I only have about 500 miles on my TCH (non NAV), but I have several points where I coast for a while and the MPG needle is on 60 and the batteries are recharging, but I have never once seen the battery SOC meter show 100% charge. IS this normal? Is it a problme, or does some sort of calibration need to happen for the car to know that the batteries are maybe really 100%, they just don't know it. I see it live at the 100% - 1 bar often and never seems to drop below what looks like 50%.

 

Actually I believe the indicator shows a state of charge between 60 and 80 %. as that is the optimal range for extended battery life.

The full state with all bars turned green is achievable on long grades and I've even occasionally achieved that state when there was "excess" horsepower charging the battery with the ICE runing but in a terrain where I was getting good FE and all the hp was not needed to propel the car.

However I'm not sure how the display looks on the dash (for non-Nav systems) during this state of charge

 

I have a non-nav Camry and the battery can indeed be completely full, but that only happened to me once after a looooong downhill interstate ride. It does not normally happen because you are constantly using the battery.

 

There are two shades of green, a lime shade and a full green shade.

I have only seen the green shade once but have seen the lime shade many times.

This is probably because most of my driving is done on the freeway at speeds of 80MPH where not much (if any) battery power is being used.

There is also a light purple shade when the battery is low. I have seen this shade when the AC is used on accessory mode (motor not running).

I have experienced all of these shades besides the normal blue.

P.S. I should have told you that I have the NAV system.

 

I just saw this today for the first time and when it got purple I turned off my car. I wasn't sure if I could run it dry and I haven't checked the manual to see if there's any ill effects to just letting it go. I'd like to think that it would be smart enough not to do anything crazy...but then again with my luck .

 

I've the non NAV TCH also. Until I passed 2,000 miles I never saw the SOC meter show 100%. I don't know if it is a 'break in' limitation, or that I just happened to have it displayed when coasting in Drive a few miles on a slight down hill.

I often see it drop to 20% when driving in bumper to bumper rush hour freeway traffic. The ICE starts shortly after it displays 20% to recharge the battery, and shuts off after it hits 40%. I try and avoid going under 40% if I know I'll be stopped or going under 5mph for a bit. Just accelerate enough to start the ICE when you pickup speed over about 10 mph to top off the SOC a bit.

My SOC normally is between 60 and 80% unless I've been coasting or running in EV mode a mile or so (on level ground)

 

I just saw this today for the first time and when it got purple I turned off my car.

Whoa guys and gals. Don't worry about the SoC, the computer will take care of it. Unless something is seriously wrong (and so far no one has a problem) you don't have to worry about over or undercharging the battery. When it gets low and turns purple, my understanding is that it is still at 60% of a full charge. When it is topped off and green it is at 80% charge. The computer keeps it there for maximizing battery life so that it will indeed last the life of the car.

EXCEPTION: I believe the battery will not charge while the power splitting device is in neutral so don't sit around listening to music or running the A/C in neutral

 

Correct! From what I understood the ICE should turn on if the batter gets too low. Provided you are not in nuetral like VW pointed out. My friens Prius does this. We got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic heading into LA and he was just advancing with the electric motor. Every so often the batter would get low and the ICE would kick on to charge the batter back up.

 

Hmmm...I was parked and the engine wasn't on and I was running the A/C, but it sounds like if it goes purple with 2 bars left it still has 60% which is more than I had initially thought. Good info to have and also good to know that I could turn the engine on and it'll know to come on automatically.

 

but it sounds like if it goes purple with 2 bars left it still has 60% which is more than I had initially thought.

You shouldn't have to worry about this at all. As you sit there in the cool of your car if it drops down to the purple bar eventually the ICE will kick on and recharge the battery and then go off. I've sat quite a while with the A/C on but I have not yet experimented to see how quickly the ICE recharges and then kicks back off. Will need to try this sometime.