Green Battery Display?

The top 2 bars will make the whole battery level display turn green. This means your batteries are nearing or at a "full" charge. The middle 4 bars turn it blue and then it turns to purple on the last 2 bars meaning you are low on your battery charge.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nicole @ Jun 6 2007, 11:50 AM) [snapback]456699[/snapback]</div>

 

The prius is an hybrid and not an electric car. It will most of the time use both the gasoline and electric engine. If the car is warmed up it's possible to accelerate REALLY slowly up to 35 mph, but you risk having people honk at you. It's also less efficient for the prius as if you drain the battery doing slow acceleration then at some later point it will (most likely) run the gas engine longer to recharge the battery. People who get great mileage in their car try to use the battery as little as possible.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bupah @ Jun 6 2007, 12:00 PM) [snapback]456710[/snapback]</div>

And it should be noted that by full it's actually 80% full and by empty it 40% full.

That's the range allowed by the ECU (or whatever computer controls the charging).

Dave M.

 

Mine always has a white bar on top, even when green

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vdubstress @ Jun 10 2007, 09:45 PM) [snapback]459385[/snapback]</div>

Mine too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Jun 11 2007, 05:23 PM) [snapback]459824[/snapback]</div>

I got 8 bars today, but rarely do. As you say, a steep or long hill with the batteries at 6 bars or above when starting down. This is about a 2 mile downgrade, and reasonably steep.

Dave M.

 

We got the full Green bars yesterday on our way back from camping, first time ever down hill for over a few miles even had to use "B" and it works great!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priussoris @ Jun 11 2007, 09:28 PM) [snapback]459869[/snapback]</div>

Nice priussoris, I envy you and you're "fully" charged battery ("fully" since that batt display is a range of 80%-40% battery levels). I have had it green before but never fully filled. I have driven it down to purple a couple of times and I don't even have EV mode... yet.

 

And isn't it a pretty green!? Just got to the west coast (Vancouver Island, Courtney), via Highway 99. The Prius had no trouble negotiating the Duffy Lake portion. And I had full green for about 30 minutes during and after the decent. More on this in another topic.

Once you get green the car will try to "use up" the excess charge on the battery, as it reduces the "head room" needed for regenerative braking. It will do so subtly, just extending battery use very slightly when you would normally see it.

I suspect every driver sees a little different SOC level, depending on driving style, but I normally see blue with around 3 bars blank at the top.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(David Beale @ Jun 13 2007, 10:21 AM) [snapback]460817[/snapback]</div>

I only see green about once a week, and I have only ever seen purple once, most of the time I have 6 blue bars, but occasionally I will drop down to 4 or 5, (hot outside and A/C on high for extended time)

 

I see full green bars every morning and 1-2 purple almost every night (sometimes 3 blue). The last 5 minutes of my commute climbs from 6,400' to 7,650'. Nice way to start the day - with a nice full boost!

-Sean

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nicole @ Jun 6 2007, 12:16 PM) [snapback]456720[/snapback]</div>

There is a widespread myth that the Prius would run on battery power alone up to 35 mph. This myth was promulgated very early on, even before I bought mine in January of 2004. That is, the myth started about the time the car first became available.

While the Prius is capable of doing this under the right conditions (extremely gentle acceleration on a warm system with a high level of battery charge) it is most definitely very inefficient. The Prius is always more efficient using the gas engine during acceleration. It is only when power demand is low (e.g. steady speed on a level or downhill) that brief periods of battery-only power are efficient.

The genius of HSD is the way it uses gas and electric together to meld the strong points of both into a single system (a hybrid) that is more efficient than gas alone. (Pure electric is more efficient yet, but the oil companies, with whom the big auto makers are interlinked, are using their political and marketing power to fight for all they're worth to block this most promising of technologies.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jun 15 2007, 10:15 AM) [snapback]462301[/snapback]</div>

The other day after my car was taken through a carwash there were only two blue bars on the bottom, and the same thing happened the other day when it was hot and I was stuck in a trafic jam. Is that a problem? Could the car conk out if that continued? After I got out of the jam it seemed to charge back up. So the question is, do I need to worry about how many bars I see on the battery picture or just forget about it?

 

You don't need to worry about it. The car will take care of itself. If there is a problem you will get the triangle with the exclamation mark (plus a lot more complaining from the car).

I wonder if the green "higher charge state" only appears after a few weeks of use? It happened with Pearl. Perhaps the battery has to be cycled a bit before it becomes fully "functional". Or perhaps this is set in the car's software, to protect the new battery and ensure it has a long (and happy) life.

 

i get a full green battery when descending down to the lower desert..... we have one hill where it gets up there.... levels out.... then get a full green on the second descent!

of course... to get back home we have to climb both and it does a number on my FE/MPG numbers!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JKashtan @ Jun 30 2007, 04:32 PM) [snapback]470726[/snapback]</div>

Can one of the PC experts chime in here please.

As I understand it, the Prius will NOT use the ICE to charge the battery if the car is in (N)eutral.

If I am drawing a lot of current from the battery (A/C? for example), and the car is in neutral, what happens when the SOC gets low enough that the ICE would normally kick on to recharge?

Does it just continue to discharge until the battery is dead?

Does it turn the car off to protect the battery?

Something else?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vdubstress @ Jun 10 2007, 08:45 PM) [snapback]459385[/snapback]</div>

<_< I just purchased my 2007 Toyota Prius (package 3) on Memorial Day and it has never registered a completely fully charged battery, as there has always been a white bar at the top of the bar chart reflecting the battery charge. I pointed it out to the dealer, and the dealer told me to be patient and it will eventually go to the top--it hasn't happened yet. Bambi, my toy chihuahua says hello! [attachmentid=9599]