I haven't driven my Prius in a while, can I charge it while in park?

Unless I could dial it in it like 12-1500 RPMs I wouldn't want to just leave it sitting there with it predominantly pressed down not even sure how long that will stay that way The computer may realize it stop it No car drives like that it thinks and then what's going to happen You're going to leave it sit again for another few weeks because you have to drive your other car yep then you need to maybe get the Venice hybrid type charger or you could put two little doodads or a mount in the back for the charger leads to connect to so when it's sitting you can charge it of course not very long with the Venice hybrid charger you won't run that thing maybe an hour possibly two and that battery will be full so you got to have somebody to shut it off or have the box on a timer.

 

Yes you can but the method depends on which battery you are trying to charge.

To charge the 12v battery you can just leave it in ready mode and P for 2-3 hours. Very inefficient. I would use a 12v AGM charger.

To charge the HV battery you can use force charging. Put the car in ready and D. Fully press the brake and the accelerator. The HV battery will charge to green in a few minutes.

Nevertheless driving the car for a few miles is more fun.

 

Have you got a nearby AC outlet? If so, use a smart charger; just leave it hooked up. Owner's Manual recommends around 3.5 amp rating for second gen (page 433). You should be fine exceeding that a bit, say under 5 amps.

 

Our 2010 is on a smart charger ‘round the clock; we only drive every 3~7 days, and it’s constantly plugged in between. Having a quick-connect wired in.

 

You don't need to do anything special with the accelerator at all to charge the 12 volt battery. Unlike a conventional car with an alternator, the Prius does not charge that battery any faster at higher engine RPMs. Reportedly, at least some generations in fact reduce the charge voltage while you are driving, and boost it while sitting in Park. Sitting in Park is just fine for keeping the 12 volt battery charged.

For the traction battery, there is a "force charge" function you can activate by holding the brake and accelerator together, but it is only for special purposes. Just making the car READY will do everything necessary to bring the traction battery to its normal range of charge state and keep it there.

 

Don't complicate this. Go drive the car. You need to brake pads to clean the rust off the rotors from the rain anyway. There is a way to force charge without moving but full throttle on the gas pedal won't do it. Just go drive the car man

 

That charges only the 12V battery, even if just parked, though it must be in READY mode. The HV battery will end up with 2 or 3 bars, not the typical 6 that you may see when driving, and you may hear the engine cycling on and off.

If you don't press the brake while pushing the power button to start, then the car will not go to READY, and the 12V will not charge, and may end up dead. But at least the HV battery won't drain.

You have to do both, AND either go drive it, or learn about "force charging" (see Chapman's post), if you want to charge the HV battery above 2 or 3 bars.

 

To keep this stuff clearer, it helps to use the same terminology we all know. There is a mode called ON, and a mode called READY. ON is where you get with two button pushes and no brake. READY is where you get when you press the brake and push the button. You can tell READY mode because the word READY lights up in green on the dash.

READY mode is the only mode that charges anything. As long as you are in READY mode, the car will charge the 12 volt battery just as well as, if not better than, actively driving.

READY mode will also make sure that the traction battery is charged into its target range, if it needs it. If the charge on the battery is lower than the car considers desirable, it will run the engine and charge it. It will not bring the battery to an excessively high state of charge, just only to a moderate and acceptable one, and that's the behavior the engineers programmed in to achieve a long battery life.

As others have mentioned, there are other reasons besides battery charging for why it's good to take the car for an actual spin regularly.

 

Overcome that fear??

We're driving VERY infrequently, albeit goodly length as often as not. And I have a CTEK Multi US 4.3 smart charger hooked up (with a wired quick-connect, for convenience, secure connection) all the time it's idle. The latest battery was installed in September of 2015, and tests like new (using a Solar BA5).

 

It would be nice if there was a way to automatically put the car into an ‘outdoor storage mode’ that periodically places the car into READY mode for long enough to maintain batteries at charge and avoid the problem with discharge.

 

They might need a whole new section in the manual to hold warnings about that.

In the Gen 3, some trims have a "remote A/C" function, where a button on the key fob can put the car in READY for 20 minutes or so and run the A/C. They added a whole bunch of warnings about that. (Pretty much everything is powered in READY mode, so, did you leave the wipers on when you left the car last? Have your kids got their fingers near the wipers when you're pressing that remote A/C button? That kind of thing.)

Having the Prius suddenly spring to life unattended on some schedule, with nobody even pressing a button, might be one place Toyota doesn't really want to go.

 

If you've got the wherewithal, I'd hook up the charger.

We went through a phase, where both me and the wife were retired, money was tight, purposely going for drives to keep battery drain at bay, then started thinking "this is for the birds...".

 

Is Toyota still trying to gouge people for that function with a monthly lease gimmick

 

Were they ever? In Gen 3, if your trim has it, it's just a button on your fob, and it works.

 

Given that Toyota has jumped that shark on the remote climate function, probably the only technically feasible way on a gen2 is trying to modify something like an aftermarket Viper remote start to periodically trigger and shutdown.

 

This might work with the cellular connection
Not automatically but good enough.

Viper DS4V DS4 System