battery

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Renee @ Apr 23 2006, 11:28 AM) [snapback]243992[/snapback]</div>

Battery charge is not based on time or distance. The battery will constantly charge/discharge as you drive. You will notice the battery charge higher when coasting downhill, or during prolonged braking, as those both initiate regen (charge back to the battery). Having a "full" battery charge is not needed...but it does allow you to run in EV mode longer (if you have a switch or if you learn how to use the pedal so that the ICE goes off and you are running only on electric).

If you search through the threads you will find many on how to maximize your battery charge and get the most out of your Prius.

Goodluck!

 

What do you mean by using the pedal to make the ICE go off and run on electric? How do you do this?

 

I'm no pro, but I often get up to speed, take my foot completely off the gas (which often, but not always, shuts the ICE off), then slowly ease the pedal back down. I'm sure there are others with more sophisticated methods It works best at fairly slow speeds or on slight declines.

I remember the first week I had my Prius...I was worried that the battery wasn't charging fully as well. Turns out, it's not supposed to be fully charged all the time. Yes, there are driving habits that can keep it more fully charged, but I live in Los Angeles, and it's pretty hard to drive any way other than with the crazy flow...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kimharm @ Apr 23 2006, 04:43 PM) [snapback]244071[/snapback]</div>

 

The car tries to keep the battery somewhere around a 50% charge. The idea is NOT to fully charge the battery and then go on electric for a long time. The idea is for the battery to buffer the engine output by providing torque when needed (so the engine doesn't have to) and absorb excess energy from the engine when it's more efficient for the engine to put out more power than the driving conditions require, as well as by regenerative braking. A full battery would mean no place for that recovered energy to go, and would therefore decrease the efficiency of the system and lower your mpg. (Except for the special case when you are about to climb a long hill, and you can use the extra energy in a full battery.)

Yes, the battery will charge up to 8 green bars under certain circumstances, but this means that driving conditions are far from ideal.

Don't worry about the battery. The computer takes care of it.

The car will shut off the engine under certain circumstances: When there is enough charge on the battery, the engine is warm, there is little or no demand for cabin heat, the battery temperature is warm enough, and the demand for acceleration is low enough. You can coax it to do this a little sooner than it otherwise would by letting off the gas, and then re-applying it very gently, as Bonzocat says. The hotter the battery, the more readily it will slip into electric mode, either on its own, or with your coaxing (known as "feathering" the pedal).

The only way to know your battery temperature is to install an aftermarket device (such as CAN-View) that reads the information off the CAN bus.

 

Quote: "How long does it take to fully charge the battery?"

In the strict sense of the words - The traction (main) battery is never FULLY charged. It is designed to work between 40% and 80% of full charge/discharge. The display shows "SOC" (State of charge) and for the most part will show blue "bars" short of the top. When the SOC is a bit low it may show one "pinkish" bar at the bottom and when it shows green "bars" it has reached the 80% (or near) level and the Prius' design will not permit further charging.

Search this forum on "battery" and you can find a multitude of posts. You might also enjoy visiting John's web site which has a wealth of useful information from his direct experience. Here's the link:

http://john1701a.com/

Enjoy your Prius...!!!