Parked with Accelerator

I had noticed somewhere on this 2010 forum, a mention that when you are in 'park' with the Prius, but in "Ready' mode, if you press the accelerator, the ICE will come on. This can be useful for having someone diagnose an issue on the ICE, but I am curious to know if it will also charge the engine during that period.

I think it does not, because of the following: When I am parked somewhere for a while, in Ready mode, I notice that when the battery drops to two 'pips', the ICE will come on for about 2-3 minutes, during which time the battery will gain one to two 'pips, making for 3 to 4 before the ICE shuts off. However, if I wait till the two 'pips' on the battery indicator are there, and then I press the accelerator pedal, which in turn, activates the ICE, even after 3-5 minutes of it running, the battery level still has only two 'pips', and the ICE starts up soon afterwards to recharge everything.

Does anyone know for certain (maybe who has read the technical documents) whether this will cause the ICE to recharge the battery, or is it designed to bypass this in these cases?

While the second question seems pretty different, I think the question is very similar. Other time, when driving, I sometimes place my car into "N" , allowing for a longhill downhill coast, without requiring my feathering the pedals to keep it in the 'stealth' mode. The second question is when in 'Neutral', if I apply the brakes slightly, I see that the 'Hybrid System Indicator' does not reflect any energy being sent to the battery, but I have to assume, since some braking is still taking place, and is likely not the friction brakes, does this generated energy still go to the battery, and is just not displayed on the screen, or is 'wasted', and not captured at all?

 

David,

Thanks for the response. The reason for my asking is that while I saw that as well, I also noticed that when using the brakes in that sort of situation, it is all regen braking. Additionally, this weekend while going down a 2 mile grade, I saw that although I placed in neutral at the top of the hill, with only 4 bars in the battery meter, at the end of the grade, as I went back into the 'D' mode, the battery meter was now showing 6 bars, although a second after the ICE jumped back to life, I only had 5 bars again.

So while I agree that the manual does indicate that the 'no electirical energy is captured', it would seem as though some may be getting captured, even if only inadvertently.

 

Thanks. I did not doubt David, his answers are often very concise and accurate. It was simply re-iterated to ensure that this information source (the manual) was not wrong (as it was with 88 Octane Gas, or the Valet Key, etc.).

Since my observation in real-world was different, I thought I would ask. It does make sense that the SOC indicator would be off. I know that I have seen similar issues with other SOC indicators in everything from my iPhone, to my Laptop, so I suppose it would be possible on the Prius too.