Battery charging level 07

In the Winter, when you use the engine more for heat than for propulsion, you will sometimes go Green into the 7th bar.

In Summer when the engine is not needed as much for heat, you should stay below 7 bars.

On a long steep decent (none any where near Chicago that I am aware of) you will use the brakes enough to charge into the blue and I have charged into the 8th bar in the Great Smokys. Once the battery is 'full' you can't do any more regenerative braking until it uses up some electricity, so it never stays full very long. (being able to use all your brakes is a GOOD thing, saving gas is also good. Once you 'fill'* the battery, the car will switch to engine braking, which is disconcerting and wastes energy)

Under most conditions Blue is normal.

*The computers never charge the battery all the way, but the display does not show the part they refuse to charge, so it looks full.

 

As Jimbo said, you will only see full green on a very long downhill.
If it's a really long hill, you could "totally" charge the battery (as much as allowed), so at that point you might notice a slight change in engine noise as the elec motor stops charging the battery, and applying brakes no longer charges the battery. But for most of us that's not a common mode.

 

I'm from Chicago, currently live in Colorado, and I can't imagine anywhere in Chicagoland where you could possibly get the last bar on the battery to show up in normal driving. In Colorado, I typically need about a 2000' descent to get there.

 

Do you use of B mode when the batt is fully charged? engine breaking can be good since you will be using the "real" brakes after the batt is full