Do I need to recharge just because car says so?

i don't recall anyone seeing that message. the battery prefers not to be charged all the time, and if you had to make a long trip, you'd be better off with a full tank of gas

 

1. No, you don't have to. in fact, if you know you are not going to drive the car for a while you don't want to keep the battery fully charged and sitting.

2. Yes, hybrid battery gauge indicates green level State of Charge for EV and blue when it depletes EV range and switches to HV. You can also show the battery % for EV instead of EV range in miles.

 

Is what you saw a message saying something like “start charging I’m mediately after plugging in”? If so, that isn’t telling you to immediately charge the battery, it’s just telling you that charging will begin immediately after the car is plugged in, as opposed to not beginning until a scheduled charge event start time. I assume you don’t have a charging event scheduled.

 

A Prime never actually needs a plug-in recharge at all, but will operate just fine as an ordinary gasser hybrid.

While this seems like a waste of the extra hardware to most of us, it made sense to certain buyers without convenient plug-in access who managed to get a better purchase deal (after incentives) on a Prime than on a regular non-plugin Prius, and to some others who desired the HOV stickers that are no longer available on the regular version. The Prime runs just fine without ever plugging in, plus can move back to EV capability if their access to plug-in outlets improves.

 

I don't understand what would cause a message like that to appear. I've run my Prime down to --% . Yes, that's what was displayed. I don't remember if it displayed 0% and then --% . I've never been told that the car needs to recharge.

 

It doesn’t say it needs to recharge, it just says charging will begin the next time the car is plugged in.

 

Actually, if it's the message I think it is, saying that and it's asking the driver if he or she WANTS to charge immediately on plugging in as opposed to waiting for the next scheduled charge. Tap the button on the display and the little blue light comes on showing that that's your choice. Don't tap it and you can plug in and walk away knowing that the car will charge next time it's scheduled to charge.

 

I’ll have to look at it again to see the exact wording of the message. But I don’t tap any button when it appears and the car starts charging immediately when I plug it in, because I don’t have a charging schedule set up. So I don’t look at it as asking me if I want to charge immediately, it is only confirming my choice to do so, by not having set a charging schedule. Make sense?

I believe that is also the case for the OP. And I believe he was misunderstanding the message, thinking it was telling him he needed to charge immediately. I have to confess I thought the same thing the first time I saw it!

Those who have a charging schedule set up probably see it as an opportunity to choose to override the charging schedule. Maybe they see a message asking if they want to do that, but I don’t think the message I see is a question. I’ll look at it again next time I go for a drive.

 

I don't know what it's like without a schedule, because just about the first thing I did when I got the car 14 months ago was enter a charging schedule. So here's what it's like with a schedule. Note that before you tap the button, it gives the scheduled time and type of charging. After tapping the button, it says it'll charge as soon as you plug in. My guess is, that if there is no schedule, it's going to show something like the bottom photo every time you shut off the car.

 

You are correct about what shows on the screen when no charging event is scheduled, except that the "Charge Now" button appears to be dimmed (compared to your screenshot, so I'm not sure if it is functional at that point. Anyway, I have never tapped it and the car starts charging as soon as it is plugged, so I don't think it is necessary to tap the button if no charging event is scheduled.

I believe this is the screen the OP saw that made him think the the car was telling him he needed to charge immediately. As I said, I also misinterpreted it the first time I saw it.

 

Yeah, if there is not charge event scheduled, the only thing the car can do when you plug it in is to charge. It has no other option.

 

Yes, so when no charging event has been scheduled the message is not "asking the driver if he or she WANTS to charge immediately on plugging in as opposed to waiting for the next scheduled charge". It is simply informing the driver that the next charging event will take place immediately on plug-in. So I believe my response #8 above to the OP was correct, since he had no charge event scheduled.

 

I think so, too. Hopefully, @IABoy987 will be back soon to confirm our guesses. He must not hang out here as much as we do.

 

That may be a good thing!