed 50 MPG even then. That wouldn't be possible without, as we clearly see with the regular model Prius.

 

this sounds very close to what is happening to me. inability to regen causes ice to fire for burnoff, then ice warmup provides more ev miles over the 2 mile warm up distance. still using gas tho.

 

My ICE fired up again this morning.. similar situation to BigDude and what I described earlier in this thread.

This morning it was 45F outside. I had a suspicion my ICE was going to start up so I grabbed by ancient Android phone and set up Torque to log my drive this morning. Unfortunately, my ancient Android phone rebooted itself BEFORE the ICE started.. so no data to show anyone.. but here are my observations.

Suspecting the ICE would start, I was extra careful about getting the HSI into regen territory at all. From my driveway to the first Stop sign is about 300 feet. About 40 feet before the Stop sign is a small but relatively steep downhill. From prior logging sessions, I know when I reach this hill, I'm above 84% SoC (I leave the house with 85.1%). So the small amount of regen usually does not start the ICE. Besides, 40 feet isnt much to actually regen.I'll also add that the ICE has NEVER started on this section since I've owned the car.

After the Stop sign, I drive for about 1/4 mile to the next Stop sign. This is a downhill section that curves a little to the left then the right. Normally, I accelerate to about 42-45 MPH then coast from there (foot off the accelerator) then hit he brakes "hard" about "1 street light away" from the Stop sign, This always worked for me in the past 9 months or so.

But being extra careful today, once I reached about 30MPH, I kept my foot on the gas, but in the "glide range" (not in regen range, but not trying to accelerate either, just a bit to the right of the dividing line on the HSI). My intention was to glide to the next Stop sign and just accelerate via gravity. However, at about 35MPH, the ICE started up.

I'm kind of thinking this has something to do with SoC.. what I mean is.. if I left the first Stop sign with, say, 84.3% SoC and drove down the hill a bit and only got it down to 83.9% SoC, then its possible that any hint of regen could trigger the ICE. However, from previous experience, I'm usually at a much lower SoC after leaving the Stop sign since I need to accelerate from a stop (if memory serves, I should be around 82.7-83.1% SoC after getting up to speed). The only way I could see this being true is IF for some technical reason, the SoC of a "cold" battery is not the same as the SoC of a "warmer" battery?.. maybe not as accurate? Maybe a cold battery would trigger an ICE start BEFORE 84% SoC? Yeah, maybe that's it.. unfortunately, I wont know until I actually log this.

Bisco/BigDude/El Dobro,

When you guys leave the house and the ICE starts a few blocks away, how did you drive prior to the ICE starting (assuming no heat, no AC, no climate control, etc)?

 

Just for fun, charge your car up to about 9 miles of electric than leave in the morning with a cold engine in EV. I bet your ICE will not start up going down the hill!

 

Logical because I always have only 4-5 EV miles left on the return trip and it stays in EV. I'll try it if I can remember. Can you set the timer to only charge for two hours?