What are the smaller bars on the display right above the battery bars

In every generation two I've owned there's always a white line right under the positive terminal of the battery shape and the energy display I don't care what I do if I charge the car with an external HV charger when the charger says it's full I'll still have that white line on the very top of that battery display like I just said I have four of these cars and they're all the same in that regard which is one of the few things

 

When the hybrid battery gets "full" (8 bars) during a long regenerative decel, the hybrid control ecu just stops charging. You then only have friction brakes or shift gears to B mode for some engine braking.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The gauge has 8 bars on a white background. That's inside a graphic representing a grey battery, which includes some cuboids between the terminals. That's the top of the battery, not part of the gauge.

 

That's not entirely true, once the battery reaches its full level (80% SoC), the ECU does indeed cut charging and regen but it doesn't leave you with only friction brakes. Instead, the ECU replaces regen braking with the equivalent engine braking. If you apply more foot brake pressure the engine braking increases and is more substantial than the engine braking provided by B mode. You need a substantial descent to test this out.