2020 Prime with 7000km. In ECO HV mode, never shows charge past 1 bar, occasionally 2 for a few minutes. Is this normal? Had Prius Gen1 and Gen2 before, and charge display always fluctuated up to full charge. Also in 30 celcius temp after 4hr highway drive, got message when shut off that said "Traction Battery Cooler". Is this normal? Never got this message in Gen1 or Gen2 with high mieage
I don’t understand your first question but for your second one about the traction battery cooler, it’s simply asking if the car can use the A/C to maintain temperature (cooling) while the car is charging. It just takes a bit longer to charge if the A/C is running. If you’re not plugging your Prime in and charging immediately or soon (like within the hour and the car is parked outside in the sun), you can ignore that message.
The Prime battery is huge compared to the hybrid. Assuming all the charge from the outlet has been used, driving in HV isn't normally going to charge the battery up past the amount needed for hybrid operation. It takes descending a mountain to fully charge the Prime pack. Toyota has also gotten the car more efficient with each generation. If there is a separate charge display for hybrid mode, it may not be reaching full because the car is making more use of the electricity getting stored in the battery than the previous generations.
What bars? Aside from the bars, when the Prime is in HV mode, it acts like a regular Prius maintaining roughly the battery SOC it had when it went into HV mode either by the driver selecting it or by the battery running out of EV range. It's all one display no matter whether it's in EV or HV.
Display was perhaps the wrong term. I've heard of the SOC display changing scale when entering hybrid mode after depleting the grid charge. Couldn't remember if the Prime did so, or if it was the PiP or another PHEV when posting, but addressed it just in case. Dumping energy from the engine into the battery has an efficiency cost. Improvements to the system should mean the car will do less of that than previous gens on the same drive. But my first explanation is the more likely reason.
That was the PiP. We wanted familiarity so we suggested toyota changed the battery display back to a regular Prius one with the bars. I’m guessing they ditched it for the Prime because it could be confusing to the non car person as to why the battery suddenly became “full” after EV mode was depleted.
lou? if it really is one to two bars after the battery is in the hv icon designation, and you're not in stop and go traffic, you need to bring it to a dealer.
