Unsure if Battery is Working

Normal... i've only seen all green once... the car seems to aim for 7 bars... blue. I think the car does this so the battery lasts a long time and so you always have some room to store some energy when you hit the brakes.

 

Oh... and welcome

 

Very normal.

You really don't have to worry about the battery state-of-charge. You'll probably find that the battery SOC will be higher in seasons when ambient temp is not so high and you are using the air conditioning less.

Nevertheless in the summer it is important to maintain a reasonable cabin temp, for your comfort as well as for the traction battery's comfort (which obtains air inflow via the duct located near the right side rear passenger seatback.)

 

No. True gliding AVOIDS any regen into the batteries as much as possible. Regen is good when you are recovering energy that would have been wasted anyway (e.g. heavy traffic you couldn't otherwise avoid, or sudden red light, etc.), but coasting (foot off the pedal and regenning) or light braking JUST to add charge to the battery is not fuel efficient.

Unless you're driving a PHEV, the only way to get electricity into the battery is to use gasoline to run the ICE. This involves multiple conversion losses that bring down FE. Gas>ICE>electric motor>electricity>chemical battery>electricity>electric motor>wheels is always less efficient than gas>ICE>wheels.

A hybrid is more efficient than a pure gas/diesel vehicle because it can recover energy that would have been wasted otherwise.

Check out the fuel economy threads and forums.

 

Turn on the "Energy" display. When "gliding" there are no arrows into or out of the electric motor shown on the display.

 

I've had all the bars green after a longish down hill run. Then the ICE turns on to DISCHARGE the battery, don't want to overcharge it.

 

Thank goodness... I was wondering the same thing with an 04 Prius I just bought!

 

nevertheless, unless you're in stop and go/idling traffic all the time, you should see 4-5-6 blue bars on average.

 

Yep, but did anyone else notice that although the OP said his SOC indicator had "mostly stayed purple" the picture he posted shows a perfectly healthy 6 blue bar SOC?

He also says that "One time it turned all green" but never mentions "blue" (or the actual number of bars) at any time. Is anyone else uncertain as to whether or not the OP is simply confusing purple and blue (as in, seeing blue but calling it purple)?

 

This is a very common misconception for newbies.

First, the battery display shows from about 30% charge (all bars gone) to about 80% charge (all bars green).
The system doesn't want to -fully- charge or -fully- discharge the battery so the charge level is controlled very carefully.

Second, if your engine starts whenever called for, your battery is fine. The "traction battery" is the only thing that starts the engine.

Third, as mentioned above, the system tries to keep the charge level at three to four bars from the top. This is to ensure there is "head room" in case regen. energy is available for storage, yet still have enough energy to help with acceleration.

Fourth, you -may- see all green from time to time, but it's rare unless you are descending a very long hill. If you are using A/C cooling a lot, you -may- see purple bars (two or one) from time to time.

Finally, as they say "DON'T PANIC!". There is nothing you can do better than the system re controlling battery charge. The HSD WILL protect the battery. If the battery IS in trouble, you WILL get lights on the dash telling you it needs service!

The only thing -YOU- have to do is not run out of gasoline. If you do and keep driving, -then- you could force a marginal battery toward death. Don't worry if this has happened in the past. If it did the battery would probably have been replaced.