Just bought a used 2017 Honda Accord Hybrid Base a 3 days ago, first time Hybrid owner/driver, so I'm trying to figure out the technology.

The car had about 13,000 miles on it when I bought it.

On the electric battery charge meter in the panel, I noticed that it primarily stays at about a 1/3 charge, I know it normally charges on start and stop as the car is moving, but it stays on that 1/3 mark most of the time. It does charge for the 50-75% mark when moving in stop and go traffic, but quickly dissipates to that 1/3 mark after a few minutes when it kicks into EV mode by itself. Is this normal, mainly the charge primarily remaining at the 1/3 mark most of the time? Could it possibly be the car has not been driven for a long term period for a bit of time?

I'm currently getting between 40-45 MPG mixed driving.

 

Can't answer the specific question about 1/3 gauge, but consider that hybrid batteries don't have much more usable capacity in them than a medium sized 12V battery, so "not been driven for a long time" issues would be corrected on your first drive.

As I understand it at highway cruise, the Accord cycles the battery shifting into EV mode as the battery charge increases. Again, considering that the hybrid battery holds very little usable energy, the EV mode operation should be very brief.

What you are describing sounds normal based on my understanding of its operation, but I can't confirm the details since I don't own one.

 

 

Yes.

1.3kWh of battery capacity, which is 3.9% the energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline. Consider also that only about 40-50% of the battery capacity is used, there's even less available energy. Let's say 1.9% the energy content of a gallon of gasoline.

How far do you think your car would get on less than 1 cup of gas (volume adjusted assuming 35% ICE thermodynamic efficiency and 100% "EV" efficiency)?

Hybrids are NOT EVs. The hybrid system is a kinetic energy recovery and release device and a very short term power source.