So many questions! Prius OG's please teach me!

Hello and welcome to PriusChat! Congrats on your purchase!

1. Driving modes

This is simply to help customise the vehicle to the different driving styles of different drivers. What it does is manipulate the accelerator pedal for the first 50% of pedal travel. After 50%, they all work the same (so that means if you mash the pedal to get out of an emergency situation, the car will go full blast regardless of what mode you're in).

In ECO mode, the accelerator is less sensitive. This means that you have to press down on the accelerator more to get the same amount of acceleration. This allows for finer control of the pedal, especially those that like to do pulse & glide techniques. Some people like the ability to control the throttle, some people find it too sluggish (requiring more input from the right foot). In ECO mode, your speedometer background is in blue for quick reference.

In Normal mode, the accelerator pedal is in the default setting when they designed the car. I guess there really isn't much more to explain lol. In Normal mode, your speedometer background is turquoise.

In PWR mode ,the accelerator pedal is more sensitive. The car will respond more quickly with less movement of the right foot. This is great for spirited driving up/down the canyon or any other twisty road. Some people prefer to use it on the highway for quick merges or lane changes. In this mode, the car will also learn the way you're driving (pedal application) and will adjust the engine and motor settings accordingly to make the drive more fun. In PWR mode, the speedometer background is red.


You can switch driving modes on the fly (it's just software driven) and really just play around with the different modes and see which one you like!


2. What does the meter with the blue line/green car/red "pwr" gague (sic) actually mean?

That is called the "Hybrid System Indicator" (HSI). It is a function of pedal input essentially and it's a guide to help you drive more fuel efficiently. It's broken up into 3 main segments - CHG, ECO and PWR. The ECO area is sub-divided into two: The first half is called the "Hybrid ECO area" and the latter half is confusingly called the "ECO area" as well.

CHG is fairly self-explanatory. It shows you how much you're regenerating via the electric motors. The harder you brake, the more the CHG section fills up, showing higher regenerative braking.

ECO area. The ECO area is where you want to be for fuel efficient driving. For your base Two which has the NiMH battery, keeping the bar within the first half of the ECO area (Hybrid ECO area) will keep the engine off and usually (but not always) the engine will come on just past the halfway mark. You'll want to accelerate such that your ECO area is full and you're not in the PWR area (as long as traffic allows. Of course go into the PWR area if you need to).

PWR area. This just means that you're potentially accelerating more than you need to. This depends on the situation. If you're going up a hill or if you need to accelerate to change lanes, then by all means go into the PWR area. The ECO area, when the bar is filled, is about 2,000rpm. And when you just fill the PWR area, the engine is approximately spinning at 3,000rpm, so you're not hurting the car in any way.

The green EV car is just an "engine off" indicator. It's a quick way to see if the engine is running or not. That's all it does.

The blue line is the "Eco Acceleration Guide". It's just the car's way to thinking how much you need to accelerate. It takes into account the terrain (it knows if the road is descending and won't asking you to accelerate, for example). It's just another teaching tool. The smaller, thinner, green bar is the one that's associated with your accelerator pedal.

3. What do the little yellow "score" boxes mean? When I see a low score I feel like my Prius is rating our relationship.


It's grading you on your acceleration, coasting and braking portion every time you come to a complete stop. It's an immediate feedback tool. The more gentle you accelerate, the higher the score. The longer you coast or glide, the higher the score. And, you guessed it, the more gentle you brake, the higher the score. Your climate control usage is also kept track and graded but only at the end of the trip when you shut down your car (or you can change to the climate screen to see how you're faring). 3 bars? Try a more gentle approach next time. 4 bars? That's pretty good. 5 bars? That's excellent. The braking portion is hard. I've noticed you have to brake lightly for a long stretch to get top marks. Usually I get 4 bars under normal hybrid driving that I've learned over the last 12 years.

4. Since I only got the base model, is it not possible to have my album art displayed on the screen when I'm bluetoothing music?

Gracenote album art is only available on Entune Premium Audio or Entune JBL Premium Audio (Three and higher). I thought you might be able to display album art if you have your own album art embedded into the MP3 file (e.g. through iTunes, you added your own image from your computer, rather than use iTune's auto-download album art).

5.I am OBSESSIVE about the shiny black area on the dash, would it be a good idea to find a shop that can put some kind of protective film on it?

I can't answer that but presumably you can use the same materials as the ones for your phone. Hopefully someone else from CA can recommend a local shop.

 

uhhhh lol.

You're welcome! Yes, ECO mode can help train you and when you're feeling a little pumped, you can always sneak in a PWR mode session .

 

Taken from the Tokyo Motor Show press release booklet. Particularly, the "POINT!" section.




Well I found this by accident when I was saying that I can accelerate to 3/4 bar on the HSI before the engine comes on. You, of course know that in the Gen 3, the halfway mark is when the engine comes on. Someone then chimed in and said their engine comes on just after the halfway mark (55-60%). I noticed he had the Two which has the NiMH battery.

I haven't driven the NiMH model to know the difference but this is based on that conversation I had with that PC member. I do notice that in the Gen 4 we have (Li-ion), the battery is more willing to fluctuate in SOC. It'll use the battery more often but it also charges back more quickly.

It could be regional preferences. NiMH is cheaper and it's been nearly bulletproof for Toyota. Or maybe their supplier won't be able to keep up with demand for Li-Ion? (The U.S. is a pretty big market and will consume most of the Li-Ion models since all but the base model has Li-Ion)

Just be aware that driving in EV Drive Mode can lower fuel economy (unless you're intentionally draining the battery before descending a hill that's long enough or steep enough to recharge the battery via regen.

Really? That should net at least 3 out of 5 boxes. We're talking about this screen, right? Are you braking in Drive (and not neutral or "B"?).

 

I've seen 100/100 once but couldn't capture it in time. I did capture the 99/100.

 

Yeah. I'm pretty sure she meant the Original Prius Ganstas. I shutter to think what that would look like.