Just brought a new 2011 Prius. Love the gas mileage and trying to adjust to accelerating for good mileage. I am averaging 48 mpg currently after 2500 miles. This has probably been asked but could not readily find it. Does the batter y indicator ever register 100%? It came to me 2 bars from the top and it is still 2 bars average. The highest it has ever went is 1 bar from 100%. Perhaps it does not matter? Frank
Welcome to PC :welcome: As far as getting the SOC indicator to read 100%, you would need to be going down a long hill. During that kind of coasting, it will look topped off. My understanding is that the HC battery is never quite charged at 100% and there is a bleed-off process.
You probably will only see 100% when going down a long, fairly steep hill. Even with all bars lit, it still is not 100% full. The car will take care of itself, no worries.
Thanks for the help. I will not worry. Just an engineering type who can get consumed over details that do not matter .
Welcome to the club. It's called PriusChat, and we meet here every day. Basically, the battery serves as a bit of a buffer; when you have excess energy (braking, going down a hill, warming up the engine, etc.) it stores some. When you need more energy (avoiding using the engine in a parking lot or traffic jam, occasionally while accelerating, etc.) it uses some. By default, it'll hang right at 6 bars, or 60% SoC. The "full" battery icon is really only 80% SoC, while the "empty" battery icon is only 40% (IIRC). And yes, that means those bars are not all equally-sized. In general, it's a bad thing to either use the battery or charge it. You want to use only the engine, only as much as you need and no more. But that's not always possible, so the battery helps in those less-ideal conditions. And this is the point where somebody else jumps in and says "Oh for chrissake... It's a car. Just get in and drive it." And that's fine too.
