I know I've seen the answer to this, but can't seem to find it using search, so here we go again... Sitting in the garage showing off my new Prius to my daughter, I had it in Park with the A/C running, watching the energy screen. We started off with about 4 green bars on the battery, but after awhile it went down to two pink bars and the ICE never came on. I didn't want to drain the HV battery, so I drove around for awhile until I had 5 or 6 green bars, then parked it for the night. Would/should the ICE eventually have come on to charge the HV battery while the car was in "Ready" and the shift in Park?
It eventually would. 1-2 bars is about the threshold at a standstill. I think ICE will start when SOC goes down to 1 bar (I thought it was 2, but based on your testimony, guess it's 1), and stop when it gets back up to 2.
In neutral, you do not have this protection and the Prius will display an unclear warning message. In Park, no problem. No need to drive all the way to the secret Prius recharging station (in Battery Park). :roll:
I got a chance to sit and wait for the ICE to fire up while waiting for my wife to do some shopping this morning. When I get 2 pink bar on the SOC meter, the A/C is still working off the battery. After a few minutes and before the SOC meter drops to one bar, the ICE finally comes on. The off to on cycle times from then on were approximately 4:1 (ICE off:ICE on) with the fan set to low and outside air temp of 82 and inside temp set to 75. Very impressive. Also impressive is the amount of energy recovered in braking operations. So far my new (65 miles) Prius is everything you guys have said and then some!!!
