This may not be news to all but it took me months to hit all bars on my battery, only after a very very huge hill in this area. However, yesterday I did again something I did a week ago. Basically, if I accelerate quite quickly so that the car has to dig deep into the ICE, there's only so much that the battery can actually drain in this. Then I brake gradually topping out the charge rate (but not getting to friction brakes), and the end result is a net gain in battery power. I was in quite a hurry yesterday and doing sprints up to 65 then the gradual slow downs for stop signs and I hit all bars. Did it again later in the day, so it's not that hard now Kind of mindless but there you have it.
Does 'forced charge' still work? . . . Holding car stationary with brake and flooring accelerator. Note, charging NiMH batteries is exothermic, they get warmer. Personally, I treat 'heat is the enemy' so I don't do it if I can help it. Bob Wilson
Yes I believe that slightly touching and holding the foot brake on a glide helps charge the battery faster and fuller.The purist on this forum will tell you that you don't want a charged battery, It seems there are serious energy conversion losses Then, why did Toyota so seriously screw up and put that HV Bat pack in??? How much more energy could be saved without that dratted battery pack!! Anyway keep charging up your battery pack W/O unnecessary force charging, he's putting you on.:cheer2:
When I hit 7 bars, the off the line acceleration is pretty peppy compared to 6 bars. I can accelerate on EV off the line without irritating the guy behind me. Of course it's only good for up to about 20mph after that I can feel the rate of acceleration decreasing if I want to stay in EV. Usually at that point, I step on the pedal harder to get the ICE fired up. 8 bars will likely keep up with the traffic up to 30mph without ICE. I can understand the PHEV's ability to use EV for the first 14 miles without firing up the ICE. They use 350+/-v instead of 240+/-v
I did last night with engine off and 1-2 bars shy of top put left foot on brake while stopped and right foot on throttle. I was in EV mode at the time. The only thing that happened was EV mode went off from accessive acceleration. Remember, I was not moving! So I was not accelerating; but apparently EV mode tracks not actual acceleration but rather the depression of the pedal. In any case, the ICE did not kick in and manual charging pursuant to above was not possible. That would be reasonable, so almost 50% more power. I find that EV mode has acceptable acceleration until it cuts off at 26 mph so another 50% horsepower/watts would be quite easy to live with.
So you are accelerating very fast then holding the brakes till the car stops then repeating ? Seems like a waste of gas.
I was looking at real estate one day and coasted down a very long hill slightly using my brakes and apparently charged the battery up to a full 8 bars (80 percent?). At the bottom of the hill I must have Ev'd and coasted for another 2 miles on a level road. Taking the battery back down to nearly half. Fun! Its been a year and I'm still learning about this car.
