Battery level short one bar on 2014 Prius c

welcome to priuschat. that's normal, it takes a lot to fill all the way. do you have any long elevation drops to fill the battery?

 

Living in a flat area, you could go for years without ever seeing "full". Here in Minnesota, it wasn't until a trip up north by Lake Superior that I finally saw all the bars.

 

Evidently to extend battery life, Toyota applies "The Middle Way" as far as battery charge goes. My understanding is the battery gauge is not an absolute. In other words, if you ever see it full...the battery is not truly totally full..and if you see it empty it is not truly totally empty. The system works to remain a percentage range.

I can see mine reading as totally full, but this is usually only after a longer downhill stretch. For 99% of driving it's 2/3rds to 3/4ths and varying up and down from those baselines.

You could try a downhill stretch to see if you can get the meter to read full. But for the majority of driving the fact that it isn't reading totally full is perfectly normal.

 

And since nobody else mentioned it:
You won't see it go completely empty (no bars) either.....except in unusual circumstances.

 

And note that it will actually have to be using a lot of regeneration while descending the hill. I sometimes fill on a nearby low speed descent of 400 feet, but not always. At higher speeds and other conditions, it might need a 1000 foot descent to fill the gauge.

 

And that reluctance to completely fill is likely not 'cause it's hard to top up, more because the car start's reducing charging as the battery get's to optimum "full", starts doing engine breaking, switching over to friction brakes.

Anytime we come down a local ski hill ours'll go to full bars in short order, too quickly actually. You want to try B on the transaxle shifter in those conditions.

 

I haven't even seen it go down to one bar... I'm not even sure how to do that but it would scare me

 

But at least on a Gen 3 Standard Prius, You can see it full. Not very often, but if you go downhill for a significant while- the gauge will show filled.

Yeah, I've never seen mine "totally" empty.