Strategy of Driving the PiP Effectively

You mentioned highway driving would charge your PPI battery. Could I ask you a question? Last year before the PPI was available in my state, the Toyota dealer told me that the PPI battery could only be charged by the external charger. Regen and MG1 only charge the traction battery. Almost a year later, I'm reading some of the posts here saying this is not true. My question is, if the car could charge the PPI battery, then in theory, you may never need to charge your PPI using an 120/220v outlet.

 

the car is extremely efficient on it's own. i'm having a difficult time hypermiling after my battery runs out because i'm out of practice with the p&g from so much ev driving. still easy to get 70mpg on back roads tho.

 

PA -- A previous misconception was that there were two battery packs in the PiP. This is not the case in the final released model. We have one battery pack which allows us to drive in EV mode when the pack has a state of charge (SOC) from 85%-25%. Below ~25% the vehicle switches over to HV mode and will try to keep the SOC around 20%. The car will not attempt to use petrol/gas to bring the SOC above 25%.

If you switch to HV mode manually before you lose that last .1 mile of EV, you can do a method we call stacking to add more EV range to the battery. This is done by hitting the EV/HV button after deceleration to capture the regen energy into the EV stack, but switching back to HV mode to accelerate. This will of course lower your mpg IMO.

 

My strategy for higher mpg. Found new route to work where I increased surface street mileage and decreased freeway miles. I now do ~18 miles of surface streets and ~10 miles of freeway. I use my EV on the surface streets and HV on freeway.

Use EV around my neighborhood… grocery shopping, trips to the vet, dinner with friends, etc.

If I have to drive to LA, I use HV on freeway and EV on surface streets in town. Try to get a charge in town if possible.

Was getting about 42-48 mpg in my '06 Honda Civic Hybrid with tires inflated to max sidewall.

I'm now getting ~100 mpg in my 12 Plugin Prius. Fill up the car once a month ( every 900–1000 miles ).

California has some of the cleanest electric production in the US. Mostly natural gas, wind, etc.

 

Ches...thanks for the detailed explanation. That really help clear things up.

 

A bit more detail: In the pre-production prototype, there was indeed a second battery pack that could only be charged from the wall; it could not be charged with regeneration. The other battery was essentially a standard Prius battery, but when it was full, that was the limit of regeneration. In the production model, Toyota changed to a single battery pack that is managed by software either in "EV" or "HV" mode, and although the software won't recharge the battery with the ICE beyond the HV state of charge, the entire pack is available for regeneration. Thus the "stacking" technique, where the ICE is used to get up a hill, and regeneration going down the hill will recover that energy to the battery.

 

Blink seems to have the stronghold in LA. Unfortunately Blink costs me $1.50 per hour, so I end up being charged $3 for the 15 miles of EV.. yes this is not financially responsible, but I do my part to conserve gas and the environment.

There are quite a few free charging stations around LA, but they tend to get squatted ( annoying to say the least ), or grabbed quickly, as there are quite a few EV/PHEVs on the road in SoCal now. The plugshare mobile app is great for finding free EV stations ( and what is currently available ).

Unfortunately there are quite a few Teslas on the road in SoCal and these drivers tend to park in the EV spaces and not charge.. RUDE. So you may think there are free Blink / Chargepoint stations, but a Tesla is squatting the space.

As per your question regarding the vehicle returning to EV mode during a long downhill stretch.. yes it is possible. I've seen the vehicle switch back over to EV during a long decline, but I think the car has to get up to about 28% SOC before it will do so.. Not sure on the exact number, but it is possible. I usually switch the car over to HV when I'm down to about 1 mile of EV range remaining to use at the tail end of my trip.

Another great way to maximize mpg ( if your trip is greater than 15 miles ) is to use HV for acceleration and speeds above 50 mph, and switch to EV for your glides ( P&G w/ a PHEV vehicle ). It's pretty sweet because I usually average about 70-80 mpg by the end of my trip. If I have any EV miles remaining, I just use them up as I near my destination. Obviously, the longer your trip, the closer your mpg will be to the ~58-60 mpg the vehicle gets in HV mode without EV.

I have my tires filled to 41 front / 40 rear with nitrogen.. probably why I get 60 mpg in HV mode.

 

If I were going down a very long hill, then I should put the car in EV mode to allow the entire battery pack to be charged?

 

Either mode will charge the battery pack. If the vehicle is in forced HV mode, it will not switch back to EV mode until the SOC reaches ~28%. But during the long decline, either mode will charge the battery pack.

I try to use B mode on the stick shift to get better regen during long declines, but have to remember to get out of B mode once you hit level surface or the gas engine will not turn off. Freaked me out in the past when this happened.

 

Ya, and the great thing about EV is you can glide at 62 mph or below.

And I don't think B is best for regen. I've always heard it uses some engine braking thereby limiting the amount of energy going into the pack.

 

In HV mode, the ICE will be on and at least idling at speeds above about 35mph (or is it 40mph?). In EV mode, the ICE won't come on and be idling until about 62mph.

On steeper downhills, I use the cruise control, which seems to engage more aggressive regeneration as needed to maintain the set speed. Essentially the same thing as lightly pressing the brake pedal, but done automatically.

 

B is for advanced users IMO. It's too easy to mess up and find your engine running as you explained. I find regen braking more effective.

The simple answer for effective PiP driving to use EV for slow speeds and HV for high speeds. If your destination does not allow for charging, use up remaining EV before you get there even if it means high speed EV use.

Some argue that ICE warm up should happen before you enter the freeway. Some think ICE warmup should happen on the freeway. PiP uses up EV until the ICE is up to temperature so it isn't shocked to run full speed at startup. The idea is, you don't want to use EV at high speeds. Because of variables involved such as inclines, stop signs, and red lights there may never be a "best" way. Only whats best for you through experimentation.

 

While I didn't try any crazy pulse & glide sessions in the PIP like I did with my model Three, the basic techniques apply to both cars. The main additional technique with the PIP is the use of EV Stacking. When coming to a stop faster than is efficient, simply activate EV Mode then deactivate EV Mode to set a new high minimum for EV Range with the extra energy you gained during regen.

 

At least when talking about "stacking" by adding in the regeneration from long downhills, one needs to recognize that the extra EV range came from burning gasoline to climb the hill. It is possible to take advantage of "stacking" by applying EV miles to low speed travel where EV is more efficient, and using gasoline in HV mode at higher speeds where it is more efficient, but that seems to me to be definitely be in the "sophisticated user" area. "Stacking" can also be used to rack up impressive EV numbers on the car's display, which neglect to tell you how much gasoline you burned to get those numbers.

 

The threshold for HV is 46 mph. Faster than that, the engine will spin but not necessarily consume any fuel.

 

Just to point out that you don't need to leave 0.1 EV mile. You can be in HV mode (charge depleted) and regen back into EV mile stacking.

B mode would just divide the brake energy between charging the battery and jake brake using ICE. You are better off hitting the brake and store all the energy into the PHV pack.

If PiP is in EV mode, you can drop into B mode and ICE will not kick in. I have done it at 60 mph.

 

Yup, I found another use for it.

If you go over a big pot hole while braking, traction control will kick in and disable the regen. I found out that if I drop it into B gear (in EV mode), regen would resume.

 

Driving on rough surface above a certain speed could trigger the traction control to come on also. After I slow up, it turned off.