I don't drive much. How can I keep my 2013 Prius c 12v battery in good shape?

2013-2019 Prius c cars have an easy-access charge point under the hood, in the drivers' side fuse panel.

 

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what year did they come out? i thought they forgot the jump point on the early models

 

Yeah, the 2012 has nothing. 2013 and later are good.

 

you can run permanent charge leads from the battery, making connection to a maintainer a breeze.

 

or just use the jump point as ljm says above

 

Maybe hire a professional to wire it then; seems like the optimum solution.

CTEK chargers for one typically come with a quick-connect harness. You can connect at the under-the-hood fuse box. That’s my setup: to connect the charger I pop the hood and raise it, plug charger into the quick-connect, plug charger into wall, lower hood gently, not latched.

Ours is garage parked, makes it secure. I don’t think you’d want an exposed quick-connect if parked outside; someone could get clever and short it out. But there should be discrete/secure methods.

 

Best answer I can give: 25 minutes in READY mode. Up to you whether the car moves or not. In a hybrid, 12v charging is disassociated from engine RPMs, so don't feel the need to take a cruise.

 

Unfortunately, no one can tell you how much you have to drive to keep it charged.
Every battery has a different level of health, and you have to monitor it to know what is working and what isn’t.

did you ever look in the fuse box for the positive terminal?

 

The 12v battery is charged by the DC-DC converter, which itself is driven by the hybrid battery bus. When the car is in READY mode, this bus is energized. The hybrid ECU controls whether the engine should run or not in response to total energy demand. The DC-DC converter is just one of many potential loads.

 

Your fuse box doesn’t have the clamp-on jump start point, but it will have a 12 volt positive lead feeding into fuse box. I don’t have a c, can’t provide a definitive picture, but it will likely be an extra heavy cable, bolted down with a pigtail connector, and might have a plastic cover.

This is a good location to connect the positive lead of a charger’s quick-connect wire. It’s negative lead can be connected to bare metal of engine or body. Look for hold-down bolt in vicinity, or an unused threaded hole, if you can drum up a compatible metric bolt.


Again, if you have to you have to, but it is a little absurd to be driving significant percent, just to maintain 12 volt.

 

Electronic load testers typically require direct connection to the battery posts. Shortsighted design decision by Toyota.

 

I don't know of one. Probably the best thing you could do is pay a pro to install such a thing- either a meter or a quick-disconnect where you'd be able to attach a meter.

 

They make meters that plug into the 12v accessory outlet.
The car should be on but not ready.
There is a load on the battery when on, but if you watch it over time, it might be helpful in forecasting a coming problem