Hybrid battery care

[alexchrisro]

Hello, I was wondering because I couldn t find anything about how to get the longest life possible out of our hybrid batteries.

How is it recomended when driving in the city? To charge and discharge them? To keep the car as long as possible on engine power? To avoid using the full power? Etc

Personally my car is used usually at night when there is no heavy traffic, i do one cycle of discharge and charge completely. It is very nice to drive for about 2 miles on full electric power :D.

When i park the car i allways leave the Battery with more then 50%. 

Thank you 

[Hangie]

Just don't bother. Car got a lot of clever algorithms to maintain the batteries. You just need to drive and let the car look after itself.

As an example I've noticed that once a while batteries are almost depleted and then almost fully charged - all by itself during normal driving.

If you really want to do something for the car - just service it regularly according to manufacture specifications - that includes rear diff oil, gearbox oil, 2 x coolant, hybrid system check etc

[OldTrout]

Alex,

How do you manage to control charging and discharging?

John

[alexchrisro]

Basically if i drive above 60 km/h which is  arpox 45 mph the vehicle drives on engine power but bellow 60 it can switch completely to electric power. 

Hangie: Thanks for the tips, the car is very well maintained. I was just curious if you know any other tips to conserve the Battery the best possible.

[Britprius]

Has anyone noticed if you turn the car off, and leave it for a period of up to an hour or so when returning to the car it drives very readily in electric mode almost irrespective of the Battery state of charge.

Battery life is affected by a number of circumstances the main two being the number of charge discharge cycles, and excess heat.

Forcing the car to run on electric cycles the Battery unnecessarily, and uses more fuel. The Toyota/Lexus hybrids are petrol vehicles. That is all the energy that propels the car comes from petrol. Charging the Battery from the engine involves a number of energy state changes all of which involve losses.

Burning fuel to produce mechanical movement is about 40% efficient. Not much we can do about that, but drive the wheels.

However if we choose to charge the Battery from the engine:-

Driving a generator to turn mechanical energy to electrical energy produces a loss. Changing electrical energy to chemical energy "charging the battery" produces a loss. Changing chemical energy to electrical energy produces a loss. Changing electrical energy to mechanical energy "electric motor to drive the wheels" produces a loss. 

So discharging the Battery by forcing the car to run on electricity uses more fuel because once the Battery is discharged the engine not only has to power the car, but also charge the Battery.

The thing that makes the hybrid more efficient is capturing energy from costing "foot off the accelerator" and braking using regeneration to charge the Battery. Energy that in a normal car is discarded. This energy can then be used to help accelerate the car back up to speed. This is the time the engine normally uses the most fuel. Maintaining speed uses comparatively little fuel. Using the Hybrid in this way means the Battery is only cycled in very shallow charge discharge cycles. The shallower the cycles the longer the life.

The Battery use by the cars computer only allows for a maximum charge level of 80%, and a discharge level of 40%. This is to greatly extend the life of the Battery compared to running at 0 to 100% charge/discharge cycle.  

John

[NemesisUK]

Using the brakes instead of using engine braking on long downhill descents is one of the biggest differences in driving a hybrid over a 'normal' ICE car

[Britprius]

Yes one of the strange behaviors of the hybrid on long downhill runs is. Once the Battery is fully charged putting your foot on the brake makes the engine speed up, and putting your foot on the accelerator makes the engine slow down.

The reason being once the Battery is fully charged to 80% the computer cannot allow more energy to be put in so it uses MG2 acting as a generator to power MG1 acting as a motor to spin the engine without fuel to use the energy. Putting your foot on the accelerator uses electrical energy to power the car instead of spinning the engine so the engine slows until a given road speed is reached when it stops completely.

John

[hybridbatterysolutions]

On 2017-5-29 at 2:39 PM, Britprius said:

Has anyone noticed if you turn the car off, and leave it for a period of up to an hour or so when returning to the car it drives very readily in electric mode almost irrespective of the battery state of charge.

Battery life is affected by a number of circumstances the main two being the number of charge discharge cycles, and excess heat.

Forcing the car to run on electric cycles the battery unnecessarily, and uses more fuel. The Toyota/Lexus hybrids are petrol vehicles. That is all the energy that propels the car comes from petrol. Charging the battery from the engine involves a number of energy state changes all of which involve losses.

Burning fuel to produce mechanical movement is about 40% efficient. Not much we can do about that, but drive the wheels.

However if we choose to charge the battery from the engine:-

Driving a generator to turn mechanical energy to electrical energy produces a loss. Changing electrical energy to chemical energy "charging the battery" produces a loss. Changing chemical energy to electrical energy produces a loss. Changing electrical energy to mechanical energy "electric motor to drive the wheels" produces a loss. 

So discharging the battery by forcing the car to run on electricity uses more fuel because once the battery is discharged the engine not only has to power the car, but also charge the battery.

The thing that makes the hybrid more efficient is capturing energy from costing "foot off the accelerator" and braking using regeneration to charge the battery. Energy that in a normal car is discarded. This energy can then be used to help accelerate the car back up to speed. This is the time the engine normally uses the most fuel. Maintaining speed uses comparatively little fuel. Using the Hybrid in this way means the battery is only cycled in very shallow charge discharge cycles. The shallower the cycles the longer the life.

The battery use by the cars computer only allows for a maximum charge level of 80%, and a discharge level of 40%. This is to greatly extend the life of the battery compared to running at 0 to 100% charge/discharge cycle.  

John

Couldn't have put it better myself

[alexchrisro]

Thank you very much for all your answers. Basically the best way to drive a hybrid is by pulsing and glide :)

[OldTrout]

Alex,

Pulsing and gliding may irritate anyone following.

Stop worrying, just drive and enjoy the effortless power. The computer will take care of things for you.

John

[alexchrisro]

Thank you all for your answers. I will do exactly as OldTrout said. :)