Battery Icon went from Blue to Green

[Prius The First]

I tried a search unsucessfully.

Please enlighten me.........................

Coming home tonight the Battery Icon in the "Energy Monitor" screen changed from BLUE to GREEN - for a short time, then it went back to BLUE.

The ever helpful Owners Manual really did not shed light on this occurance.

What does it mean?

Peace Out.

[efusco]

Just reflects the state of charge...when you get into the top 2 bars all the bars turn green, when you get to the last two bars they turn pink....blue in between.

[jayman]

What it means in Winnipeg is that the ambient air temp went below -26 C ...

[Prius The First]

Is there a benefit to try to stay GREEN?

[derkraut]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 04:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div>

Is there a benefit to try to stay GREEN?
[/b]

You dom't really have any control over whether it's green, blue, or pink. The computer takes care of all that. Anyway, don't worry about it. It's perfectly normal.

[jayman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 07:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div>

Is there a benefit to try to stay GREEN?
[/b]

It's just a narrowly-regulated state of charge. There is little you can do about it, so don't even worry.

[Rangerdavid]

It's going to blow up!!

jk; as Dr. Fusco stated, its just a higher state of charge in your battery. I don't know if there's any "benefit", except I like to try to keep my charge as high as possibe . In my mind, at least, I feel that I'm using less gas & more ev mode if the charge is higher. Probably not true, but just a feeling.

Glad to know you're paying attention. Don't forget to look at the road from time to time! Enjoy you're Prius!!

[aaf709]

It happens more when you've gone down a long hill, but it won't stay long. Evidently the Prius prefers being in the blue area.

[daniel]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Dec 12 2006, 04:16 PM) [snapback]361239[/snapback]</div>

Is there a benefit to try to stay GREEN?
[/b]

No. There is no benefit in trying to keep it green. The computer tries to keep the state of charge around the middle. It wants (and you do too) to have enough charge in the battery to provide energy for acceleration when you step on the pedal, and still to have enough head room in the battery to absorb energy when you step on the brakes. So the ideal is probably from 4 to 6 bars. But the computer will see to all that, using electricity when the battery is high, and recharging when it is low. (Except that, as Jayman suggests, in very cold weather, when the engine must run to provide heat, the charge will generally stay pretty high.)

The only time there's any benefit to trying to fool the battery into getting a high charge, is when you're about to hit a long uphill. Then it's nice to have more charge available. And similarly, when approaching a long downhill, it's nice to have a low state of charge, so it can absorb more regenerative energy. That's why a bigger battery would translate to better efficiency. But in 2004 the present battery was judged to be the best match of cost vs benefit. The rumor is that the 2009 model year will have more battery capacity.

Basically, just drive it. It will do everything it needs to do.

[Prius The First]

Thanks everyone for your answers.

I am now enlightened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later.