Is My 2025 Solar Charger Malfunctioning?

Discussion in 'Prime Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by iRun26.2, Jul 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM.

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  1. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I’ve had my 2025 Prius PHEV for about 1 1/2 months and have been quite pleased. I went with the Solar Roof option and have been satisfied with the results that I’ve been seeing in the added miles/day due to solar charging (infomation screen).

    On a nice sunny day I can get the car to tell me that it received 3-miles of range from the solar charge. However, the change in % charged does not align at all with that number. I think the most I’ve seen is 2% increase in the percentage charged. Two miles (assuming a 100% charged battery would go 40 miles) should be 1/20 of full charge or 5% increase. I’ve never seen that and I have had a 3 mile solar charge gain day once. Note all numbers are for a parked car in the sun.

    What about the rest of you? Does anyone see charge percentage increases that match the number of miles it tells you? Is there something wrong with mine or could there something else be going on?

    (Thanks in advance for anyone who can provide some of their own numbers. )
     
    #1 iRun26.2, Jul 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
  2. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    This sounds like questions you should be asking the dealership or Toyota help line.

    I'm averaging around 4.0 Kwh/mile in a gen4, don't know what your larger, heavier gen5 is doing. Toyota is always optimistic on it's display; but when you manually average everything out, you can see the actual vs Toyota's reporting. You'll need to do some math, rather than rely on instrument cluster projections to get the true story.
     
    #2 BiomedO1, Jul 25, 2025 at 4:36 PM
  3. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I typically get 4.5 miles/kW-hr (on the days that I drive to work and back). On the weekends I tend to do better (I’m disappointed if I’m under 5.0 miles/kW-hr). Thus, for a full (10kW-hr) charge I should get at least 45 miles.

    That means that each percent should represent 0.45 miles. When I only get 2% increment for something that tells me I got ‘2-miles of charge’ it is telling me I only got 0.45 x 2 = 0.9miles. Something doesn’t seem to be right.

    Can someone with a solar roof please tell me what they are seeing? I may need to contact the dealer but I want someone with a 2024 or 2025 solar roof to tell me what they are seeing.
     
    #3 iRun26.2, Jul 25, 2025 at 8:14 PM
  4. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I forgot to mention, I didn’t know there was a Toyota help line!
     
    #4 iRun26.2, Jul 25, 2025 at 8:15 PM
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    is 10 kwh the available energy, or the total battery?
    are the charged miles and % on the same screen?
     
    #5 bisco, Jul 25, 2025 at 9:42 PM
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  6. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    Isn’t that the total charge that can delivered the EV battery when it is new (not really fully charged, though,).
     
    #6 iRun26.2, Jul 25, 2025 at 9:52 PM
  7. iRun26.2

    iRun26.2 Active Member

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    I am thoroughly convinced that mine is defective.

    I sure wish others would respond. They are the ones that could prove whether or not mine is different. (Priuschat doesn’t seem to be busy as it used to be back in 2012 when I got my generation #1 Prius PHEV)

    Does anyone know if there is any documentation on the procedure a Toyota technician would use to test the solar roof option? I
     
    #7 iRun26.2, Jul 26, 2025 at 4:13 AM
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2025 at 4:22 AM
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