Quote:
Originally Posted by ttoyoda
Fine until the battery runs down. Then the little turtle icon lights up, right?
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No, that doesn't happen in practice, although I suppose you could discharge the battery enough or be in acceleration mode long enough to cause the computer to cut off the electric motor and leave you with ICE alone. I've never heard of that happening, though.
The battery management on the Prius is pretty well done. When the battery gets down to about 50% charge, the ICE will run to recharge it. You also do regenerative braking and regen engine braking whenever you are slowing down, take your foot off the pedal, etc. In normal driving, you generate quite a bit of electricity to charge the battery pack, and its rare for me to get the ICE coming on solely to charge the batteries.