That is because it will not stop charging when the battery is full. It will use B mode to use more electricity but you don't see that on the display.
I moved here from Locust Grove, GA. Do you know where the Tanger Outlet Mall is south of Atlanta on I-75? That's the exit it is off of. And yes, while there isn't as much traffic as Atlanta, it's worse, faster and ruder than Atlanta. You notice how no pays any attention to the HOV lanes around here? They just mail you tickets in Atlanta.
I know exactly where that is. I totally agree on your traffic observations completely! How long have you had your Prius?
I just bought it about a month ago. What do you think the traffic difference is? I think if you drove like that in Atlanta you'd get shot.....
Welcome to the hybrid life! Maybe the people in the Atlanta area have resigned to the traffic, and sort of accepted it, maybe? I feel like people here in the Nashville area have a bad mentality, like not wanting to accept and plan ahead for traffic. Also just lazy, not utilizing the turn signals haha
If we're supposed to do something other than let the car take care of itself, why is there no instructions for long down hills in the owners manual, or did I miss that
I thought they just disconnected the turn signals when you moved here. I haven't seen any used since I moved here in december
I remember reading about it on the forum, but I hadn't experienced it until then. I really haven't bothered to read the manual about it, I wasn't concerned. I was just hoping I might let someone else know in case they experienced it.
Even non-hybrid cars do similar these days. My Mazda 3 six-speed automatic will pre-emptively change down gears if the brakes are used for more than a few seconds while going downhill. It would change down from 6th to 4th or even 3rd on some steep hills bringing the engine speed up to 3000-4000RPM to reduce stress on the brakes, kevin
Thanks for the input kevinwhite. What year is that? The newest car I own is a 2012 and it's not that smart. I have to use rentals for work pretty frequently and drove this same stretch in a Jeep Compass not long ago. That was a horrible experience. It seemed like it could never figure out what gear it wanted to be in. A Ford Escape I rented on the other hand was great. I actually went looking for one it drove so well, but for my commute and the money spent the Prius just ended up being the smarter buy. For a small SUV the mileage and power was really good on the Escape though.
It will use harvested electricity to spin the engine, though. (And, that causes the engine to be spun by additional power mechanically, through the power split device.) In any case, Toyota seems to be reluctant to make the hybrid system indicator actually show what's going on - a specific brake pedal pressure at a specific speed will, as far as I'm aware, always show the same gauge depth into the CHG region, regardless of whether it's actually charging or not.
The Prius will use electricity to make MG1 run the ICE. The ICE will be configured so that it has maximum pumping resistance when turning (by changing the valve timing) so that the braking effect is maximized.
Although there is some power going through that path to MG1 the engine would rotate and give braking if MG1 was stopped with almost no power going to it. At high speeds when moderate engine braking is occurring power may actually being extracted from MG1. kevin
You won't go too show unless you take your foot off the gas pedal and quit actively controlling the speed of the car. Same issue as taking your foot off the gas on a flat road. Keep your foot on the gas pedal, tell it to go, and it will keep up to your desired speed just fine. It will go just as fast in B as it will go in D mode.
BUT........that has nothing to do with "charging". "Charging" implies that the battery is still accepting electricity.......and that is not part of the equation.