It doesn't run continuously but it will cycle on and off. Having an engine start and stop and start and stop and start and stop all night long to me does away with much of the peace and tranquility you get camping in the outdoors. I'd much rather have an EV for that which can give me heat and AC with no engine running or cycling.

Well, homeless people live in cars and under bridges...you can live "anywhere" for years.

 

Have you actually done this? The sound of the car is fairly muted, and people like me have been doing it with np for awhile now.

A BEV is doable but might not be as good.

On first thought, the battery in cold especially will rapidly lose efficiency and you'd start worrying about charge in camping locations that might not have easily reachable chargers. The gas engine itself in an HEV and PHEV also creates waste heat simply by its functioning, which can supplement climate control. People can also carry extra fuel if they need, though probably not a good idea unless you are really in isolated locations. Such things are not possible for a BEV.

Finally, used Prius are cheap, reliable, and time tested, something that the current crop of BEVs likely cannot match.

 

I don't sleep in cars no, but I did own a Prius and I have had it idle for long periods of time. No doubt the engine kicking on and off would wake me up every single time. Camping in a vehicle with the engine running doesn't sound appealing. Plus if you are camping anywhere near others, having your car running off and on and off and on again all night long is pretty inconsiderate.

The other thing is safety, ICEs create carbon monoxide and there is always a possibility you could be exposed to it in dangerous levels.

Actually an EV loses about 3 miles of range for every hour it is "on" running the heat or AC. So, the math there is easy...an EV with 300 miles of range can run for 100 hours. EVs have heat pumps that are also very efficient, even the EV's range is cut to 100 miles, you can still sit there for 33 hours.

As for chargers, believe it or not a lot of places you can camp have chargers for RVs. Plus you can always spend a night at a charger (these people you talk about park overnight in parking lots all the time) and let it charge all the way up.

I wouldn't agree at all, a Tesla for instance can be had for cheap, they are reliable and time tested. The only car I have ever had that left us stranded somewhere and needed to be towed was our Prius.

In any event, if you really want to do this there are lots of better options than a Prius.

 

Perhaps you are the type that gets awakened so easily by the sporadic use of a gas engine and the sound of A/C or hot air.

It's a personal preference then, we can leave it at that.

Btw, you keep saying you owned a Prius, but you seem to have little in depth knowledge of it and its quirks.

There's this something called a tailpipe on the outside. Not to mention you are typically outdoors in very open environments when you camp, with an engine that only is on for sporadic periods of time.

Like I said, people do it all the time, as I have.

This is just a weird and bad argument. HVAC is normally used in camping when the temps outside are extreme enough, and not really when it's mild and optimal for both people and batteries.

New research from AAA reveals that when the mercury dips to 20°F and the HVAC system is used to heat the inside of the vehicle, the average driving range is decreased by 41 percent.

https://newsroom.aaa.com/2019/02/col...vehicle-range/

As i said, such batteries are not optimal when temps are not optimal for their use. That's why you get things happening even in urban locations like this:


It would be even worse for people in such types of vehicles in remote camping locations. The chances of getting cell phone connection or towing might be a tad unlikely.

That's great. So basically you limit your camping to places with chargers, where hopefully the chargers aren't bad. And the weather is mild enough that you don't suddenly lose charge and your car becomes a brick.

Sounds good.

As I said, using a BEV for this is doable, but it is not as good as using a ICE equipped car that has the ability to use an energy dense, external, and easily portable energy source like gasoline.

LOL...Prius have been with us for 20+ years now, and many 2nd gens are still running around with no problem.

I would prefer the historical reliability of Toyota/Lexus vs others.

Again, cheap, reliable, relatively spacious, and an inherent generator.

BEV prices are falling fast recently due to their bad resale values, but the prices of very old used ones is likely still high..not to mention I would def not trust one of the old ones in a relatively isolated camping location.

So again, BEVs might be doable for this, but cars that can use gasoline to supplement their electrical batteries are likely better.

 

I just throw an air mattress in the bed of my truck. I even have a tent that goes back there as well.

 

LOL...

Believe it or not there are tents now that go on top of roofs of cars...


I was thinking of buying one for my car...but I am too chicken to trust the thing up there...

 

I owned a 2004 Prius for 7 years, what have I shown I don't know about it?!

If you don't believe me, here is a picture of it:




Camping in a running vehicle doesn't appeal to me, no. The quiet and peacefulness of nature is what appeals to me about camping, a running engine detracts from that IMO.

People die of CO exposure in running cars, its possible for sure. Google it, happens more than you would think.

Person died in a running car in an outside parking lot:

https://www.woodtv.com/news/van-buren-county/woman-dead-man-hospitalized-after-apparent-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/"Police believe it’s a case of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning."

