2016 Hybrid Battery Charge Fluctuates

Normal, given the extremely vague description by the owner. Of course, the battery is going to go up and down during use. The gas engine is the primary source of propulsion and the battery provides an assist. When the battery lowers, the gas engine recharges it with the goal of keeping the charge somewhere in the middle. The battery is also recharged during coasting and light braking. EV operation is only possible at low speeds, such as parking lot speeds.

I do not believe there are any "signs" of impending battery failure. If the battery fails, all propulsion will cease and the dash will light up like a Christmas tree. You cannot operate a Prius on gas power only. What is more likely is "degraded" battery performance. The battery will charge/discharge at a faster rate than when new. The only result will be lower MPG because the gas engine will have to do more of the work.

 

the gauge rapidly fluctuating up and down is a sign of impending failure.

it sounds normal, but you need a test drive. if you aren't prius savvy, you test a new one and watch how the gauge behaves, then compare.

generally speaking, it hovers above middle, but can go all the way up and down depending on conditions.

 

I believe that there’s an app called Dr Prius that together with a Carista OBD2 device will give you info on battery health.

 

But would be replaced under warranty since the car only has 60k miles on the clock. Battery SoC is highly dependent on weather and what time of day, relative to the car, it is.

If its the first drive in the morning after sitting overnight, the battery will drain faster to heat up. More pronounced in the winter months.

Also during the winter months, the battery doesn't hold as much charge as during the warmer months.

 

Sounds normal. Full battery, short distance (first suspicion - distance unspecified). Mine will go maybe 800 metres on level ground from high to low. Further if downhill, the opposite if up.

But, generally you don't try to drive the battery low - it just "does its thing", going up and down. Basically an energy storage buffer - which is why it gets about 4.1l/100km - and my wife's similar sized petrol car uses about double.

Are you in a colder climate - as that will make a difference too.

 

I have a scangauge and from what the dealer says this is normal operation on a prius 16. Basically when firing mine up since new on a COLD start (simply meaning Catalytic converter is not up to temp yet) it will keep the RPM's at IDLE while accelerating (up to a certain point). If using a medium foot, it will drain the battery quickly because the car is attempting to perform the warm up cycle on the go and accelerating off the traction battery only. I sometimes see my traction battery amps usage up to double normal operation during the warm up cycle. This is one reason I always attempt to try and get the car's traction battery filled over half, because the car will use more energy during the next warm up cycle if staying parked for several hours.

As far as the statement "it doesn't last as long as it used to, that is kind of difficult to figure out whether or not there is any justification or not to this statement." One would really need to take it for a drive and see if it appears normal or not. I am guessing the original owner might have just noticed that the battery drops big time during the warm up cycle and never noticed it before and it would appear that it may be going bad to some, but it is just doing its warm up cycle...