I saw the words traction in several posts but don't know what that is. Same as the 12V? I couldn't find those words in my owners manual. Thanks for any enlightenment.
When people refer to the traction battery they are talking about the hybrid battery or drive battery. The 12v battery is usually refereed to as 12v or Auxiliary battery.
Railway electric traction, the use of electric motors to propel rail cars [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction[/ame] As F8L said, the traction battery stores energy to be used primarily to propel the vehicle. Think about a steam traction engine which later, when the internal combustion engine was substituted for the steam engine became a tractor.
Left photo shows the edge of the traction battery behind & below the rear seats. Right photo shows the 12v battery tucked in the right rear corner.
Toyota actually uses "HV battery" for the traction or high voltage battery and "Auxillary battery" for the 12V battery in the tech literature.
