Winter with my 2017 Prius, and I’m seeing odd things, so I just want to make sure it’s normal. Yes, I’m paranoid. Lol. When I get in my car after work (5pm, sitting all day) I start the car and drive. Within a few minutes, the battery is down to 2 bars from one below full. Then I noticed the engine runs and I don’t have any regen braking for a little bit. After 2-3 miles, it starts acting normal with spurts of friction only braking even though the battery isn’t full. Is this normal for a Prius in warm weather?
If you have the Li-Ion battery, yes. When it’s cold and the engine is warming up, the car relies on the battery more rather than revving the engine for power so if you accelerate anything harder than gingerly, you will be using more battery power until the engine warms up or you get low on SOC.
This doesn't seem normal to me. How do you know you aren't getting regen braking? Are you just going by what appears on the MFD?
I believe that it is normal. A discharging battery generates heat. The hybrid battery is trying to warm itself up.
But doesn't a charging battery generate heat as well? How cold is the outside temperature when this behavior occurs? I know that Li-ion batteries do not do well in very cold temperatures, which would limit the extent to which they can be used to power the car, but does it also limit their ability to charge? Wouldn't draining them initially to move the car while the ICE was cold warm them up enough to be charged by regen braking? We must be talking about subzero (F) temperatures here.
Your location - "USA" doesn't give enough information for an informed reply. I believe that there is a HUGE disparity between temperatures in, say Miami and Boston. I'd suggest update your profile with a real location. Particularly seeing you say it's WARM WEATHER. Also - do you have 2 PRIUS - you've got an old AQUA listed on your profile, as well as mentioning 2017 PRIUS? In reply - it doesn't seem particularly unusual, particularly if it's winter. Never bother about what it does on short runs - it goes through a warm-up process of the ICE, the Climate Control is sorting out the temperatures - it's more about what happens over a week driving. The MFD will tell you the percentage of EV driving - overall.
Yeah, I should've been more thorough. A charging/discharging battery generates heat. Just as the ICE has an optimal operating temperature, the battery has one as well also for charging and discharging.
I have noticed the same behaviour with my 2015 Auris. I find if I push start and wait until the engine tone changes before setting off, this avoids draining the battery. This takes about a minute or so. Technically I think it's changing from Stage 1 to Stage 2. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
The SOC on my 2016 is usually lower than my was on my 2010. The meter often displays 3 bars. It does charge up quickly and tops out on downhill stretches of road. It used to concern me, but I’ve figured it’s the lithium ion batteries. There have been no problems
This is my experience with the lithium in the gen4 as well. It’s a smaller pack, and the system call pull more energy out, as well as put it back in at a much higher current. my Ford C-Max worried when I first drove it too, as fords with their lithium battery act the same way, except fords pull even more power from their packs.
It sounds like you're running purely on battery for the first few minutes, which is normal in warm weather, the battery will only take you about a mile on it's own, so going from one below full to two bars sounds about right. The lack of regen braking when the ICE fires up may be because the ICE running fast on warm up is giving the feel that the car is not slowing down as much as it normally does when everything is warmed up.
