Don't try this at home, kids.

Yeah 20 miles is short, I always get 1 gallons worth of distance once the last bar starts to flash (based on car MPG)

3 miles is about all you want to go on HV, coasting is better than pumping, and I believe leaving in gear and not Nuetral gains more potential energy for a last ditch "umph".

Once your lawst two bars go grey then shut it off! That is the EMPTY signal. Lower than that and you risk damage

 

Evan-
I love you and rarely disagree with you but this just isn't true. The ECU is still there protecting you from any significant damage. The act of sitting in ready mode until the engine comes on to recharge is about the same amount of discharge. The difference is in how fast the drain occurs and the amount of heat that is built up as a result. Deep discharges are routine with heavy use of the EV button as you know. I would limit the number of occurences to lengthen the life of the battery, but we shouldn't scare people into thinking they may have damaged the battery.

Folks-

If you run out of gas and are attempting to make it to a station on electric power, follow these steps.
1 Foot off the accelerator.
2 Below 62 mph, shift to neutral if the road ahead is clear.
3 Below 30 mph shift into D and maintain this speed as gently as possible.
4 Only use the brakes for safety.
5 If you don't make it to the station and the car slows to a stop, give up and pull off the road. Do not attempt repeatedly to coax another start out of it.

Note: Of course you should maintain safety and follow traffic laws at all times. Slow speeds are more efficient due to wind resistance and heating of the battery, cables, inverter, and motor.

 

I tend to agree - the ECU definately isn't going to allow the car to damage the battery.

Besides, even when the battery meter on the display is totally empty and the car shuts-down, there's probably 20-30% capacity remaining in the cells depending on how Toyota has calibrated the readout - they'd be foolish to design it otherwise.

Dave

 

I think you guys forget one thing. Yes, the ECU will shut the car down if the BSOC gets too low and ICE can't be started to charge it. So then, when you DO put gas in the car, if ECU says BSOC too low, don't go to READY, how do you expect to start the ICE to charge the HV batt? Yes, the ECU will give you a few more tries, but eventually, it will refuse to go to READY.
So, you need the dealer to at least force the car to go to READY, and hopefully it will, ICE will start, and all will be well. If all of these do not happen, HV batt will need a charge. Repair manual does say that if HV SOC is too low to do anything, replace it, though I would agree there are probably chargers out there that would revive it.

 

The car will go to ready even when the battery stops providing forward momentum due to being too low. You can try multiple times to start the car and then add gas and the car will start right up. Don't ask me how I know. I don't eat right either. I went there so you don't have to and you don't have to worry about it.

People run these cars out of gas every day and if it were even a slight problem, we would have heard about it here. When there is a problem with this car, people get online and find us.

I would guess that the repair manual is talking about a hypothetical "SOC too low to start condition" I would guess this could easily occur if the car sat for a long time due to the self draining characteristics of NiMH batteries. What do you think Dan?

Again, it's not a good idea but it is really nothing to worry about. If I need to worry about something, I'll worry about how much ice cream I eat.

 

I think that if you keep pushing it, restarting with no gas after low SOC shutdown, eventually it will quit for good unless intervened by a dealer.

The reason you haven't heard anything is because nobody has pushed it that far. Running out of gas and crawling via EV with Christmas dash is probably scary enough to quit when HV says 'I stop now'.