As I'm driving along, the normal battery strength on the MFD shows 5/6 blue bars but occasionally, it will change to the last but one green bar and sometimes all the bars go green. Everything else is fine, no warning lights etc. Is this a normal? I am sure I read somewhere here that to get all bars green was somehow not the norm..........
1) Green bars was easier in winter than summer in my Gen 2 (engine runs more) 2) Green bars are normal when you are getting lots of regen (down hill or from high speed)
As Jimbo says, in the winter time if you have the heating on, the engine is going to run and charge up the battery. If you have HVAC off and are not doing long downhill regen sessions, it should stay in the blue range.
All green bars (except the top one) all the time usually means you have not mastered the gas pedal yet. You are consistently going into regen. Driving it like a regular car...gas pedal on....gas pedal off... Avoiding constant regen is the first step to getting excellent mileage in a Prius.
"Last but one" is not a full set of green bars. "Last but one" can be as little as 5% more charge than the nominal 6 bars and is certainly nothing abnormal.
