What ticks me off more is why they even go into ‘Limp Home’ mode when the inverter fails. The reason should tick off owners too, particularly if it causes them an accident or close call. So here it goes:
1) The Hybrid battery is small and is not intended for continuous use - it is, for example, nowhere near the size of a Tesla battery. It might drive the vehicle 10 miles or so, and then the gasoline engine has to start up. The idea of the battery is to take energy that usually turns into heat (at the brake linings) in stop-and-go driving (city driving) and instead store that energy in the hybrid battery for the next green light. Doing so gives the car great mileage in city driving.
2) For long-distance highway driving, the battery is exhausted almost immediately and the car is direct-driven from its gasoline engine, which, by definition, must have sufficient power for that purpose. To repeat, if there is no battery power left, the gasoline engine is the propulsion source, and if the car still drives normally, then it is only because the gasoline engine is doing it.
3) So why the limp mode when the inverter dies, since it’s no different than having drained the battery? Answer - TO FORCE YOU TO GET IT FIXED. In other words, how do you get an owner to shell out 3,000 smackers to fix something that otherwise wouldn’t affect driving - something that only affects gas mileage, and then only in city driving. Answer - make the car drive like crap.
The one thing that I don’t know the answer to is whether Toyota forces ‘limp mode’ on the cars, or whether EPA does, as a condition of their mileage rating. But something tells me that its EPA.
The one thing that I don’t know the answer to is whether Toyota forces ‘limp mode’ on the cars, or whether EPA does, as a condition of their mileage rating. But something tells me that its EPA.
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It is the EPA fleet mandates that cause this sort of engineering.
Just like washers that only fill the tubs 3/4 way
And dishwashers that force us to run the hot water before using them, these manufacturers shift the energy use to the homeowner in order to meet the mandates.