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Originally Posted by LJG
Now for my question. With long down hill coasts energizing the regenerative braking and charging the traction battery, is it possible to overcharge the battery? If the battery begins overcharging, heat will be created in the battery which could lead to its early demise. Knowing Toyota's penchant for perfecting every last design detail, I doubt this would happen, but I'd like to hear from someone who has had experience with long, continuous down hill coasting in the 2004 Prius.
Also, does the battery charge much on long, steep uphill drives?
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I experienced some minor charging pulling a hill on a trip not too many weeks back. I can't quantify just exactly how much energy was generated, but the MFD was indicating that the output from the ICE was sufficient to pull a hill at 70 and do some charging on the side. My battery level was 3 bars from the top, but I did not get any new bars on this uphill pull. However the road that once went up went down about an equal distance and angle and all the way down I was coasting, ICE off, and the regenerative drag system kicked in and brought me up two full bars. I have not yet had the ability to see all bars full. There is a long highway hill in Idaho which I will probably have to traverse in the coming year which will will interesting to see the effects of.