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By EV mode I mean the mode you enter by pressing the "EV mode" button. You can drive on electric only in 'hybrid mode' after the engine has warmed up, but you can't use the electric motor nearly as agressively as you can in EV mode. You can travel at freeway speeds in EV mode, but not only does the electric motor have to provide power to move the car, it also is going to be providing power to spin the engine which is horribly inefficient. At least in the 2nd generation Prius, once you hit the 41 mph limit, if the engine isn't spinning one of the two electric motors is spinning around 10k rpm. To stop it from grenading (aka to slow it down), the engine must be spun.
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