Battery never shows full charge??

[HTMLSpinnr]

Two things to remember:

1. "Empty" isn't really empty, but about 35-45% state of charge (SOC). Full is about 85% SOC. This allows the batteries to last 150,000+ miles under "normal" use.
2. The hybrid ECU strives to keep the battery at 75% of it's normal SOC window. This allows plenty of energy for boost and enough headroom for regeneration.

I've seen full coming down long steep grades in the Gen II. I've yet to see full in hte Gen III. I've been down to 1 "bar" in the Gen II climbing a hill at fairly high speeds. I've yet to push the Gen III up a long steep hill at higher speeds, so I've never seen lower than 2 bars (which can easily happen if you spend a fair amount of time searching for parking w/ the A/C on high and the engine off).

[Vincent]

6 weeks and I've never been above 7 bars.

[jaywolf]

Our old Prius that we put 125,000 miles on, only showed full battery 2 times.
Once after we had descended Pikes Peak and once after we had descended Sandia Crest in NM.
Until then we didn't even know the post on the little Icon lit up too.

After we got down Sandia Crest and on the the interstate it was almost 100 miles before our average dropped below 99 mpg.
Here is a photo I took after we stopped for the night/

We haven't had our 2010 long enough to go any where to see what it take to fully charge it.