Does anybody notice if there battery gets fully charged ever? We have 11,000 miles on our 2004 Prius and I don't think its ever been fully charged once. Mike
With real carefull driving technique I have managed a full battery about three time but it last but a moment. The last time I got it to full I took a picture. We have a few long hills where I build up charge and also many railroad crossing where I coast over them as they are murder on the suspension. All that momentum has been turned back into juice for my battery. Peace, Fr. Bill
i was wondering the same thing. drove all the way home from WV (over 600 miles) and it always still had 2 empty bars, except for a few minutes when it went down to 1 empty... thanks once again to friends at priuschat!
What are people find is the normal state of charge? On our '04 Prius, the battery seems to mostly between 4 and 6 bars. I've never seen it higher, only once lower. We took ownership of it at about 3400 mi on the odometer as it had been the dealership TRAC car (but got it for much less than MSRP). Currently, has just over 10,000 mi on it.
The ECU 'prefers' to keep the Traction Battery operating within a very narrow SOC (state of charge) both to preserve the life of the battery itself and to be sure to have room for additional charge but with enough reserve to meet demand. As mentioned, certain terrain (though not necessarily a mountain) seems more disposed. Technique also seems to matter quite a lot. I have some gently rolling terrain on my usual route to work where, in the initial days, I would notice the ICE shut off (as usual) at stops, but then it would cycle off-on-off-on about 4-6 times. Since this was early after release others were posting similar experiences. We figured out that that is the mechanism the ECU uses to discharge the battery when it gets 'full'. Indeed, if I switched over to the Energy screen the battery would be all green with bars to the top as I approached the stops where this happened. The ICE would cycle, as described, after stopping and the charge would drop to green but not full (i.e. 1 bar gone from the top). This occurs b/c the Prius doesn't know if you might be at the top of a long descent which might force an overcharged condition in the battery. Probably more than you wanted to know, but you'll probably see an all green/full battery at some point.
My daily commute via highway takes me over a large-ish hill. Consequently, my SOC goes from 7 or 8 bars (completely full) to 2 or 3 bars and back again at least once a day. Makes me really glad that the battery has a 100,000 mile warranty...
Seems like mine has been perpetually stuck in that SOC. As far as I can recall, I've only seen it full, and at 1 empty bar, on one occasion. Every other time I've looked it's had 2 empty bars.
Correct... I drive up and down a hill every day, to and from work, and I see all the bars green twice a day.
