Traffic Jam, Battery Goes South

[PaneInTheGlass]

Hi folks, I'm brand new to this forum as is my new Prius, only three days and 300 miles old. I love this new vehicle and the fact that I'm already averaging 45 mpg out of the box.

Quick question: I was in a huge traffic jam on the way home from work this afternoon, it's 85 degrees, and traffic is inching along for more than five miles.

I begin monitoring the battery out of curiosity to see what will happen as I creep along for 45 minutes. The radio is on, the a/c is on (fan cut back to a notch above low speed). The battery level begins to drop from around 75% and continues to drop further around every 10 minures. Seeing this, I cut off all ancillary power, meaning, the radio gets turned off, the a/c is turned off, and the windows opened. Good thing there was no humidity.

Finally, traffic gets moving, but my battery has dropped to 25% (2 notches from the bottom). Is this a normal state for the Prius in traffic jams that are barely moving, or would I have been dead in the water within another 45 minutes?

Your responses are much appreciated. Other than this question, the vehicle has been perfect in all respects, I have package #5.

Thanks, Harv

[V8Cobrakid]

if your battery gets low. let's say.. where you were. the engine will kick on to re charge it. at this point you ask yourself the question. save fuel or run the a/c.

I prefer to listen to a good song but at times i would rather just hear the road and other cars.

[iaowings]

In a way yes it is normal don’t worry about it. I think the lowest the computer will let it get is one bar. I know from experience sitting in heavy traffic 100F+ so the ac was on that the battery stays on the low side. Red bars and the ice will kick in to bring you up to one blue. Once you start driving under normal conditions the ice will charge the battery back to the all blue bars were it likes to hang out.

You do not need to do anything different with the prius; just drive it. I ignore the battery when I am in a tbad traffic-jam as it is pointless just let the computer take care of it and try to relax.

[aaf709]

The computer in the Prius is very protective of the battery. The ICE will kick on when needed. BTW, what you see on the MFD isn't the entire SOC, just between 40 to 80%, IIRC.

[Ichabod]

That's accurate, aaf709, the bars on the Energy Monitor display are:

0 bars = 40% charge
all green bars = 80% charge.

It's also accurate to say that there's nothing wrong with the charge state going up and down. It will drop down if you're creeping along for a while. This is a good thing because you're not using a lot of gas to creep along. I actually really get a kick out of rolling along in stop-and-go traffic with my engine off. You'll learn to love it too!

You can safely ignore the bars... that is until you've read a lot more of PriusChat and decide to try your hand at hypermiling

[Bill Merchant]

You may get better performance out of the Air Conditioner if you set a comfortable temp and leave it in auto. The compressor is electric and will run less if it isn't needed, and in Auto mode, the car monitors both interior temperature and humidity to keep you comfortable. When you're jammed in traffic, be comfortable and relaxed listening to your cool tunes, instead of getting hot and bothered like the other drivers. Your Prius always gives you the best economy it can in the situation.

Instead of looking at the low bars on the Energy screen, look at the high bars on the Consumption screen.

[darelldd]

Be happy -

Your car is working as designed. If it were not using the battery while you sat there, it would be using gasoline inefficiently - like the rest of the cars around you.

Be happy.

[PaneInTheGlass]

Thank you all for the terrific and informative answers!

The battery did recover rapidly once we got rolling again, I was getting nervous because the engine was not kicking on as I had expected by that point, then again, I had not gotten down to one bar, only two, and was still in the blue range.

Great news, thanks!

Harv

[john1701a]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PaneInTheGlass @ Apr 24 2007, 06:14 AM) [snapback]428914[/snapback]</div>

I was getting nervous[/b]

We need to coin a term for this, like "panic syndrome".

Pretty much every new owner that hadn't already encountered a panic discussion-thread before delivery will end up sharing a panic story of their own virtually identical to the experiences of other unaware newbies.

It's the same thing everytime. They begin to feel nervous when stuck in a traffic-jam, based solely on what they assume is happening to the battery-pack. That empowering Energy-Monitor leads them to the wrong conclusion, shutting everything but the car itself off and having to sweat out the remainder of the wait... only to find out later that all was running perfectly and no response was needed.

[jiepsie]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PaneInTheGlass @ Apr 24 2007, 03:05 AM) [snapback]428730[/snapback]</div>

...Finally, traffic gets moving, but my battery has dropped to 25% (2 notches from the bottom). Is this a normal state for the Prius in traffic jams that are barely moving, or would I have been dead in the water within another 45 minutes?
[/b]

You were VERY lucky to get out of that traffic jam in time. Any longer, and your Prius might have gone into the feared "destination unreachable" mode. That's when it determines you will never reach your destination before the battery dies or global warming causes the end of the world, whichever comes first. It then shuts down everything except the air conditioning and the MFD. The MFD will show unsolvable sudoku puzzles to distract you from what's happening. There is no known way to get out of this mode.