Battery Range

[Joglesby]

Hello All,

I am awaiting my new 300h SE but no one seems to be able to give an idea of the range in EV mode.

Now I realise it depends on charge and driving etc etc but some user experience would be appreciated.

Have to wait another 5/6 weeks yet till it arrives :megaangry:

Thanks in anticipation,

J

[Richard1200]

It's not range but your right foot dictates how far it will go on Battery. See my thread "feeling smug"

In EV mode using no throttle I can reverse off my drive, go all down our road in EV mode but as soon as I need to accelerate out onto the main road the engine kicks in. In cold winter it will kick in earlier as the engine will want to warm up. If the road is flat or slightly downhill I have found that being very light footed on the throttle 50 mph is about the maximum Battery will be used by its self.

EV mode is entirely dependant on the driver and the conditions. When you get your car have the energy display on the screen and you will find that it makes you very light footed, in fact I think the display is worse than a mobile phone because I find myself looking at it too much.

My car is coming up to 10 months old. I am a low mileage driver (retired) only very occasional motorway so just local driving and I am at 46.2 mpg over 3300 miles. Which is almost double what my IS250 used to achieve, in fact I forget to look at the fuel gauge now as I only fill up up every 6 to 8 weeks.

[DJP]

I concur with all that Richard posts above. I live at the top of a hill and no matter how light footed or how much juice there is in the Battery I cannot get to the top without the engine cutting in to help.

The energy monitor definitely assists in training for economical driving, prior to getting this car I really couldn't have cared less about mpg - when the car needed petrol I put some in. Now I've always got half an eye on the mpg, it's not from a financial perspective, although obviously pretty much halving my petrol bill is welcome, it's from the satisfaction of knowing I'm gliding around using electricity. I've had the car since 1st Sept and would have thought this would have worn off by now, but it hasn't so far.

[Sleepypete (FB)]

My record in EV is now 2.5 miles ! And that could have been further - after that 2.5 miles is a slope that's a little too much for the electric only. In my CT, I could do the 1.5 miles between the start of a 30 and their house without the engine on and it barely touched the Battery. That's on the flat though and hoping to avoid stopping at junctions.

That's the thing :

On the flat, constant speed = huge range on the electric

Hills - will pull in the engine, although we have more scope available than in the CT I had before

Stop/start - the constant acceleration/deceleration will drain the Battery quick

It's the change in energy that drains the Battery :

Kinetic energy from stop/start

Potential energy from going up hills

You can get a few miles on electric only but you have to be quite gentle on the throttle to do it. The IS300h is way superior to the CT there, there's more scope available in electric to hold 40 going up a slight incline and we can accelerate (gently!) up to 40 too without the engine.

[Joglesby]

Thank you and very helpful. Just trying to be patient now until it arrives.

[DJP]

Sorry, absolutely cannot help with the patience bit!

[Joglesby]

Ah well have to wait,. The other question I have is 'self healing paint' does special care have to be taken when polishing?

Generally use Autoglym polish or express wax.

[Blisteringblue]

Sorry, absolutely cannot help with the patience bit!

Tell me about it, I'm still being told 30th June from a Feb 1st order! Almost under a month now. The suspense is killing me, I had my demo for a week back in October 2013 :yack:

[LiCkWiD]

Yeah... self healing paint. What exactly is that? More a gimmick than an actual technology?

Either way, I've only polished my car properly once.. and I used my usual approach.. polishing pads (3 of them) and my beloved Dodo Juice.

Came up amazing... there are very, very few micro-scratches on the paint at this point, so I'm not sure what if any effect polishing has on the self-healing dealy.

Shrug!

Aso, Blisteringblue - that's a helluva wait!! Mine was a 10 week delivery! You poor sod :<

[Blisteringblue]

Aso, Blisteringblue - that's a helluva wait!! Mine was a 10 week delivery! You poor sod :<

Lol, cheers, to be fair it wasn't Lexus's fault, it was that horrendous moment when I was told my current car was on a 40 month lease rather than the normal 36 month. Toys out the pram might be a slight understatement

So counting down big style ....

[Joglesby]

Nearly there. Celestial black ES being delivered this Friday. Think I will have the afternoon off!

Is it possible to make sure the Battery is fully charged somehow??

John

[Richard1200]

Nearly there. Celestial black ES being delivered this Friday. Think I will have the afternoon off!

Is it possible to make sure the battery is fully charged somehow??

John

There is noway to ensure the Battery is fully charged. If the salesperson sits in the car with you explaining all the clever bits the engine will probably kick in at some point as two bars seems the minimum Battery level so it should be fairly high by the time you leave the dealership. The car monitors Battery level so forget about charging it will happen when it needs it. As I said in a previous reply have the energy display on and just watch what happens, but do not take your eyes off the road too much!!!!!,

[Richard1200]

Nearly there. Celestial black ES being delivered this Friday. Think I will have the afternoon off!

Is it possible to make sure the battery is fully charged somehow??

John

There is no way to ensure the Battery is fully charged. If the salesperson sits in the car with you explaining all the clever bits the engine will probably kick in at some point as two bars seems the minimum Battery level so it should be fairly high by the time you leave the dealership. The car monitors Battery level so forget about charging it will happen when it needs it. As I said in a previous reply have the energy display on and just watch what happens, but do not take your eyes off the road too much!!!!!,

How do I delete this double post by myself"?????????

[Joglesby]

Thank you - lets see what happens Friday !!!

[Sleepypete (FB)]

Nearly there. Celestial black ES being delivered this Friday. Think I will have the afternoon off!

Is it possible to make sure the battery is fully charged somehow??

John

Yeah, like the others have said, we can't manipulate the Battery charge from the outside. The car does that all by itself. I suspect it'll be fairly random what charge level you get the car with, as the garage will do some pre-delivery checks which have the car turned on. And then the system will take it from there whether it sits with engine on or runs off the hybrid Battery.

For info - there's 2 batteries in our IS300h's :

Little 12V bootstrap Battery - this is the one that fires up everything else.

Big 650V traction Battery - the car keeps this between 20% and 80% charge.

If a rechargeable Battery gets too flat, irreversible changes can happen to the electrodes which wreck the Battery. Hence that 20% hold. If it gets too full, then the processes involved in squeezing the extra Joules in there can cause problems as well, hence trying to keep it at around 80% max. (It'll charge more if it has to).

I wouldn't worry too much if you get the Battery at half full, it evens out so quickly that you won't lose out at all. It's not like a plug in hybrid or E-Car Battery where half a Battery means 10s or more of miles.

I hope you enjoy your IS300h as much as I am mine

[Joglesby]

Pete,

Very helpful, thanks.

I know it shows my age but I used to run Daf 33's which were tremendous fun - hope the 300h is as good lol.

J

[Joglesby]

Delivered Friday pm !!!!!! Done 163miles so far and showing 51.1mpg. Touched 80mph briefly sunday am but otherwise sedate! What a great car to drive - interesting too. Not sure about polishing though, lots of curves etc.........

Have not made much sense of park assist yet however and did not realise no rear centre armrest on SE.

John