I've had my '04 Prius for 4 months and over 4,000 miles. On the Energy Monitor screen, the battery has never been shown as fully charged. The best I can get is all green bars except for the one at top, which is missing. My questions are: Is it possible to get the display to show all green bars? If so, under what conditions should I see it? Would the fact that it has yet to appear suggest any malfunction/defect? Thanking you in advance.
Yes, you can get all green bars but to do so you generally need to be going down a long hill with lots of regen. Put it in 'B' mode coming down a mountain and you will see :mrgreen: I don't know where you live - you might consider putting that in your profile. If it is flat, flat, flat, you probably won't see all green. You don't need to worry about it, 'normal' is neither all green nor all gone!
Don't worry. I never reached all eight bars until something like 7,000 miles. The only road I have ever been able to do it on is Tramway road in Albuquerque which has about a 1,500 elevation drop over 5 miles. Coming down from 60 mph with my foot barely on the brake got the icon to 8 bars Also, keep in mind, the battery icon is just a small slice of the actual battery charge. Say for example the battery has 100 units; the icon we see is showing units 52-58. Even when our icon is full, that isn't the full picture. Panasonic, the battery manufacturer does this so the batteries last longer. Nickle metal hydride batteries tend to develop a "memory" if you drain them too low or fill them up too much. Put simply, your car is fine! Enjoy the many fun miles to come in your Prius!
I went down some big hills in the Rockies coming home with my new Prius. I was close to tracing Louis and Clark. Well close I-90 Helena to Olympia. I got 7 green never 8. I have gotten to green once or twice around town. I think that 8 green around town is like getting to the 3 cords. OMMMM.
