Toyota Dealership left my Prius ON in the lot

Depends on if it was in "on" status or the hybrid system was running ("Ready"). If the system was running, it just started the ICE and re-charged every so often. that's the most likely scenario, since the main battery would never be able to run the A/C for 2 hours. In any case it would all shut down long before any damage was done. Probably all you lost was a cup or two of fuel.

 

unacceptable and you should be compensated. i hope you documented it with one of the employees.

 

I don't think your Prius has been running for 2 hours.
The traction battery can only run the A/C for no more than 20 min, then the ICE will start up to recharge the battery.
When you see two bars meaning the ICE has not started and should be on less than 30 min.
Get over it.

 

There's really no chance of any "damage", since the system will not allow itself to discharge the battery. No damage means no "compensation". Obviously someone needs to be corrected, since we know that car beeped at him when he walked away with the fob. Best to keep this polite, civil and simply ask for some free service.

 

Careless? Yes. Did it hurt anything? No.

 

Your Prius is fine, I've run the car for 2+ hours before while the AC is on while waiting in the car. Your battery is being recharged by the engine once it gets down to 2 or less bar's. When your battery is low, the engine turns on and uses fuel to recharge the HV Battery so it doesn't get low.

It is unacceptable that they left it on, but your vehicle is fine and healthy. They probably used 2-3 of your fuel bar's.

 

a wash and a tank of gas would suffice.

 

They should be doing this when you are done with the paperwork for your car and are ready to drive it brand new out of the lot.

 

As others have said no harm. I set for a ferry for almost 2hours going to work. I sat with the AC on and radio. The engine may come once. Sometimes not at all. All done by battery. I read some where here campers who use tents will sometimes use the Prius for sleep with the ac on when it gets to hot. They said the engine runs 8 mins about every hour then the rest is on battery. I would be more upset about some stealing the car.

 

This is false just so you know.

It is entirely possible for it to have been running for 2 hours. The car will run entirely off of the traction battery until it is down to 2bars almost into 1 bar. Then it will charge up to 3 bars and continue doing this.

Now onto the OP, no harm done. The only thing that happened was you wasted a bit a fuel and your tank average will be lower than it otherwise would have been. Even if the display shows 1 bar on the traction battery, it is still 40% charged. When it is completely full on the screen, it is really only 80% charged. Toyota takes care of all of the engineering behind the scenes. It is nearly impossible to kill these awesome cars.

People including myself routinely use the Prius as a backup generator. Attach a 1000W load to the Prius and leave it READY for 8hours. During hurricanes it is not uncommon for people to run their Prii for 3-4 days in READY mode powering their house. The car takes care of itself no matter how you abuse it.

The only exception is when you run out of fuel. You can then detrimentally hurt the traction battery by depleting it lower than 40%. You can get to 10% to 15% depletion before it no longer can spin MG1 and get the engine going again. Chicken and egg problem and now you need an external battery charger.

Don't worry about it!

 

I would be upset that the car was left unlocked in running mode.

As far as damage is concerned, none.

I regularly leave my car in READY mode (locked with the mechanical key, PARK, and parking brake set) with the A/C turned ON. Useful when leaving the car out in hot weather while shopping or dining.

The only danger would be to leave the car in running mode while in a closed garage. Other than that, it just a minimal amount of gas to operate the engine occasionally to keep the battery even with the A/C usage.

 

for what?

 

Wow, thank you a million times for this. I've been trying to figure out how to leave the car locked with the A/C on. It works ONLY with the mechanical key, and can be done in "on" mode or "ready" mode. I love this undocumented feature! Only drawback is that you have to use the mechanical key to open it again as far as I can tell.

 

^^ you want "ready" mode or you will kill the 12 volt batt.

also the fob should unlock even if locked w/ mech key.

 

It does not unlock with the smart key or remote button either one, when the car is in On or Ready mode, only when it's off. I presume this is part of the security system, the same as not allowing someone to open the door when you are in the car.

Moral of this story: if you lock the car while its on, you better not lose the hard key.