Anyone know of a way to charge up the main battery other than by driving around or going to the dealer ? I got to thinking it might be nice if my HiHy was not going to be run for awhile to bring it up to as close to max as possible. I tried putting it park and stepping on the accelerator. This caused to engine to run but the charge level indicator went down ! It would be nice if there was an after market charger which could plug into the pack and bring the charge up. The service dept must have such a beast. I might try building one at some point (yes I know ithe pack is 300v but I have some experence in this area) if I could get the specs.

thanks
Andy

PS - I have had it for three weeks now and am getting 30 mpg (29.1 if I calculate it myself). My commute is 19 miles one way with an elevation change of 1000 feet. It's half rural roads and half interstate.

 

on my Honda you can put it in park, then depress the brake and hold the rpm above 2500 i think it is and it will charge without moving.

i am sure there is a similar process for Toyota, although i am not sure that this would be any more efficient than just driving around. It would probably be much less efficient.

 

How long do you plan to store the vehicle?

Toyota recommends running the engine for 30 minutes every 8 weeks for a vehicle in storage to maintain the charge on the high voltage battery.

I expect you can go longer than 8 weeks without any major concern.

 

Fully depress the parking brake and shift to D. Fully depress the brake pedal. Press on the accelerator pedal. By pressing on the brake pedal while you depress accelerator pedal, you force the car (and therefore, MG2) to remain motionless. All of the power from the ICE will be directed to MG1, which will charge the high voltage traction battery.

Patrick Wong