I am very new to this PHEV set up, and just have few questions before reading tons in manual I am hoping you can answer.

1) If I never plug in the 450H, is there any issues with that? Other then no EV range?
2) Is plugging it in the only way charge the EV battery, or does just driving on ICE charge EV battery?
3) What difference between having the EV only button on and having it set to Auto? Assume EV only would EV only and then when it drains it switch to auto anyway?


Thanks in advance

 

Hi @John89 , I am only a 2 month old owner of a ‘25 450H+ but I’ll offer my thoughts.

1) I don’t think never plugging it in would cause any electro-mechanical or reliability issues. I would think Lexus/Toyota would have designed for this use case.
2) During ICE driving the EV (AKA Traction Battery) battery does get charged, a little. I haven’t done any multi hour drives with it yet, but I haves seen a couple miles added to the EV range during some 30 mile or so ICE drives.
3) your assumption is correct, driving the EV range to 0 then the ICE kicks in automatically. Having the EV button on forces the drive to be in all electric. With it set to auto, the software makes the call on when ICE and EV operates.

I’m sure some members with more experience will comment with additional insight.

 

1 - I would expect the traction battery life to be shortened if it is always kept at zero EV miles. I have no idea how much the life would be shortened. I would expect no reliability issues.

2 - There is a Charge Mode which uses the ICE to charge the traction battery, though not as much as plugging in. Just driving with zero EV range in HV mode will not charge the traction battery much. It will stay at or near zero.

3 - EV Only means that the ICE will not turn on unless absolutely necessary, usually when the EV range reaches zero, but there are other times, such as when windshield defrost is selected, or if there is not enough EV power to maintain speed, such as when going up a steep hill.

Auto EV / HV mode means that the ICE will come on when when the accelerator pedal is near wide open throttle for quicker acceleration.

Personally, when I know I'm not going to be charging the traction battery for a while, such as on a road-trip, I select HV mode to keep the traction battery charged. I would do the same if I never plugged in, and use Charge mode, as needed, to keep the EV range around 20-25 miles.

 

I agree with the above. I would add that if you currently do not have a way to charge the 450h+, you're driving around with a lot of deadweight (the battery) at the cost of fuel mileage.

We bought ours specifically knowing that our current and future driving patterns matched closely to the EV only range provided by the 450h+. We currently have 3000 miles on ours and have yet to go through a full tank of gas (almost there).

 

I definitely give it try, but I got it because it had 10K lease cash, and another 6K off MSRP and came with Luxury PKG vs prem+ 350H which was leasing higher. They literally had any color combo with more coming in, it was almost like maybe they getting kick back from some go green government thing to sell so many in US.