Leaving car in 'N' with handbrake on RAV4 Hybrid.

[Mereside]

Hi,

I was in a stop start queue for the tip yesterday and then it stopped for a while and my car told me off and told me to put the handbrake on. Ok I understand that.

With the handbrake on I put the car in neutral rather than park and a short while later I was told off again for not putting it in 'park' but because of the warning I missed the warning message content, possibly something about the Battery, but I may have been wrong.

My question is why do I get the warning for leaving the car in 'N' with the handbrake on, what is the issue. I have been told off by the car so will not be doing this again but am curious.

Thanks in anticipation of your assistance.

Nigel

[philip42h]

While the car is in Neutral the 12V auxiliary Battery will NOT be being charged and could potentially, eventually, run flat.

Just never ever use Neutral! 😉

And, for that matter, I would never use the "handbrake" either - for a short stop I'd leave my foot on the foot brake; for anything longer just stick it in Park!

[forkingabout]

The hybrid system won't charge while in neutral & you risk flattering the 12 volt Battery.

Use the brake hold function for short stops in traffic ( it should ask you to press the brake pedal again after 3 minutes ) 

Or for longer stops select park.

[Mereside]

Thank you Philip and Non,

I knew there would be a reason and having read your reply I think the warning was about the auxiliary Battery, so once again, thank you both.

Nigel

[TonyHSD]

When a Toyota hybrid is in N neutral the hybrid Battery can not be charged, and the 12v Battery is taken care of by the hybrid Battery.
The reason is because in N the MG1 can not start the engine. 

[Red_Corolla]

Delicate parking manoevers on an incline, where you can get a little bit more control by just letting the car roll with gravity rather than having it power itself: This is the only situation where I ever drop into N. I have no use for it when the car is fully stationary, that's what P is for.

[kacnje]

If you can, omit using N. Sometimes, N should be used (car wash where your car is pulled), but if you are careful, it won't last more than some minutes.

[TonyHSD]

There are many more examples where and why use of N is necessary with Toyota hybrids. One of these is when things goes wrong - if you lose control and the car spins out and start moving backwards at high speeds, if you have hybrid system malfunction fault while under acceleration, if engine ecu detects a serious problem, when the car dies and needs recovery to pull it or loaded into its bed for transportation and all these sort of misfortunes. 
Another time is at MOT centre - often tester leaves the car in N , or at least it was the case before garage employees went properly trained to work on hybrids they used to leave the hybrid in N on the ramp to be able to rotate the wheels and move the car little bit forward when placing lifts to rise up the car. I do use N sometimes when I like to move the car under its weight, or to settle on the ramps before service etc . N is always a plus.