RX400H regenerative braking disengages before the traction battery is charged.

[MrHockey]

I drive down a hill on a regular basis, a highway off ramp, with a stop sign at the bottom.  As I brake I can see the power created by monitoring the kilowatt gauge, the needle dives into the blue showing the results of regenerative braking.  After about 4 car lengths the needle returns to zero even though I continue braking for many more car lengths. I can feel the reduction in braking when regenerative braking disengages and compensate by pressing on the brakes a little harder.  Meantime I am monitoring the traction battery graphics, the one that show how fully charged the battery is, and it show the battery is 3 or 4 bars below full.  So if the traction battery is not full why is the Regen braking disenging so quickly?  If I release the brakes for an instant a Mb d then apply them I can get the kilowatt Gage to dive into the blue again, and I can repeat this several times but with each cycle the amount the needle dives is less as is the duration.  The car is not throwing any codes.  As for fuel mileage, it's close to what it should be but I think it is slighty low, but it is hard to say for sure.  My sense is it is lower by approximately 1mpg.  If the regenerative braking would stay engaged for the duration of the hill this would go a long way toward topping up the traction battery.  The only thing I can think of is the graphics are lagging behind the actually state of the battery.  And I should mention I cannot remember the last time I saw the traction battery full.

Edited January 11, 2017 by MrHockey