After researching the hump issue, I played around some more with Toyota's 360 viewer: http://www.toyota.com/prius/features.html
Selected 3 dimensions of Synergy Drive, and went through the presentation: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2007/pri ... index.html
Discrepency: Presentation claims that low speeds Prius uses the motor and battery alone. That's true up to about 5-12 MPH, depending on acceleration, but beyond that, it is misleading. Also engine runs much more during first 5 minutes of operation to warm up the ICE and related components.
Then later it comes to midrange speeds. This is where I really was disappointed, as they claim the Prius favors electric drive over ICE.
Now the presentation is based on the 2004 model, and probably before all the firmware updates that were needed mainly because of ICE not starting in time as expected by the HV ECU, thus giving people panic attacks when they would get the triangle of death.
Has me thinking though that the Prius has the potential to achieve greater fuel efficiency, if Toyota had the firmware correct for the conditions that flagged false errors (such as allow more time for ICE to start) rather than changing overal operating conditions to avoid the conditions at the expense of efficiency.
But I could be wrong about that. Would be interesting to compare a 2006 Prius to an original, unpatched 2004, by driving them together on the same road.
Selected 3 dimensions of Synergy Drive, and went through the presentation: http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2007/pri ... index.html
Discrepency: Presentation claims that low speeds Prius uses the motor and battery alone. That's true up to about 5-12 MPH, depending on acceleration, but beyond that, it is misleading. Also engine runs much more during first 5 minutes of operation to warm up the ICE and related components.
Then later it comes to midrange speeds. This is where I really was disappointed, as they claim the Prius favors electric drive over ICE.
Now the presentation is based on the 2004 model, and probably before all the firmware updates that were needed mainly because of ICE not starting in time as expected by the HV ECU, thus giving people panic attacks when they would get the triangle of death.
Has me thinking though that the Prius has the potential to achieve greater fuel efficiency, if Toyota had the firmware correct for the conditions that flagged false errors (such as allow more time for ICE to start) rather than changing overal operating conditions to avoid the conditions at the expense of efficiency.
But I could be wrong about that. Would be interesting to compare a 2006 Prius to an original, unpatched 2004, by driving them together on the same road.
