EV Not Available Low Battery

I have noticed that my 2013 Toyota Prius is starting-up in gas engine mode only even if I have 5 or more bars of energy available to use. So when I drive and my foot is not even on the gas, the mpg monitor reads that I'm getting 1-2mpg. Then if I turn the car off and then turn it back on, I only have 2 bars left... Then if I press EV mode the car says "EV Mode Not Available Low Battery". Has this happened to anyone else? How to fix?

 

37,790 miles as of today

 

I have noticed that gas mileage is literally the same or better. It's just annoying how I must sit around for the Prius to "heat up"? -even though it's not cold outside at all. If I just turn the car on and once it says "ready" just start driving my car goes into gas only engine. If I wait for a while *ex: 2-4mins* then everything seems fine. So I guess I'm just dealing with a wierd Prius huh? I got almost 60mpg on my way home from work regardless...

 

I bought it a couple of months ago. It never used to do that. It all started when I was driving through a pothole infested road way and my Prius hit a big one. Once it came out of it, there was a slight buzzing sound. So like right now when I drove out of the parking lot here at Wal-Mart. I let it warm up and then took off. All of a sudden the car comes out of energy mode and goes into gas engine only mode. I feel like every single time I go out for a drive that I must have some stop signs to gain my cars energy all over again. I think the main problem is - is that my Prius isn't holding a charge. Even if I just drove and collected several bars of energy in my last trip which was only an hour before my next trip... it sucks.

 

Yea I bet I did damage something. I just called a Toyota dealership close by and they said that the good thing is that the car is capable of building up energy again for trips. He said that it's a real problem when the battery can't build up energy for trips. He also said that with his many years of experience that no two hybrid vehicles are the same. They all do things differently. He said that my Prius is kind of an donkey but it's working. I don't know, maybe I just need to use it as is. It just sucks that per each new trip I have to start with a tiny bit of energy and build up more energy to use on the highway.

 

I'll keep you up to date on everything. I appreciate your input. I plan to get the auxiliary battery checked tomorrow just incase that's the problem for some reason. Anyways, I'll let you know

 

My mileage seems to be getting better with this wierd condition my Prius is in. Today's trip home I got a little above 64mpg... I'm still going to have my battery checked out "12V" and I'll give another update after that.

 

Phrehaps you're right Bisco. I took my Prius to the Toyota Dealership where they ran a health test and ended up informing me that my car has no problems at all. I asked the mechanic if it was normal for my car to loss the energy built up from my last trip. He said "Yes, it is." Hey added "haven't you noticed how simple it is to regenerate energy at stops?" And then he suggested if that was the problem. I informed him that no, and that I had noticed how quickly the car regenerates power. Oh well, I guess that's it. Thanks for the suggestions Bisco!

 

Thanks for your suggestion.

That seems to explain alot FotoMoto. Thank you for pointing that out