How many bars should be on dash battery meter? Prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon)

I have hooked up a tablet to my v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon. Only 2010 Prius used uppercase Roman numerals for model designation) and have been monitoring the current in and out of the drive battery through the OBD port. I am appalled at what I have been seeing. During acceleration the inverter supplies up to 123 amps for about a second and then bails out and then shows nearly no power being drawn. The cell voltage looks good but I feel that I am not getting much benefit from the electric part of the drive. Has anyone else monitored their current? Also, I have noticed that my dash battery meter never goes down below two bars. I am curious what others are experiencing. How many bars are "normal" for city driving?

 

My v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon. Only 2010 Prius used uppercase Roman numerals for model designation)is a 2014. I agree with what you are saying but if I go WOT the current out of the battery will spike for about a half second and then drop off to almost nothing and then stay near nothing until the next WOT blast. (It does this at all speeds and in both Eco and Power modes). It is then up to the engine to carry the car by itself. After re-reading my first post above, I wasn't clear.... The dash meter never goes down more than two bars. I.E it stays nearly full all of the time. It just seems wrong to not use the battery power more but if you have the same thing going on, maybe its the way that the system operates. However, it seems that if the battery helped accelerate the car more that the economy would be improved. I have a Snap-on OBD monitor that I will hook up soon and print a graph that I can post showing the TPS compared to hybrid battery discharge current. The MPG is about 43 driving Reasonably. If I am feeling like Mario Andretti I can get 34. If I drive in South Carolina (flat roads) like I have an egg under my foot I can pull off 50mpg.

 

My V is a 2014. As I posted above....If I am feeling like Mario Andretti I can get 34. If I drive in South Carolina (flat roads) like I have an egg under my foot I can pull off 50mpg. To add average numbers... Highway average 42, Off highway, 44 average. I'd love to know how this compares to other peoples V's economy.

 

Its interesting that I have to try very hard to get 48. My 43 is driving realistically and pretty carefully. It sounds like my car has a problem. I have 50K on the clock so maybe it will go to the dealer. I read somewhere that the drive is still under warranty?? Hopefully they won't push me out the door. I still want to graph the performance and current draw first.

 

Yes it is pretty flat from what I have seen. It still looks like I should be doing better but I can't sleep thinking there may be a problem. I have to agree that too much information can be deadly! I'm feeling kind of OCD and ADHD!! I'm going to try to pull a graph of the system today.

 

I can't deny that the numbers don't lie! Perhaps its wishful thinking that I can do better but it is unsettling that the system acts as it does. I'd love to see someone else's result using "Torque". Where did the chart come from? I'd like to compare the economy of different years and models. I am thinking of trading up to a newer model.

 

Okay, it doesn't look as dismal as I thought. It appears that "Torque" shows a limited number of data points. When the Prius inverter is doing its thing it is all over the place as far as charging and discharging goes. Apparently this is normal as my mileage is about what it should be. However, Torque, because of its slow data point capture, shows non-linear data which makes things look not as they really are. I put my real scanner on the car and now I'll be able to sleep at night. This data capture picture should be interesting to most. Remember though, the battery charge/discharge graph has a zero line approximately in the middle. I parked the cursor close to the zero line to give you an idea of where it is. Unfortunately I can't place a dotted zero line on the graph. I plotted a few other PIDS but for clarity I only am showing these two here.

 

I'd love to find a 124.... They are stupid money these days. Even the Datsun econoboxes are fetching 20k in decent shape!

 

I have a couple of spider 2000's..... Much more reliable than the British stuff.