Philt — I also have the non-NAV. I've never seen zero bars, but I have been down to 1 bar (i.e., 2 rows of illuminated pixels in the MFD display). And, I have to date (only once) seen a "full" 8 bars (16 rows of illuminated pixels). As the state of charge drops lower, it becomes more and more difficult to persuade the TCH to stay in pure EV-mode, and you may have to reduce your speed to achieve this. As you saw from your slow uphill climb, the motor is powerful enough, and as long as you don't demand too rapid rate of climbing or too rapid acceleration, you can stay in EV-mode quite a long time. See if you can better your 4.1 km distance! [Of course, I personally believe that this is actually counter-productive to best overall FE! See the thread "An Unpalatable Fact (with apologies to Al Gore!)" for evidence.]

Stan