its never charged for only battery life reasons, if you must know on the prius the SOC is around 40% min and 80% max, and the capacity is 1.2 kilowatt (correct if im wrong) yours I believe is 1.8 kilowatt so if you do the math since both vehicles (3000 lbs vs 5800 lbs) weigh in different mass but with the torquey characteristic of electric motor its no problem!

 

So how long can you drive on just battery??

 

um with ev mode and my battery agiing maybe 1km if im lucky from 60% (no stops!)? but i godda keep speeds low.. like under 55 km/h is my speed limit before my engine kicks in but once the engine is warmed up and i performed that trick then up to 64 km/hr


the problem is without the external charging juice, all that juice comes from my engine which is already taxed hard enough trying to move a 3000 lb car and charge a battery at the same time, that only has 76 horsepower and reduced torqued from the echo/yaris engine. Don't forget the conversion loss going from liquid energy > mechanical engine > heat wasted > to the wheels > and conversion loss from mechanical to electrical for the battery.

for your car to get to hybrid mode quicker your engine must be hot, so that's why block heater + lower viscosity oil synthetic would help a lot in your case. And if there is such thing as a transmission heater that would work wonders too! anything to speed up lubrication and heat.

 

I always thought the Prius was electric first, then ICE.

So the only time we regen is when we are off the pedal? Does it charge when you are on ICE only?

I almost get to Hybrid mode right away. According to my gauge my temps are 185F when I can go into EV mode. And thats a block away from my house.

 

Ed,

Yes, in the Prius, the ICE runs until hot - this is ofter referred to the start-up penalty, which can be really bad in winter. Once at temperature, then the Prius will run electric first unless you accelerate hard enough to bring the ICE to life.

"regen" refers to electric power created by the momentum of the car causing energy to be converted through the electric motors/generators and stored in the battery. This can happen when coasting or stopping, regardless of whether the ICE is running or not. In the Prius, braking is first caused by the 'drag' of the generators on the drive train by increasing the amount of regen before the physical brakes engage. You can really increase your SOC (state of charge) quickly on the Prius this way.

Phil is concerned with two specific things about the 2-mode system. One has to do with 'deadband' coasting, and the other related issue has to do with whether regen from the brakes still works in Neutral. By default, when you let off the gas in a Pruis, it starts using regen to slow down - sort of like letting off the gas in 2nd or 3rd gear with a standard transmission, it will slow the car down dramatically. In a Prius, you can create a deadband state - no arrows to or from the battery when coasting by feather your foot on the accelerator. It is the equivalent to being in neutral, and does not slow the car down very much. It requires effort to find, but becomes natural to some over time. I have not been able to find this similar state in the Tahoe.

Some hypermilers will shift the Prius into N rather than fiddle with trying to find the deadband coasting state. The drawback is that regenerative braking does not work in N - the drive train is not connect to the generators anymore, so they can't spin the generators to make electricity when you finally have to stop. Phil has been trying to figure out if when the Tahoe is in N, does regen still work when braking. If so, this is a big advantage over the Prius.

You answer to Phil earlier confirmed that regen (as indicated by arrows pointing from the wheels to the electric motor then to the battery) does work when the 2-mode is in N. With a Scanguage, this can actually be measured to see if it is different than regen when in D. In my opinion, the GM version of the energy screen is too dumbed-down. I'm not sure I trust it to show all the nuances.

 

Maybe I missed it, but if we only regen when braking or coasting. Does the battery ever get charged enough?

Thanks for answering my questions.

 

Oh - I forgot to answer that - the ICE often produces more power than is needed to drive the vehicle, this is captured by the motor/generator and stored in the battery. If the ICE runs at idle, it is only being used to generate electricity. During normal driving, the flow of energy is constantly changing with the electric assist one moment, and energy being put back into the battery the next. If you watch the energy screen, anytime arrows are pointing to the battery, your a charging them up. Sometimes enegy comes from regen, sometime it comes from the ICE. A lot of folks with a Prius will run down the battery pack when driving home or pulling into the parking lot at work, because they know that during warm-up, they battery will get recharged by the engine.

Have you ever sat in a parking lot with the AC on while waiting on someone? After a while the engine kicks on. This is to recharge the batteries being used to run the AC.

 

Yes, I do notice the ICE will start at idle after a while.

On the screen I never see the batteries charge when the ICE is only running. I only see ICE only, ICE/EV mode, EV Mode or charging.

Are you saying it does? It would make more sense if it was.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure I've seen it either, but surely the batteries charge when the ICE is running. This seems to be one of the limitations of the GM display. In the Prius, I know it shows the arrows as well as the number of bars indicating charge.

 

That would make more sense. Thanks!

So what kind of mileage are you getting in your Tahoe?