I've noticed often the hybrid battery level is lower when starting than when I shut the car off. My thinking is: maybe it was used for cooling either the battery itself or the engine. Is that correct and normal?
It happens to people from time to time, don't worry about it. I'm sure you are doing it, just make sure you are in fact turning off the car properly (simply pressing the power button once stopped to turn the car OFF) and not leaving it in ready mode causing the engine to cycle on and off as battery level drops.
Mine is low everytime I get home for the day because that last mile or two I try to keep it in EV mode which will draw heavily on the hybrid battery. I wouldn't worry about it unless you were going to park the car for a few days. As far as being lower the next day than when you parked it, how much lower?
Also, full is not ful and empty is not empty. The battery never fully charges nor fully discharges so the battery level indicator really shouldn't be watched and worried about, the computer will manage battery levels as appropriate.
This is quite common due to the infrequent updating of the battery charge indicator. If the last leg of your journey home is on battery the charge will drop, but the display doesn't update quickly so you only see the final level when you turn the car back on.
For example I had indicator showing full minus one bar when I shut off the engine, and 3 bars when I came back next day to restart. Also one time when the car was shut off I started hearing some motor sound coming from the back of the vehicle. Is that the battery fan coming on to cool the battery?
My battery indicator while driving is always 2 bars below full - and if you watch the energy display on the mfd... it will sometimes stop charging - draw a bit - then charge a bit - then draw a bit ... sort of a float charge if you will.... i have only gotten it to 1 bar below full a couple times - on long regenerative coasts... in the morning - after the car has sat for 10-12 hours - the battery will indicate 3-4 bars below... full. another thing i notice - is the engine starts almost instantly upon morning first start. I'm assuming for warm up for it's normal cycling ... also - i cannot get the car to stay in EV mode for more than a block. I have tried feathering the throttle... etc. but i usually get the double beep and the ICE kicks in. also - the other night - i was in the drive thru picking up dinner - in normal mode -- but EV ... engine was off... i hit EV mode - and got the double beep - it would not let me put it in EV mode -- while sitting still. sometimes even driving or coasting up to a light with ICE off - below 30 mph - I cannot enter EV mode. weird? i dunno - assuming it's all in the programming - but not sure why it wont when battery is charged.
Ok. The car has a sound system so it could say, "my precious driver, sorry I had to turn off EV because ... "
No, I'm saying you shouldn't be reading a detailed explanation of why the car decided to turn off the EV while you're supposed to be watching for traffic. You may as well be texting if you're reading that much.
A simple message like "speed too high for EV" should not be any more distracting than other indicators in the touch display.
Liftback does have this and a few other messages for rejecting EV. But I'm not familiar with the 'v' displays.
