Ever since buying the Toyota Highlander Hybrid I've wondered what would happen if I chanced to leave the lights on and ran the battery down. Because in addition to the common automobile 12 volt battery, the Highlander has several hundred pounds of higher voltage batteries that are actually used to run the car when electric power makes more sense than gasoline power.
Well, I need wonder no longer. This morning I went out to retrieve something from my car and noticed that the interior lights were awfully dim. Hhhmmmm, I thought as I circled the car and found the drivers side looking like this:
I opened it to find that the seat belt buckle had prevented the door from closing completely. If I'd tried to lock the car the alarm would have let me know a door was ajar but I didn't so it didn't. And, yes, this car acts exactly like other cars with discharged batteries, it doesn't start.
And that's when I'm thinking "power, power everywhere" but I couldn't tap into it. Fortunately, we have a jumper battery in the garage. I connected the cables like I would any other jumper battery, got into the Highlander and started the car. It idled for several minutes then dropped into all electric mode. I didn't think it would actually charge the battery in that mode so I turned it off and continued to prepare for my day.
I put the charging battery into my car just in cast I needed it. I didn't.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
ReplyDeleteThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner
That is interesting though that the power batteries are sufficiently issolated from the main one that it can't start the car. On the one hand it is good that they don't also get worn down by leaving a door unlocked, but on the other hand it would be nice to have the backup power.
I'm reminded of an idea Edward once had to put some kind of a plug on cars for jump starting. Admittedly jump starting is not something anyone ever plans on, but it happens often enough that you would think a large plug might be installed rather than fooling around with bare probes that spark if not connected properly.