Trouble sign?

By the term "batteries is always at the half-way point" do you mean the icon on the display, and are you referencing the traction battery or are you talking about the 12v aux battery? The traction battery graphic only depicts a small range of the total charge. I don't recall whether that was the top 10% of the acceptable voltage levels.

A low level may indicate that there is either 1) a parasitic drain or 2) a damaged battery cell.

 

The display on the dashboard shows what looks like a battery. There are several bars in the graphic that are meant to represent the amount of charge the battery has at any particular time.

Now imagine that Toyota (and many others) have discovered that the best way to use a hybrid battery is to pump surplus electricity into the battery. You never "fill up" the battery because you will need to have room in the battery to store the electricity that is generated when you hit the brakes to slow down. I think of that as "buffer space".

With me so far? Good.

When you are driving down the freeway the car is propelled by the gas engine at the most efficient RPM that the car can manage. Any extra electricity is sent to the battery until the battery is near full. Then it stops the gas engine and the car is propelled by the electric motor long enough to give you a buffer space again. This on/off process is what lets you cruise down the freeway at 50 MPG. It also means that the amount of energy in the battery is always hovering between 80 and 90 percent of full charge. But that makes people nervous, so they display that as if it's the 50% to 100% charge.

And that's what you are seeing. The battery graphic on the dash to make you feel better.

 

Yeah I kind of get what you're saying about all that I've got a car that fires off that battery display very quickly a generation two that I just bought and I've just been messing with it driving it thousands of miles so far I also had a really crappy battery in it initially and then I found a brand new battery in the junkyard. Got it for free put it in this car that I'm driving things on the meter and all that change drastically differently whatever same thing happened in my '09 work vehicle when a new battery went in and when other changes are made and if you spend a lot of time looking at that what is that the energy monitor I guess which I do I wish there was a way it could flip back between energy and consumption every 8 seconds or something like that would be perfect anyway yeah. I do get the things you're talking about

 

On our Classics, the HV battery charge is maintained between 60-80%. The ICE will start up at 42 mph, no matter what the driving conditions. Below 42 mph, the ICE will be running or not depending on conditions (e.g., off when coasting or level, on when accelerating or climbing). That’s the way the hybrid drive system is designed to operate, always with maximum efficiency in mind. Of course, the ICE also operates when charging the HV battery, no matter what the car’s speed. Those of us who are original owners of the 2001-2-3 version are very familiar with this behavior, and are scarcely aware of anymore because it is so predictable and dependable. Love this car!

 

A half full charge reading on the battery charge meter in your dash screen, even after sitting overnight, is normal. Now if you park the car with a 80%+ charge, then it is at 1 or 2 bars in the morning, is a sign that you have one or more weak modules in the hybrid battery, or that you have a voltage leak or draw on the hybrid battery. But a 40% to 50% charge status in the morning after sitting overnight is nothing to fret about, because it is normal.

And I have never seen an MPG meter being instantaneous in its readings, a delayed response is also perfectly normal.