I was so relieved to read the other posts about the state of charge indicator and how it will never show fully green....and then mine showed fully green! Yes...all the way to the top, no white band at all. Okay, I'm always looking for something to worry about with my recently purchased used car, but should I worry about this? I was driving a 160 mile trip, mostly rural hiways, using the a/c, and the s.o.c was fully green after climbing out of a canyon (i.e. the i.c.e was running at high rpms driving up a steep grade for a good 8 miles or so at 63mph.)
If it goes back down to 6 blue bars after some normal driving then I won't worry about it. If it stays there forever then something is wrong. Good luck!
the key to this is 63mph.... the engine was torquing out... which provided regeneration to fill the battery. you also said rural... so... i gather gradual grade changes which allowed the ICE to catch up to the work load. the HSD is more like a simple electric transmission... if you let the ICE slowly catch up to the load required, the electric motors will torque out as if in the highest gear possible... allowing for decent fuel economy. since the electric motors torque out best at low rpms, they don't consume tooooooo much electricity. (as if running 1 electric clothes dryer instead of 3..) with testing you may notice that there are, what i would call, sweet spots. mph points where the car gets really good mileage. tends to be in the low "10's"... low 40... low 50's... low 60's.. and low 70's... although i never really hold low 50's... so... yeah... i have never mapped anything out.. but for a really fast driver with "shotgun starts".. i tend to still get over 40. (untill i moved to Los Angeles.. now it's high 30's low 40's because it's TOO MUCH stop and go... jackrabbit starts outweigh the distance coasting)
I'm thinking one of two things: 1) someone said "never" reach all green and they were wrong. 2) someone said "rarely" reach all green and you misinterpretted them. It's true that the state of charge will rarely reach all green. However, there are situations in which you will see all green. Think of it this way: Toyota would not take the time to make the screen display something that will never occur. Without being at the scene, my gut feeling is that there's nothing wrong.
I reach GREEN everyday. By the time I pull into work's parking lot, it's GREEN!!! Most of the trip to work is a Hypermilers dream, all downhill!!! Going home however, it's back to 4,5 bars normal, after the uphill run home!!!
If you are doing a down hill run, you can reach all green. Then, the ICE will turn on and DISCHARGE the battery. I've read about this, and had it happen 1 time. You will basically loose regenerative breaking at this point, see there is no reserve left in the battery to store more charge.
Ah, that's what happened. I coasted about 10 miles down into a canyon, braking slightly at curves, and then drove uphill about 8 miles at 63mph...sounds like it's normal (but it hadn't happened before) and yes, about 10 minutes later, I was down to 5 blue, back up to almost full green, etc.
I sometimes get all 8 green SOC bars, but every time it's happened for me has been on a fairly large decent. I've never heard of anyone getting full SOC from driving up-hill, that really is weird. I know that electrical power is generated in the transmission as it "torques out" but I thought that this power was just routed directly to motor MG2 when battery charge was not required. I don't think the prius should charge the battery past the nominal 6 blue bars when driving up hill.
Arh yeah, a 10 mile decent will certainly do it for you. So it seems you were mistaken about when the 8 green SOC occurred when you previously said it received charge going up hill.
The other situation where you will see green is in the winter, when the ICE has to run a lot to make heat. The excess power is used to charge the battery. Because of this extra charging, it is not unusual for it to go into the green range. Tom
I noticed the fully green on the way back out...I usually don't have the screen on that mode, and I wasn't sure whether it was the descent or ascent that made the fully green. You are right though; it went fully green again after descending about a 5 mile hill yesterday.
Also, sometimes the SOC indicator lags just a bit (5 to 10 seconds) behind the actual charge. I know that sometimes I'm descending a medium sized hill thinking "hey this regen is sure to bring up the green SOC". So (just for fun) I'm watching the SOC display waiting for it but then I get to the bottom of the hill and it hasn't happened. I think oh well mustn't have been enough regen and then all of a sudden the 7th bar pops up and it goes green (often a 5 to 10 seconds after the actual regen has finished).
