Toyota prius my battery level gauge never reads full its an 07 is this the norm or what?

Question

no matter how i drive and it should i think but never exceeds 3/4 full

Answer 1

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Yes this is completely normal. The battery is designed to keep a partial charge at all times, between 40-80% full. This maximizes the lifetime of the battery.

Source(s):

2007 Prius owner

Answer 2

Yes, that is normal. The computer decides what the level of charge is going to be, and keeps it in the mid-range at all times. It is interesting to watch, but pretty much there is nothing anyone can do to affect it. I've never seen a problem with the state of charge on the main battery on any Prius, which is not to say they never have one. They are great vehicles, I hope you enjoy it.
God Bless

Source(s):

Toyota Information System; Toyota Master Diagnostic Tech

Answer 3

Toyota and Panasonic, the maker of the hybrid battery designed the battery to never fully charge, or fully discharge. This way they can get the maximum life span out of the batteries. They don't charge over 80% or under 20%.

To my knowledge Toyota has never replaced one of these batteries under warranty(which is for 100k miles, or 8 years)

Answer 4

The displayed charge on the battery (seen on the Energy Monitor) rarely ever reaches "full" or "empty" but prefers to stay at a happy medium. The display only shows you the useable area of charge on the hybrid battery, displayed "empty" is about 40% and displayed "full" is about 80%. Actual charge levels of a NHW20 Prius (like yours) can be seen at: http://www.privatenrg.com/#Full_SOC

Quoting from a June 22, 2004 Toyota press release:
http://pressroom.toyota.com/photo_librar…
http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases/Vie…
<quote>
The Prius battery (and the battery-power management system) has been designed to maximize battery life. In part this is done by keeping the battery at an optimum charge level - never fully draining it and never fully recharging it. As a result, the Prius battery leads a pretty easy life. We have lab data showing the equivalent of 180,000 miles with no deterioration and expect it to last the life of the vehicle. ....
</quote>

To quote from Toyota:
http://www.toyota.com/html/hybridsynergy…
"'Q: Do they [the hybrid batteries] ever run out of power?
GS: No. A computer makes sure the batteries never discharge completely. They never fill completely, either. "


So yes, it is normal to not see the battery display on the Energy Screen reach full very often. (Even when it does read "full" - like after coasting down a long hill/mountain - the battery still isn't charged to full, to prolong the battery life.)

Answer 5

In flat areas I could imagine the battery gauge would never go all the way up. Here in Colorado it goes all the way up every time I come back from the mountains.

I think the only way the Prius lets the battery charge all the way up (80%) is if you have a long downhill stretch where the car regenerates all the way down.