From what I have read dissipating heat generated by the battery is also key to long life. Visteon has even gone as far as building a small air conditioner as part of the Escape and Mariner hybrid battery packs. I have been unable to determine if the HiHy also has a air conditioner for controlling battery pack temperature. Does anyone know?

My second question concerns the working charge level of the HiHy (50-80%). Is this the same as the FEH?

While the technology today is very impressive, I am anxious to see how far the technology will advance in the next three years. Given the price of gas today and the obvious fact that it will only increase in the future I think that hybrids and plug-ins (or a marriage of the two - my hope) will become more in demand. Just my 2 cents on a very interesting thread.

 

Yes, just once. I was following my son to take his car to the Saturn dealer. When we got there (tech-no-genius that I am), I told my son that I needed to go to the Toyota dealer b/c the battery was completely green! I had never seen that before and I thought maybe something was failing. He said he thought it meant that the battery was full or as full as it could get. Sure enough, once we started driving again, it returned to normal. I've never seen that since.

 

It happened again. This time the battery was green but the bars were not to the top. It didn't last for long but it was pretty neat!

 

The folks at Toyota in their infinite wisdom realized to gain the most endurance of the battery it is best if the charge state range stay between 40% and 80%. The battery control unit does continuously attempt to maintain the battery at 70% charge. That is what is is designed to do and intended to do.