Battery Charging

[Csaba]

I bought a GS450h a month ago.

I like it very much, but on the energy monitor I've never seen the battery fully charged (green icon). For example if I'am driving for an hour on a motorway, the battery is still blue and the car is using and charging the battery in turn.

I bring back the car to Lexus and they said they measuring the battery and everything is normal.

Is it really normal?

[cduluk]

It's extremely rare for the battery to be 100% full. On my Rx400h it usually stays at least 2 bars below max.

It's completely normal <_<

[maseace]

I get a full charge regularly since the way to my house has a long downhill stretch of about 1/2 mile. With my other hybrid (Prius), sometimes it gets such a full charge it has to bleed off the excess charge by starting/stopping the ICE several times while waiting at the stoplight at the bottom of the hill (waste of fuel in my opinion). Haven't had the RX400h do that yet, but I've only had it for a couple weeks in warmer weather. Battery capacity decreases in colder weather so it's easier to build up a charge on the hybrid traction battery.

[RX400h]

I, too coast down a long hill on the way home and almost always see a fully-charged condition display. Of course, if you don't live in an area that has its share of hills, you may not see this very often.

[Vaima120]

On my Rx400h it also usually stays at least 2 bars below max.

For example, I experimented to drive in a mountain, descending during 50 miles without accelerating at all, and I finaly saw one green bar!

The Lexus specialist tested everything, but all is normal he said.