battery losing charge whilst driving

congrats and welcome! i think it's fine. the heat has been devastating. keep us posted if you see more issues. it might be worth checking the battery cooling fan for cleanliness.

 

That's normal. The car will use battery dynamically as conditions require it.

There's no such thing as a a more expensive 60k mile service. You just need an oil change and tire rotation.

 

and air and cabin filter check/clean/replace. rotate tyres.

 

there is no such thing as a 'big' service. but they will try to sell you one. don't let them do it.

check your maintenance manual, do only the things it recommends, and consider having the tranny fluid changed, as some experts here recommend, even though toyota calls it 'lifetime'.

 

The stealership thinks you missed their "big" service where they sell you $500 in stuff you don't need. Read the manual for 60k service items.

 

The maintenance light blinks after 4500 miles as a warning. It will remain solid after 5000 miles. This means whomever you purchased the car from likely did a maintenance which consisted of an oil change or tire rotation just prior to selling the car.

Fuel consumption should be 43-39 according to EPA. All cars are a little more sluggish with AC use. In other words, everything you've mentioned is entirely normal.

 

when you say sluggish, what are you comparing to? prius are pretty slug like.

 

The Maint Req light only tells you that it is time to get your oil changed. The person doing the oil change resets it and around 4.5k later the light starts blinking on start up and around 5k it stays lit.

Depending on the type of driving you do, the quality of oil that was used (standard or full synthetic), your budget and your obsessiveness you can elect to just get the light reset or do the minimal oil change and tire rotation. I have my oil changed every 5k.

The service at 30k intervals usually involve air/cabin filter changes and perhaps a more complete inspection. Strictly speaking, you don't need to do more than Toyota calls for, but take a look at the extras the dealer is suggesting as his additional recommendations and see if you think they add value for the money.

When the tires are rotated, you have to make sure they reset the pressures correctly because the tires rotate in a pattern where just moving the tires may throw them out of balance.

Tire pressures several PSI above the recommended help fuel economy. I run 38/36. Short trips have the ICE (gas) engine warming up and the A/C working to cool. Try the Auto HVAC setting and ECO mode.

My lifetime MPG is below. Your mileage may vary.

 

What kind of driving was that 7 miles? At steady highway speed, that is not normal. In gentle low speed or stop-and-go city traffic, where you may be using electric a lot with the ICE shut down a lot, this can be quite normal. AC will make it drop faster, especially if you spend a lot of time waiting for stoplights.

 

I can easily imagine the 3 miles / 25 mph quickly draining the battery, especially if you start with the engine pre-warmed so it shuts down promptly, allowing electric-only propulsion. But it should start filling the battery on the highway portion.

MPG is highly variable, much more than many drivers expect from the simple EPA rating label. And there are many factors that influence it -- the condition of the car, your particular driving style, and the particular usage and driving environment that the car faces.

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When the weather gets too hot, the Regen is shut off completely. The battery drains quickly even when your in hybrid mode (not running on EV only) because there's no Regen to top off the battery. Your dash will show that it's regen breaking but it is done by mechanical braking. The only way to know this is with a scangauge showing the current draw and mechanical brake force. I'll link a video when I find it.

 

This is simply incorrect. If the inverter over-heats it might be true. I routinely drive in 100'F temps and never see anything even remotely like that.

The main reason for rapid traction battery discharge in hot temps is the A/C running at max while the car is sitting still. (traffic lights)
Excessive driving in EV mode will certainly do it too, very quickly. But the A/C compressor running at max speed will draw close to 400w, plus the blower draw.

You haven't really provided enough information about your driving to give anyone enough info to offer an opinion.
There really aren't any significant issues affecting charging that would fail to throw errors and warnings all over the dash. Leave your car in ECO mode in hot weather, (with the HVAC in Auto), to minimize impact of the HVAC system.

 

You obviously don't have scangauge installed. It's not the inverter overheating that causes Regen not to work. It's battery over heating. When you have the AC on, it cools the cabin, the Regen gradually returns. I wish the AC only draws 400 watts. AC actually draws near 2000 watts. It draws nearly 10 amps on top of the 2 amps it takes to keep the 12v battery charged and all the onboard computers. When Regen is temporary disabled due to heat, I have to drive in B mode to force some charge to the HV battery.