Yaris Hybrid Battery Never Fully Charged

[wasp123]

Hello Everybody

I have been driven my new yaris hybrid t spirit for over a month, now.

It is very nice car and with my wife we enjoy it.

There are some bits that are a little annoying but no one is perfect.

One thing wondering me the most. I have never seen battry indicator fully charged or discharged.

It always has two bars left or two bars to charge.

When I drive on motorway for like 20-30 minutes battry is constantly charged and even then it is not fully charged. On display it shows that car is not using Battery so i belive it should be charged at some point.

Fuel consumption is not great. My personal best is 58 mpg. My wife has heavy foot so 46 mpg is her average. We drive half and half motorway - city.

Anyone has the same problem with Battery charge or is it normal ?

Thanks,

wasp123

[valmiki]

It's normal - I only ever get a full Battery when I am coasting down a very long hill with my foot touching the brake to slow me down (and hence charging the battery).

Your stored energy is always being used normally, assisting the engine where it can (but not in my above example)

[Ethanedwards]

Hi Wasp. That Battery thing is normal- mines exactly the same.

Regarding the mileage. Like you I use my own (same as yours) mostly on fast A roads. If you try to adopt the pulse and glide technique (first read about on this forum) you can easily add a couple of mpg to that figure.

I'm now getting upwards of 62.

Though (and I think this is due to the wheel size) the T spirit gets a bit less mpg than the other versions. Since the Co2 thang is 79 for the other Yaris HSD's and 85 for our T spirits.

Cheers,

[acetip]

Ive read soewhere at least with the Prius, that the Battery charging system is designed not to fully charge the Battery,this prolongs the life of the battety somehow.

[Dave R.]

Completely agree with comments to date - 3years experience with Prius shows that the Battery does not often get fully charged. Also, despite some people managing to squeeze over 60 mpg, somewhere in the mid to low 50's is not unusual.

Take a look at fuelly.com to see what other people are getting (but beware that fuelly by default uses US gallons)

[duncanda]

I've had my Prius since June and have only seen the Battery fully charged once in that time and that was when going downhill for some time and having the gear leaver into 'B' to provide additional brake force and not overcook the brakes. Agree with mpg figures of mid-50's and that's on dual-carriageway commute to work (70mph) and around town at weekends.

[Cyker]

Yeah, the HSD tries to keep the Battery between 80% and 20% charge as this will increase the Battery life by a lot (If it always charged to 100% and tried to keep it there, or dropped to 0%, the Battery would be dead in 2-3 years; This way, it'll stretch to maybe 7-8 years of usable life - Very clever battery management!)

Also, it may be a safety thing - I'm told the regenerative braking stops working at 100% charge and since the normal brakes are apparently smaller than a non-HSD you'd lose a lot of braking force!

[Dave R.]

Also, it may be a safety thing - I'm told the regenerative braking stops working at 100% charge and since the normal brakes are apparently smaller than a non-HSD you'd lose a lot of braking force!

Coming over the Snake Pass in Derbyshire (A57) with cruise control set at 50mph - a nice long downhill run - the Battery became fully charged (100%) & so the computer switched from regenerative braking (to keep me at 50mph) to engaging Engine Braking ("B") - I was aware because the car suddenly started making some noise (engine braking!). Knock out of Cruise and the noise stopped ( B no longer engaged) & the car started going faster. Engage "B" manually & the noise started up again (only engine noise, nothing to worry about....just not silence!). Back to "D" and re-engage Cruise, and engine braking kicked in once more.

[BassaJay]

Yeah, the HSD tries to keep the battery between 80% and 20% charge as this will increase the battery life by a lot (If it always charged to 100% and tried to keep it there, or dropped to 0%, the battery would be dead in 2-3 years; This way, it'll stretch to maybe 7-8 years of usable life - Very clever battery management!)

Also, it may be a safety thing - I'm told the regenerative braking stops working at 100% charge and since the normal brakes are apparently smaller than a non-HSD you'd lose a lot of braking force!

I also read somewhere (Prius Chat probably) that even if the display showed full it would only be at 80% or at empty there would still be 20% charge remaining.

[Cyker]

Yeah, I read that too; Maybe they changed that on the Yaris HSD? I know some people complained about that when they found out about it on the Prius

It's cool that they considered a contingency for when the regen braking is unavailable and automatically switch to engine braking mode; I wouldn't trust many car makers to think of such things