Do I need to treat the Prime like other EV meaning charge to 80% only? The car has been driven daily from 100% down to HV mode kicks in.
No. Toyota already built a buffer into the Prime. 100% battery meter SOC is approximately 83% true SOC.
You've got a 10yr or 150K mile warranty on that traction battery. Toyota has anticipated that most people don't read the OM, so the system is pretty much plug-n-play. There are issues of the aux. battery draining due to a bad batch of batteries from their vendor and a TSB concerning that, so if you have a problem starting the car or low battery indicator - you can have the dealer check-out those conditions. Using the car as a daily driver and routinely draining the EV portion of the battery is actually good exercise for the pack and the way the car was designed to operate. The real test is to leave the car unattended and not operating for 2 weeks. Hope this helps....
I am moving from a gen 2 chevy volt that was fine to alway charge and leave plugged in when ever its parked. I gather it Is fine to do this with the Prius? Do most of you leave your Prius plugged in to top it up even when the battery is close to full with no worry about battery degradation?
I don’t think you’re supposed to leave the Prius plugged in for more than 3 days . It drains the 12 volt
If your only driving/moving it once or twice a week; You should disconnect the charger after it finishes charging. If it's a daily or every other daily driver - you should be fine. If your leaving for a few weeks vacation - You definitely want to unplug it!! Hope this helps.....
It’s recommended to “Leave the hybrid battery at a low level of charge when leaving the vehicle undriven for a long period of time” from Chapter 2 - the charging section of the manual. There are other recommendations the hint at battery stress when the car is fully charged. Driving the car immediately after charging is recommended. Avoid parking in direct sunlight with high temperatures when the battery is fully charged. It is surprising that no provision for a reduced maximum charge is available. I suppose that the schedule could be used if you have a regular driving and charging routine.
The 100% charge on the display is less than 100% for the cells. Some BEVs allow the setting of charge level, but PHEV manufacturers probably assume it isn't worth having with the smaller battery. They are probably right with the buffers in the charge range in place. Seems this is only an issue for long term storage.