After having driven about 2000 miles on my 2008 RX hybrid, i noticed that the battery is never at 100% charge. Is that normal?
FYI - The car has 20k miles and I average about 28+ mpg.

TIA

 

Yes. Normal. Toyota's reseach indicated between 20% and 80% is best for long life of the battery. The odd time, if you drive agressively so the ICE runs often, you may see it bump into the green zone, or if you are in a hilly area, and it's mostly downhill you can also bump into the green.

 

Cool, thanks for the answer.

 

How often does the charge on your hybrid battery go low enough that the engine has to kick in while the hybrid battery recharges? Just recently, I feel as though it's been happening more often in my rx400h. Today, was stuck in stop and go traffic on the highway for maybe 15-20 minutes, using mostly just the hybrid battery during that time. This drained the hybrid battery to the point that the engine had to kicked while it recharged. The day before, was doing some stop and go driving in the city for about the same amount of time, which also led to the engine kicking in. Is this pretty much normal? Thanks!

 

This is absolutely normal. All energy used by the battery, which of course is much greater during stop and go traffic when running solely on battery, must be replaced (i.e. battery recharged) by the engine and a small amount by regeneration during braking. There is no free ride!

 

Thanks riwyle!