Just got a used Hymotion Prius!

[bennelson]

I guess that the Hymotion system itself is supposed to act as an EV switch.

Left of the steering wheel, there is an On/Off switch for the Hymotion system.

I guess that the advantage of a dedicated EV switch is that it gives you more control over everything. Like I said, I'm getting started figuring this all out!

One thing that I have heard from Prius owners is that the heat isn't the greatest in the winter. Of course I would want to MINIMIZE engine on time, so the heat would be even worse...

The only real two requirements that my wife wanted in a car were air-conditioning and a good heater!

To make up for it, the Prius has a heated driver seat!

I charged the car last night, and the Kill-a-watt said it used 4.7KWH. The pack is 5.45KWH, and was most of the way down when we got home. I also only had handy a 14 AWG extension cord, and it was at least a 50'. It was melted down into the snowbank this morning, so I assume I lost at least a few watts to that....

When we had gotten back from buying the car, I had an e-mail from the seller saying "Oooo! I forgot to give you my special charging cord!".

I'll need to bust out a special new extension cord just for the Prius. I like 12 AWG 25' cables. I'll have to permanently mount one inside the garage with a hook to maximize convenience for charging.

[Daox]

What kind of Wh/mile does that give you?

I assume keeping the speed under 40 mph (engine not spinning) will be quite a bit more efficient than cruising above 40 where you can mostly (entirely?) use electric power, but the motors also have to spin the engine.

[bennelson]

Not quite sure how to answer that.

The Prius doesn't separate out GAS vs ELECTRIC use. I don't suppose there's way to read amp-hours with the scangauge, is there?

The only thing I can think of is to only recharge the car from the same Kill-a-watt every time to keep a cumulative record of electric use, AND track how much gas is put in at the pump, AND look at the trip odometer.

That way, I could figure out total distance AND gas vs electric use. Even then, how do you know if you are getting really good gas use and bad watt-hours-per-mile or bad gas use and really good low watt-hours-per-mile?

I suppose that if I could figure out a route I could drive as ONLY electric (with the engine never coming on) I could calculate watt-hours from that.

[Daox]

Ah yes, sorry for some reason I thought you went EV only. That was my mistake.

When I was using my kit over summer I did as you mentioned. I kept track of my kWh usage with the kill a watt after every charge and added those all together at the end of the tank to calculate my MPGe which was a fair bit lower than MPG (65 vs 80).

[Ladogaboy]

Did you run your wife's drawing through the aerodynamics app that's floating around here? :-P

Congrats! If I get to the point of having a second car, that might be what I'd look to get. I'm kind of curious about the Wh/m too... I'm wondering if it is comparable to the Volt in range.

[bennelson]

Shhh! Be nice to her. I always have to encourage her artistic talents!

I did drive the Prius today. I needed to go to the post office and the auto parts store (the Prius needs a rear wiper, and a screw to hold on the new license plates.)

I logged my trip on Google Maps to check the distance. It was 5.1 miles. The Kill-a-watt read 1.14KWH after recharging the car.

Assuming ZERO gasoline use (The engine comes on right when starting the car) that means I went 5.1 miles on 1140-watt hours (as measured from the wall, includes charging losses.)

That comes to about 223.5 watt-hours per mile. The route is a 45 mph road from my house for about a mile, then it's all 25 mph in town, and 45 mph for the same mile outside town back to my house.

I got my title, license, insurance, and plates all taken care of today. Sorry, but the custom plates belonged to the former owner, and had to be mailed back to him. (He let me drive home with them, because he said the cops will pull you over and hassle you otherwise, even with the bill of sale, etc.)

We decided against vanity plates, not only do you have to wait quite a while to get them, and they cost more, but you also have to pay a HIGHER annual registration for them as well. I got stock plates, which in our area are 3 random numbers, followed by three random letters. But two of the three letters are "EV"!

[Ladogaboy]

223.5 Wh/m isn't too bad considering that is plug to wheel.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

223.5 Wh/m isn't too bad considering that is plug to wheel.

I was thinking that was pretty good for a 4 door, 3,000+ pound car, I would guess that the electric metro is getting around those same watt hours per mile, makes me check my bank account to see if I can buy one too!

[Ladogaboy]

For sure. Back when I was considering an EV conversion, I was looking for donor chassis from cars that could get < 250 Wh/m, but that was purely battery, not counting charging losses.


Any experiences on how good the Prius regen system is?

[MetroMPG]

223 Wh/mi is very good efficiency!

I've been in the neighbourhood of that number a few times with the ForkenSwift, but even just toodling around town at low speeds, I'm generally closer to ~300 Wh/mi, from the wall. (That's what you get with a low voltage, DC system with no regen!)