I have a 2010 Prius that I really love. In two separate incidents, I parked the car in a NYC parking garage and when it was delivered to me about 6 hours later the battery indicator only had two bars. There was no problems since the car recharged in about 15 minutes. On both occasions, I believe, the parking attendant left the key fob in the car the whole time it was parked. Is the car being drained because the key fob is in the car, or are the parking attendants doing something wrong? I can leave the car in my driveway for a few days and the battery is not as drained a sit is in 6 hours in the parking lot. Any ideas? Howard G
he's probably not pressing the power button to turn the car off. the battery drains, the engine will turn on to recharge it just a bit and the cycle continues until they bring the car back to you.
Thanks for the quick response. This has happened in two different parking garages. I thought that was a possibility, but I figured these guys have parked enough hybrid cars over the years to know to power them down. I was just thinking something in the car was searching out the transmission from the fob- like my cellphone tries to get a signal and it drains my battery. HowardG
Howard: Get yourself a cheap ($15.00) 12 volt elec clock from E-Bay. Plus it into your center arm rest console.......if he's turning the car off, as he should be, there will be no time elapsed on your clock.....if the clock shows hours or minutes that match your ticket, or close to it, then they are leaving your car on. Maybe leaving it on for the AC.......
It could also depend how far away they park it? I know if I drive round a multistory carpark the car runs around on EV as it doesn't go fast enough not to. After climbing a couple levels the HV battery drops to 2 bars. Perhaps this is what is happening? Eiither that or they're forgetting to power the car off!
Good point. next time OP should make note of the mPG. If it's much lower after pickup it means the car was idling on and off all day to keep battery alive.
Grumpy: That's a good point, something I did not think of. But, when the ICE is cold, which it should be after being parked for a few hours, the ICE will run until it warms up, thus charging the low battery. I can see the HV battery charge going down when the attendant first parks the car, if he has to move up or down several floors of the garage.
Folks, I really appreciate the answers. I will have to examine the EV issue and find out if they have to drive the car up a few levels.
I would be concerned if they are not shutting the car off and it is cycling on and off. If they are shutting it off properly and it is simply low when you get in because it drove on battery under slow speeds until parked (but still shut down properly) it will hurt nothing.
Have you ever seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Sounds like some parking attendant joyriding because they've never been in a Prius before.
