I just purchased a 07 prius on 9/15. I've been driving it around and noticed the bars on the battery display never change to green from blue. Is this Notmal? How do I get it to turn green? I once got it to turn Lime Green....... but that was only for a few minutes...... Regards :blink:
It normally lives at about half charge. You won't see full/green bars unless you spend a lot of time coasting downhill.
Welcome to Priuschat, Hoser! With a name like that, i can't help but to think, "take off, eh?" Like Narf said, it's normal for the battery charge to stay below the green. I think I have experienced a green display only a handful of times in my 3+ years of ownership. Not only that, but it might flip your mind to learn that the display you see actually only shows a charge range of roughly 40% - 60%. Just kick back and enjoy the ride.
Yes this is normal. Depending on your driving style/conditions, you may hardly ever see a green battery (if you're not regenerating a lot of energy using the brakes). The mid-range charge indicated by the color blue should really be the best for the traction battery, that's why the Prius likes to keep it that way. Oops, already answered, see above.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Sep 23 2007, 07:23 PM) [snapback]516651[/snapback]</div> Tony, you need to import some decent hills to Chicago!! :lol: Hoser, find yourself a long hill, steep enough that you can maintain speed with your foot off the accelerator. You'll be seeing green before you know it. By the way, attaining Green isn't really a goal. It means you are storing energy for future use, but if you are getting it by running the ICE when the car can do electric, you are actually decreasing your fuel efficiency. More than likely, you'll generally see between 3 and 6 blue bars. You'll get green on steep downhills and pink/purple if you happen to be at 3 blue when you stop for some time and the car uses the electric motor while the ICE warms up (this is normal) when you go on your next journey. I have also seen 2 pink/purple creeping along in construction zones on the highway. The programming seems to figure out that you are crawling along and won't be asking for any big power. Once you start speeding up, the ICE will run. I presume this happened ONLY because the ICE was already at operating temp.
The Prius tries to keep its battery about half full. Think of it this way: if it's fully charged, then there is no place to store the energy captured during regen braking, and if it's fully empty, then there is no energy left for a boost. Half is where it wants to stay. Tom
Oh, it's very easy to get a battery display all green. Just move to Winnipeg in winter, and drive around at -40 with the heat on Max and no winter front. The ICE will run constantly and your battery SOC will always be green.
Mine goes to all green bars every single day I commute to/from work - the last 1.5 miles of the ride home is down a long but fairly modest grade. It involves a couple of traffic lights and two sharp turns but I don't hit the gas for any and only tap the brakes once or twice. Someone posted once that the battery icon itself can turn green but I've never seen that. Apart from that last bit on my drive home it never seems to go out of blue.
