I have driven my new Prius for 1,200 miles now. I have take one 500 mile highway trip and climbed some steep hills at 75mph. I also have commuted in city traffic. My battery indicator level that shows the level of my hybrid battery has never lost more than two bars, is this normal? I have seen some photos on Prius chat with an indicator level of only 2 bars.
The explanation may be the weather. At cooler temps, the engine runs more and thus the battery tends to run at a higher SOC than in the summer. If you are wondering if there is an issue with the battery controller or the graphic display, try running it in EV mode for half a mile. The EV should kick out at 2 bars with the message of 'low battery'.
It's normal for me to not have the battery level change much during normal driving. I sometimes try to drain the battery a bit before known decent. It's hard because you can't accelerate uphill with traffic on your tail. You can try to accelerate normally to appease traffic, then release the accelerator pedal to start a glide. Then push the pedal further to get just below the midline. This can let you maintain speed on a slight uphill using battery only. Now you are draining the battery maximally. I know where to do this so that my battery gets full in the next 2-3 miles because of the descents. The Prius normally tries to drain a full battery anyways down to about 6 bars without the driver having to do anything. I only have to get it down to 4-5 bars in order to get all the regen without getting full. One question I have is at what level is the battery happiest when the Prius is parked overnight.
I thought climbing a pass for 3 minutes would really deplete my battery. Hopefully all is well and is acting normal.
Not really, because on an uphill, the ICE is usually running, and the Prius will tend to use the generated electrical power instead of battery power. The battery can only provide 27 hp (sustained). This is why it can be frustrating ending your trip at the top of a hill to see that your battery charge actually went up, and the trip down will require friction brakes.
I had the car since last Nov & used to ask the exact same question. Then I started digging into it & experimenting with my driving style. I realized that if I drive the Prius like a normal gas vehicle, I'd end up charging the battery constantly which resulted in the indicator always almost full. I started playing with the "pulse & glide" technique and now I can get the car in EV mode regularly and can get the battery indicator down to 3 bars. My fuel economy has increase by almost 10%. You can also do a search on "pulse & glide" in youtube to see how it's done.
I drove in EV mode for a mile. The battery indicator went to 2 bars and then deactivated because of low battery.
Doesn't depleting the battery require the ice to run more to recharge it So keeping a charged battery is not a good thing?
