I just jumped from a 2008 Prius, which I bought brand new and was sole owner, to a 2012 TCH with 45k miles, as second owner.

It feels to me as if either the TCH's HV battery isn't as capacious as the Prius HV battery was. For example I remember watching an entire 4th of July fireworks show, at least 10 minutes long, with the AC set to low in the Prius, and the engine didnt need to start the entire time.

The Camry doesn't seem to have the ability to run the AC anywhere near as long as the Prius did without starting the engine.

Also the distance the car can go in EV only mode isn't nearly as far as the Prius.

Is the battery capacity really that different? Or is the AC system significantly different? (BTW the Eco setting is on, I have read somewhere that affects the AC)...

I can't imagine there is anything degraded with the traction battery with this few miles on it. Any way to measure the kilowatt-hours capacity left in the battery?

 

I have found with 100% consistency that generation 3 Toyota hybrids (2007+ camry, 2010+ Prius) murder their batteries.

One of the worst I've seen was a 2012 Camry with 124K miles on it. The battery was completely wrung out. No cells failed, but their usable capacity was so low, it was essentially unusable.

This is in the Phoenix and surrounding areas. It is definitely an issue in other warm climates, but in very mild/cold climates, it's not as much of an issue.

You are driving a 20% heavier vehicle. The battery Ah capacities are identical; however, the Camry has 18% more subpacks thus mostly filling this gap.

IMHO, stay out of EV mode. EV mode is false economy. 100% of the propulsive energy ULTIMATELY comes from the gasoline engine. Draining the battery with EV mode just increases the cycles/wear on the battery and necessitates replenishment from the ICE.

ECO mode:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/91...ml#post3940885

You can measure the capacity of the battery with techstream and possibly "hybrid assistant".

 

Sweet, thanks for the information!

I never use the EV mode except I had just switched it on to kind of get a "feel" for the HV battery.

I ordered a cable and a techstream kit on ebay. Also I ordered one of those OBDLink LX bluetooth dongles for Hybrid Assistant, look like a neat program!

Can you use Techstream with one of those bluetooth dongles?

 

No.