i was looking at this http://www.toyotaiguide.com/ and it said that if you don't drive your car for 2 weeks the main battery can discharge.. i'm curious to know if that has yet to happen to anyone.

also can anyone have a link that talks about the TCHs new tech over the past hybrids...because someone told me the whole hybrid thing is just a phase and the tech. might fade out because they don't know about long term life. They read it in some news paper which i don't know.... i disagree... but i'm still learning about this and that

the main thing people ask me when i say i'm thinking of geting a hybrid is "will it last as long as a gasoline car" ... and i'm still on the fence about answering that correctly

 

If you use the search functionality of these forums, or just browse through the Journalism & The Media forum in particular, you will find plenty of information from articles and government reports about long-term use of hybrid vehicles. Edmunds has long-term vehicle reports for numerous vehicles including several hybrids (Prius, Accord and Lexus RX400h).

Contrary to popular belief, hybrid technology is not new. You'll find lots of info about that on this site too, but there's also a long article on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle). Additionally, the Prius has been on the road in Japan since 1997 and in the US since 2001 (model years). The Honda Insight has been on the road in the US since calendar year 1999. I'd say that clearly demonstrates these vehicles are not just a fad or a phase.

Personally, I plan to drive my TCH for at least the next 10 years. Historically Toyota vehicles have excellent logevity and I don't think it will be any different for the hybrids. Personally, I have no reservations about the potential longevity of my TCH.

 

I agree with everything Lilarienne says. Just want to add that I'm driving a car with about a $2000 - $3000 premium over a non-hybrid version without any tax credits and I'm averaging 38 mpg. In the future the technology is going to become more advanced and improved.

Fad? Doubt it.

 

When I picked my car up at the dealer it had 7 miles on it. The salesman and I got in the car and he started showing me the screens. The "Energy" screen showed that my battery had only one bar of charge. The whole time we were sitting in the car going over things the ICE was running and the display showed that it was charging the battery. That’s the lowest I have ever seen the battery. Now the car keeps the battery charged with all but one bars showing on the display. It never seems to change. I am starting to believe that the TCH was actually tuned too much towards battery life because I can drive my company FEH around in a parking lot at anywhere from 1-15mph and it will run in EV mode the whole time. My TCH however will start the ICE almost immediately from a dead stop and will continue to idle while driving at low speeds. The only time my TCH seems to go in EV mode is when I'm either coasting to a stop or if I'm stopped at a light or something. I'm wondering if a "stealth" mode will be discovered like with the Prius where you can use EV for up to 40mph as long as you’re not wide open throttle and your battery isn’t to low.

 

I left my TCH undriven for a one week period. I don't honestly remember the state of charge when I left, but after one week of not being driven, the battery condition was middle of the graph, so it did apparently lose a fair amount of charge. I can see Toyota picking two weeks as a safe timeline to leave a TCH undriven.

 

Absolutely! Sometimes driving at 40mph HSD will drop into EV mode, but often it will just happily continue to run off the engine. You have to get into the habit of letting off the go pedal completely for just 1/2 second to coax the system into EV mode, then lightly reapply pressure to the go pedal.

I've read some posts where this has happened to a few people with Prius cars. Apparently its due to the power required to keep the Smart Key radios operating, and that if the car is not going to be driven for some time the smart key entry system should be disabled.