All Bars On Battery Indicator

I was driving today and for the first time all bars on the battery indicator were showing. The very top bar is slightly red, does anyone know why.

I think it's just colored differently.
I haven't seen mine at 100% yet, but from what I've been reading,
that usually only happens in situations like going down a long and steep decline, where the regenerative braking will be running for a while and it will build up to a full charge.

Maybe it's red because it's not good to have it in that state for a long time...which I doubt anyone can really maintain.

Mine goes full everyday as I drive down a long grade to get home from work, but have never noticed the top bar having a red tint to it. I will pay closer attention next time. Either way, I can't really imagine why there would be any meaning to it.

After owning the car for over 2 months, my husband scared the crap out of me yesterday when he saw 8 bars for the first time. He said loudly, "Look at that!"

It only lasted for a few seconds and went back to 7 bars.

Hope you weren't in the car at the time given your aversion to food and drinks in the car.

Yes!! I'm glad to hear someone else experienced that! i saw that after a long steep grade where I was largely in B 'gear' but still using the brake. It didn't last long. I didn't mind seeing the brake 'filled up' - it was the red color that bugged me. (Red = bad)

The bars only indicate the middle of the charge range for the batteries. The computer keeps the charge in the midrange - too much charge or too little charge shortens the life. In fact, when the indicator shows full bars the computer is forced to dump some of the regenerative energy into spinning over the ICE (gas engine) rather than adding even more electricity to the batteries.

The computer is designed to prevent the system from hurting itself. However, bear in mind that full charge is not the "ideal" situation - something in the mid-range is more desirable (but don't let it bother you if it gets "full" - it won't hurt itself).

The top bar is red and the bottom two bars are purple as indicators of "ICE burn off/recharge zones."

The Prius is designed to operate most efficiently at 3 bars and above and one less bar than full (although SOC around 60-80% is most efficient). When in the ICE burn/recharge zones the car initiates and ICE operation to either recharge the battery or burn off some of the battery charge. When doing this it is protecting the battery from being over/under charge.

Typically in these circumstance the ICE is on and you will notice EV mode is not possible/or next to impossible to hold onto (especially at a low charge state). In an ICE recharge state you will also notice that it takes considerably more throttle pressure to gain horsepower as the car diverts some of the throttle/ICE power to recharge the battery.

Aren't you cute 32kcolors. I deserve every word and no, still no food or drinks in the car.

When do the bottom 2 bars turn purple? I've been a 2 bars many times and have always thought they looked just like the rest.

My battery is at full charge fairly often, since I live in a very hilly area, and the top bar is the same color as the rest, not red (I double checked it today after reading this post).

I think it's a slightly different shade, not exactly the same color.

I'm thinking that there's a difference between full charge and when the ICE starts to burn off the charge as Matt described it. At that point it goes red. Would that make sense?

(It's really a pink color - not bright red)

Not on my car. As I said, I double checked it today after reading this post, since I never noticed a different color.

Why don't you take of pic of yours so we can see what you're referring to?

I just wanted to say there are some 09 owners in here confusing all the 2010 owners with there "fancy colors" lol

I'll try to the next time it gets to 8 bars once in a blue moon. Hopefully the iPhone camera can make out the difference in shade.

I think Maggie is correct that it's more of a pink color.

These are a vacuum flouro display, and I'm pretty sure that the colour that the bar was intended to display (i.e. blue) can't change to a different colour when it gets too high or too low. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The display is multi-color. The Eco bubble is green, the PWR lettering is red, the normal bars are green/white, etc.

I still maintain that the 8th bar is salmon-colored.

Yeah I realise that, but what I'm trying to say is, for example the Eco bubble, it can't change from green to a different colour. It's a limitation with VFD.

It has only happened under 'extreme' conditions. When I've traveled over 3 miles on a steep downgrade. And on a winding two lane road, I won't be reaching for a camera to take a photo of the display. But, honest engine, I've seen the top bar be the normal white/green color and twice - in steep downgrade conditions, that top bar has shown up as pink.