I am trying so hard to get more than 35 miles per gallon if that, and I’ve been out driving in town now for 20 minutes and the battery charge won’t go past four bars so it’s continuously not allowing EV to kick in when I coast because I guess you need more than four bars, I don’t know this is frustrating.

3 minutes later. Still 4 bars.

Batteries only charge from the engine running not from the wheels turning correct?

just parked grocery store 10 minutes come back out battery is on five bars but EV will not come on driving two or three minutes now how long does it take before the EV will come on when you first start the car even if you have five bars for most others?

 

I have the non plug-in hybrid and several times my battery has successfully charged to full.

I have tried to force it into EV mode and even with the battery at 5 bars it won't go in. However, just putting around about town and the car regularly goes into EV mode itself; going down a slope, in traffic, coasting along as I take my foot off the accelerator... It never fails.

I've got 4400 kms since I took delivery and my overall average is 6.2L/100km which beats the Lexus estimates. I have had longer drives around town that have been <6L/100km and EV ratio on the trip summary is pretty decent, sometimes 40% or more.

Just let the car computer do its thing and it'll get you the best mpg and seamlessly switch when it needs to. As for your battery never being full, have the dealer look at it. That should not happen.

 

The more I read about regenerative braking makes me wonder if I should be lightly touching the brake even when I don’t necessarily want to slow down, I thought I would use less everything if I coasted to a stop when I could but apparently not.

and not since I’ve owned this car has the battery been on all eight bars that I can remember.

 

Methinks you don't necessarily need to tap on the brake if you don't want to slow down. Once your foot is off the accelerator, regen braking kicks in. If you lightly radio in the brake, it applies more regen braking which will slow you down.

If you're just coasting along, you want to do the "pulse and glide"; accelerate to anniversary your desired speed then lift off the accelerator and let them do it's thing. Once it drops appreciably, rinse and repeat. That's the hypermiling that Prius forums are so proud of.

I've done this a few times but I think, personally, it's too old lady driving for me. I'm not actively looking to be overly conservative with my mpg and I'm still getting decent fuel consumption. I'll rather have spirited (sort of) driving than putter about like an old lady🤣

 

I have my 350H for a month now and it got to full charge once. It was on a long downhill slope follow by a 3 chill stop light where i use the slow down to regen charge the battery.

 

Please forgive my ignorance. I'm curious what the goal is.
I am far from an expert, so I'm just going on my intuition.

Seems to me that having a medium number of bars is ideal. I'm guessing having min or max charge would generally be a negative.
I can imagine a few very specific cases like a garage or part of town that is zero emissions that having some extra EV capacity would be desired. Most of the time I think it isn't important.

My intuition.
The car doesn't know what's coming next. Needs to be ready for many options.

Having zero charge is bad because there is no charge to propel the car. Especially if a hill or acceleration is coming. Probably bad for lots of reasons.

Having max charge is less than ideal as it means no more charge can be accumulated and will "go to waste" Imagine going down a very long hill. Eventually the battery fills up and you can't charge anymore. Lost opportunity to regen. Hitting the top of a hill with a full charge is a big lost opportunity. I heard a video on this scenario. I don't recall if regen breaking was still working to slow the car at that point.

Middle seems good. Has some capacity to use, and some empty capacity to charge if possible. It's ready for uphill, downhill, break, or acceleration.

So middle charge ideal? As the number of bars go above middle, I think it probably makes sense for the car to use it, not keep it.

I can't explain why it doesn't want to go into EV mode. I think there are some max speeds, temperatures, something about the hvac being on, stuff like that.

 

I included a screen shot of my trip summary today as an example (I had another that I didn't save that showed 40 MPG) and a screen shot from the 350h manual that may can shed light on your situation. I rarely look at my hybrid battery level but I will try to make it a point this week to pay attention. I never saw it fully charged when I did look at it. I keep my vehicle on ECO mode and I use EV drive mode multiple times a day, as you can tell from my screen shot. The only time I haven’t been able to use EV drive mode is when my vehicle has sat in the heat for awhile or if my vehicle sat long enough and my engine needed to warm up. I live in the south and my vehicle gets EXTREMELY hot internally. Additionally, depending on the hybrid battery level will determine how far you can travel and the top speed before EV drive mode automatically turns off. Typically, the top speed would be 25 mph but this obviously varies depending on your battery. I will say that it takes a while before I can use EV drive mode again after draining the battery. My average MPG is typically at least 40, going by my daily trip summaries.

Note: ECO Drive Mode is not the same thing as EV Drive Mode. The EV indicator will happen when you're coasting or your vehicle doesn't need to use much power from the engine.

 

Is it the ratio of EV distance driven or EV time driven?
(I don't see the answer in the manuals.)

I guess the time ratio would (almost?) always be higher than the distance ratio; so, I wouldn't be surprised if they used the higher number to make us feel better... though it seems less useful.

 

I found this on a Prius forum, assuming from a Toyota related manual.

Link to Prius forum

 

Also, it's probably worth talking about tire pressure when discussing gas mileage and efficiency etc. We've had our 450h+ for 5000 miles now, been doing most of the driving in EV mode (roughly 35ish miles a day work commute) and it's been at a solid 2.9 miles/kwh over those 5000 miles. Well, we took it in for the 5k service and they bumped the tires up from the new-off-the-lot 37psi to 40psi (I didn't notice and hadn't checked the pressure...) and within a couple days it's now hit 3.0 miles/kwh and the EV only range has increased from a high of about 46 miles to 49 miles (as indicated by dash estimate). I was confused on the sudden increase because we weren't driving differently... so checked the tire pressure - and sure enough they were all 3 psi higher... So, a fairly small tire pressure change seems to have a decent effect on EV range. I was happy with the car at 37psi, but I really don't notice it being much harsher or louder at 40, so we're gonna leave it for now. But if you don't like the mileage you're getting - maybe check the tire pressure and add a few pounds? Definitely mind the pressure ranges for your tires of course!