JaimeM

hi, do you think that to force the electric system is bad for the battery life?
drive very smooth to operate the electric motor .... or get to see very often the 2 purple bars...

regards

salimshah

I was unable to understand your post.
How do you force the electric system? Every thing is computer controlled .. You have mode to switch the point where the energy source gets used. Is that the question?

Salim

Htony

Like sudden acceleration? I don't think so. Lexus hybrid electrical part is designed by NEC I believe.

Droid13

I think he means driving at speeds and conditions which allow maximum use of battery power, which results in the battery often being depleted into the purple zone.

My answer is, if you were able to do this constantly under normal driving, then it's possible there is some added wear on the battery. But I find it hard to be driving under these conditions so frequently. Maybe if you live where it's always warm and the roads are perfectly flat, and the speeds are always less than 65kph and you drive hours every day, then maybe. Otherwise, I would not be concerned.

mcomer

Pressing the "EV" button requests the IC motor to shut down but usually results in an error
message that 1) battery is not charged enough 2) IC motor is not warm enough 3) speed
is excessive 4) acceleration is excessive. The mind set I have come to accept is similar to
manual vs. automatic transmissions...yes you can try to outthink the auto and row the shifter
around but with modern Electronically Controlled systems you are just tinkering.
The "EV" button to force a hybrid to use only the battery is already programmed into the
system and we are rarely going to improve on the process.

JaimeM

I do not mean to press the button EV, it is as the fellow Droid13 says, to drive so that you try to get the most out of the electric mode but not by pressing the EV button. Driving smooth, without sudden accelerations where the thermal engine would be activated, at speeds below 65 km / h, obviously in the city, on the road nothing can be done.

I'm sorry for my language, i´m spanish

salimshah

No apologies needed. I was trying to understand the question better.

Salim

Htony

Even if you push EV button display says unable to go EV mode something like that often.
To go about 25 Km in distance at slower speed? I wouldn't bother.

takeshi74

The battery is designed for this. Yes, charging and discharging theoretically takes a toll on the life of a battery and maybe you'd squeeze out some additional life if you avoided use of the traction battery but I don't think you'd get any meaningful difference in doing so.

riredale

I suspect the whole system is so conservatively designed that even a considerable, sustained, discharge won't hurt anything. These guys did their homework when they first brought out the Prius many years ago and your Ni-MH battery back is never fully discharged nor fully charged, simply because that's what they discovered was a major factor for delivering long life. I've read somewhere that 40% represents "zero" and 80% represents "full" on the gauge. The computer won't let the battery get outside this range.

It's fun to play with the technology. I find I can go from the nearby supermarket to home (about one mile) without the ICE hardly operating at all by watching my acceleration. But this is not a plug-in car; every watt stored in the battery pack comes form burning gasoline. So I really don't gain anything, since the engine will simply have to run longer next time in order to recharge the battery pack. Still, it's fun, and I don't think it will have much, if any, impact on the pack's life.