“We were informed that they had car issues with a muffler, so that’s eventually what lead to the carbon monoxide leaking inside of the vehicle while they were sitting there,” Ivy said. “It had just so had to happen to them out in the open because they had an exhaust leak in the vehicle.”
The numbers are the numbers, those aren't my numbers...point is an EV can run HVAC all night easily in any weather.

Quote:

New research from AAA reveals that when the mercury dips to 20°F and the HVAC system is used to heat the inside of the vehicle, the average driving range is decreased by 41 percent.

Hence when I suggested a vehicle with 300 miles of range may be reduced to 100 miles and would still run the heat for over 30 hours, thats a reduction of ~ 66%, far more than those AAA numbers. In short, it will last fine.

More silly anti- EV rhetoric.

So, they have gas stations in those places?

What happens when it runs out of gas?

But I don't want to sleep in a running car...not in any car but certainly not a running car.

And Teslas have been with us for well over 10 years and the old ones are also running around with no problems.

Resale values can't be both really low and also still high...

I'm not interested in camping in ANY car, and any remote location where one would be concerned about being accessible to electricity in very cold and snowy weather likely isn't accessible by a Prius anyways, ours was undrivable in the snow. If I were to choose a car to camp in, it wouldn't be a Prius...if thats all I had sure, but if I'm actually choosing a car to use for that type of use its not going to be a Prius. I'd buy a minivan first, actually. A PHEV Minivan like mine could run the HVAC all night (no heat pump which sucks for winter) and still have gas to get me going in the morning...plus its way bigger inside.

I would use a portable heater plugged into an external generator before I ran the engine in my car...in fact thats what a lot of these lifestyle campers use to heat them.

 

Congratulations. Although the dash and some primary controls were a little quirky, I thought that the Second-Generation Prius, overall, was the best one ever done. It was comfortable-driving for its size, more-so than the First-generation, everything felt solid, and the doors shut with a nice Thunk...although it was a little underpowered from a stop. The Third-generation version, which followed it, IMO, was not as impressive. It used lighter materials, felt somewhat flimsy and cheap, and the suspension and tires felt firmer and less-pleasant to drive.....although I'll admit there was less body-roll than with the Second-Generation, which tended to lean more in turns. But I don't mind a little bit of lean....I prefer the softer suspension and tires, and apparantly so did he and his Mom....race-track handling is not my cup of tea, or theirs. The Fourth-generation Prius ended up looking like something out of a Halloween party LOL.

I once helped a fellow CL member buy a new bluish-gray 2nd-Generation Prius for his Mom, one evening after work, before I retired....I don't remember his call-sign/moniker, although I think it was at 355 Toyota in Rockville.

 

I'm not going back and forth endlessly when you have never actually done it, and seem to have made up your mind anyways that BEVs (no matter what!) will still (and always) be better than an ICE-supplemented hybrid car (PHEV or HEV) that has much much higher ranges, can carry as much extra fuel as needed, and is not as strongly affected by extreme temps like cold. Not to mention has a much larger network of refueling stations, especially in natural relatively isolated locations.

So yeah, the best thing to do is (for example), take a BEV into some remote camping location during the cold, depleting the battery the entire way to the camping location by up to 41%...THEN using that same battery to power the HVAC during the entire night. Making sure of course that you actually have enough battery left after all that to actually get back, or do any other side trips after that one single night.

Yeah, I'm sure that's a better idea than using a gas-powered hybrid car.

 

Yeah, I actually love the 2nd gen, and have driven a few. Love their looks.

In fact, driving the 2nd gen was the reason I got pushed into buying a 3rd gen, which is bigger than the 2nd gen, but which has some potential problems like the head gasket

This newest 5th gen look great, but if had a choice between that and a NEW 2nd gen, I'd go for the 2nd gen. Haven't driven one of the 5th gen ones though, so who knows.

 

My better half owns a 3rd gen Prius. Before buying it, I had rented a 2nd gen and lived with it for a day or two. At one point, I accidentally kicked the back of the front console and instantly dislodged it from its moorings; it was snapped in place with a tiny plastic nipple on each side that would make a Playskool toy blush. I took it out on the highway, and it was loud, sat like I was sitting in the bottom of a bucket, powerless, pushed around by crosswinds, and had a hollow sound that reverberated road noise throughout the interior. After getting the 3rd gen, I was absolutely shocked at how utterly adequate it was by comparison.

 

Uh BEVs and ICEs aka pure cars are indeed better than hybrids......hybrids are the worst of both worlds.

 

Toyota literally cannot build hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars and SUVs fast enough to meet consumer demand, but you know better what consumers' needs are than consumers do. Right.

 

I said better, not what people can afford. There is a difference

 

If I'm trying to sleep at night in a campground and somebody is idling their car next to me, I'm going to be very cranky with them in the morning.