PIP Mileage deterioration

I don't suppose disconnecting the Positive would work? The Neg is in an awful location without access for tools.
And should the car charger be plugged in or pulled out?

 

Removing the positive cable will work, too. Don't have the charger plugged in.

 

I removed the charger, disconnected the Pos cable, re-connected the cable, plugged the charger back in and the light only blinked on for a few seconds (the charge did not increase and is still at 9.5). Thanks

 

i don't think you are following the correct proceedure. hopefully andy will chime in here, he is the expert on resetting. i must advise you though, this will do nothing to increase the driving distance in ev, it will only set the estimate back to the factory default of 13.3 miles.

 

Thanks. I really don't care about the readings. The issue is gaining back the 2 miles of EV distance that I have lost (the battery is not charging to full capacity). Time to close the hatch and head for the dealer (sigh).

 

i think it's your best move, i haven't seen anyone here lose actual ev miles under the same driving conditions unless due to colder weather. all the best, hope they can figure it out for you!

 

Disconnecting the battery resets the EV estimate on the display to the factory default. Does anyone have any evidence that this procedure has any effect on how far you can actually go in EV with no ICE?

 

No effect that I know of to the real EV miles driven.

 

It will have no affect because the battery capacity is not changed.

If you reset your Trip meter will that affect the actual number of miles you can drive on a full tank?

 

That is what I thought, too. So, are folks reporting an actual degradation in pure EV miles per charge, or are they talking about the guestimate on the display.

 

We don't even have a confirmation of anyone having lost actual capacity.

The nice part things like ChargePoint & Entune is that there is some charging & efficiency data being collected.

With my own plug-in Prius, I haven't seen any actual range loss over the past 13 months of ownership... and I have extremely detailed records... daily logs, along with video.

 

i believe vaughnv is saying that he has lost 2 miles of actual DRIVING range coming out of the winter in warmer weather.

 

Yes. My full charge now runs out near "the white house with the picket fence" on my daily commute to work. I used to be able to pass the white house, arrive at work, and continue on later for a few more miles. I word it this way to avoid techno-confusion. (The EV charge gauge accurately indicates the reduced miles available...9.5 instead of 11.5+.
On the identical, daily commute, I now travel a couple of miles less before the gas engine kicks in.

 

We still await a secondary measure from you, like MPG data. (Another source would be kWh per charge.) Remember, Prius is a plug-in hybrid, not an EV. We need to know the MPG you've been getting.

I've seen my EV range drop from 13 down to 9. Now it's back up 11.5 miles. I suspect this week it will hit 12. At summer's peak last year, I made it to 17 on the same route driven the same way. Factors like temperature make a huge difference.

How do we know that the 11.5 for you wasn't an ideal, that it is supposed to be the norm for your particular circumstances? After all, your basis of comparison (number of times driven) is still very limited. We need more to work with... temperature, speed, duration, stoplights, etc.

 

. If, you didn't lose some presets, like time and date, you did not reboot. If the 12v is left disconnected the car cannot be recharged. Caution: If the 12V is disconnected, DO NOT CLOSE THE TRUNK, you will not be able to get the trunk open. There is supposedly a lever around the latch that can be pushed, however, I have never done it. Before I recharge, I reboot, attempt to start the process with a no charge condition and then charge to the full charging span ( hopefully) Disconnect time varies, Patrick talked about at least three seconds. You may need more. The particular day about four weeks ago when the car charged to over 14V, I had rebooted, and the car sat in the warm Sun for 3 hours, so that may have helped. Good Luck.

 

You're asking if the charger cord should be plugged in? Access to the neg terminal is quite easy and, how does one work on a car, or anything, without tools. Buy some tools, and keep them for the rest of your life. Buy a multi-meter while you are at it, they are inexpensive.

 

Have you checked your tire pressure? That would be the easiest on the list.

Have you been driving faster or more aggressively? That can affect your EV miles. Avoid braking hard when the battery is nearly full -- that's when regen is limited.

 

I think it is important to not confuse what is going on. If you state that the "charge" is going down on each subsequent charge, then you should be measuring and reporting the actual number of kwh for a full charge. You can do this by using a kill-a-watt meter or other watt meter or by using the numbers reported by a public charging station such as Charge Point.

If you are not reporting this number then you are reporting the EV miles number on the car's display. This is a combination of the kwh charged divided by the watt-hours per mile which is figured out by a computer algorithm based on your driving history. It would be nice if we knew the algorithm...but we don't. It appears to be some kind of weighted moving average, IMO. You can use your EV driving ratio screen to get some info here. It shows a history of your EV miles and the kwh used to drive them.

For people reporting a loss of EV range (actual or the estimate) you should report your EV driving ratio numbers so others can see your miles and kwh (watt-hours per mile = kwh * 1000 / miles). By reseting ( or weekly logging, for example) one of the two ratio trip meters you can calculate, over time, if your watt-hours per mile is going up, down or constant.

For example, I see my watt-hours per mile varying from about 170 wh/m to 190 wh/m on a weekly basis. The accuracy of these numbers, at best, is +/- 10 wh/m based on the granularity of the numbers in the display.


Mike

 

I found similar behavior. I don't know what you mean by a dealer reset. I got the same sort of answers from Prius chat a few months ago when I asked about the fall in the miles. It is very hard to see if the actual mileage on the battery has gone down due to different weather condition, destination, traffic conditions, etc. However, I get about 10 at the max and usually the reading starts about 9.7-10.0 when it is fully charged. Another problem is that it is very hard to drive so slowly and not up hills which seems to be necessary for the gas engine not to kick in. Once it kicks in there is no accurate way to calculate how far one goes on electric/per charge. However, I believe the 9.7-10 is fairly accurate and I also believe that it went at least 11 when new. It started at 11.9 and fell slowly to the present level over the first 6 months. It flattened out in the summer months. I am waiting to see if the average dips again as the colder weather period comes on.

Norm Jensen

 

It does not need to be cold to have the estimated EV miles drop, it just needs to be cooler. End of August I was at 18.2 estimated EV range warm temps 75-90 degrees f. Since then it has been getting cooler, end of September lows of about 45-50 degrees f. Estimated EV range has drop to 14.6. This will continue until mid Jan.to end of Feb. when it will be about 10 to -20 degrees f. I will probable get down to about 9.5 estimated EV range by then. Then it will start to slowly rise again as we enter spring and then summer again, a complete circle, isn't it great something to talk about!