Charging across midnight

I tried a scheduled charge crossing midnight and it didn't work as expected. My battery was dead and I wanted a full charge by 6am, so set the timer for a 6pm start and 6am end. For the day I set it for the starting day. Weirdly, charging stopped at midnight and the battery didn't fully charge. I guess if the schedule crosses midnight you are supposed to select both days? I had assumed it was just the starting day. Guess not. I'll confirm that the next time I do another "across midnight" charge.

will

 

All: Thanks for the questions.
- I am using the level 1 charger that came with the car
- I am using the Prius's charging schedule feature. I'm using the phone, but it and the car seem to sync well.
- Biomed: I am setting the end time, but must set the start time too, so make it a wide window.

I tried another charge session last night with both days highlighted (see screen shot). The car started charging dutifully at 9pm on Friday as I would have expected, but STILL it stopped charging at midnight??!!! I can see the need for selecting the second day after the charge starts as a difference of opinion on how the charging UI should behave, but still stopping at midnight with the settings below borders on a software bug???? Is there something I'm missing here?

Even when not spanning midnight and setting and end time, it still doesn't seem to be behaving as I would expect. Even if I set a wide window, the car just starts charging at the start time and ends when it fills up. Since I set a wide window, the charge is full well before the
set end time. I thought it is supposed to only start charging just in time to fill the battery by the end time. Is there some way to set only the end time? If so, I can't see it.

 

Biomed: OK, will try using the MID instead of the phone next time. I need a full charge again first thing tomorrow so just going to do a non-timed charge tonight. Glad to know I'm not confused on how it is supposed to work.

will

 

Tovli: To your earlier question, the reason I'm wanting to set the end time is the general idea to not have your battery at 100% for longer than necessary, so ideally want to to reach 100% right as I'm about to take off on a trip. Sounds like it is a new name for "departure time" on older Primes. While not a big deal for short in-town trips, when I have a trip that is longer than 40 miles, would like to get as many battery miles as possible.

Yea, I thought about using two timers, one to midnight then another after midnight, but if that is the only solution, the Toyota folk need a slap upside the head! That would be necessary compensation for the face palm plant I'd have to do to myself first! Not thinking about a timed charge crossing midnight would be

Bisco: Agree, you should have a start time or end time. Throw in charge time and you can pick only two and the third must be computed.

My next 100+ mile trip is Friday, I'll try using just the MID to set up a cross-midnight charge Thursday so that if it doesn't work I'll go back to "dumb" charging Thursday night for my Friday trip.

will

 

Hammersmith and tovli: Those are good points and given I'm giving away my 20-year-old Gen1 Prius that still has its original traction battery and it is still good, my anecdotal data certainly supports that point. The strong advice about not leaving your battery at 100% is mostly generic info about electric cars in general and tangentially mention hybrids. I did some scanning of the manual and can only find one reference on page 113:
"Use the charging schedule function
as much as possible in order
to fully charge the hybrid battery
(traction battery) immediately
before starting off. (P.123)"

Page 123 is just the mechanics of charging. So, they do say it's important under the section on battery longevity and even say the charging schedule is there for that maintenance, but certainly not over-emphasized.

Bummer on two schedules likely not working. Regardless of the nuances of battery life, Toyota still deserves a head-slap for an extremely sloppy battery charging implementation that forgot about midnight. I'm a hardware guy and I'm pretty sure I'd have at least tested that use case and found the bug.

will

 

Louis: I agree, makes no sense. I like the idea of them doing enough battery management that it doesn't jive with the manual. I'm hoping it is an oversight that will get addressed sometime soon.

BTW, is there some official place to ask Toyota? I know it isn't the dealership.

will