Recently, I noticed that while at a red light, if I'm not pressing hard on the brake pedal, the EV mode seems to be fighting the brakes if the car is in D.

To avoid wasting battery power, I am putting the transmission in neutral.

Is it ok to do so? am I affecting other systems ??

I can't remember reading anything against it but I just want to make sure.

thanks for the info

Bob

 

If you have a Nav system I'd be curious as to what it showed going on. Sitting still in the E mode there should be nothing making your car go forward if your foot is on the brake..

I also believe I have read here that the battery does not charge when the car is in neutral.

 

I've noticed the same thing, but it's not really different than any automatic transmission car where if you don't press hard enough on the brake the car will begin to move by itself. In the TCH, that motion could come from the motor (or even from the ICE if it happened to be running while stopped). It's not really that big a deal anyway. Since the car is hardly moving at all, it's hardly consuming any power from the hybrid battery. Seeing the power flow on the display looks worrisome, but remember it only shows which direction power is flowing, not how much is flowing.

The best solution is just to press the brake a little harder. As WVGasGuy noted, using neutral is not recommended because the hybrid battery is not charged when in neutral. There's a section on that in the owners' manual.

 

This is part of the design. Although not actually necessary the car simulates a forward creep like you get with a conventional car simply to make it more familiar to the average driver when you take your foot off the brake pedal. In order to simulate this of course, it uses a switch on the brake pedal to determine when this should take effect. Not sure about the NAV display, but on the MFD's power display screen you can see the power from battery to wheel if you don't press hard enough on the pedal for the car to register that you do not want to creep.

Neutral on the TCH is pretty much never a good idea under normal driving conditions.

 

Neutral in the TCH disconnects the ICE from the motors from the wheels, etc. It's not recommended because of this. For instance if your batteries are low the ICE will run to charge them. However in neutral, with everything disconnected, no charging will occur.

 

OK then !


I promise I will not do it again !!!

I guess l'll have to press harder.

thanks

Bob