can the prius be practical in a traffic congested place like Lagos, Nigeria?

Q: can it survive in traffic for hours on end? imagine you are stuck in traffic and the electric motor is in control(since it is less than 30mph), won't it wear out the battery quick? hence it can only be used in a place like the usa. right?

A: Not a problem. There are many Toyota Prius being used as taxicabs in New York City, San Francisco, Vancouver, and other major North American cities. If you are sitting in traffic for a long time, the gasoline engine will turn on just to act as a generator to recharge the hybrid battery. You don't have to worry about it. The displayed charge on the HYBRID battery (seen on the Energy Monitor) rarely ever reaches "full" or "empty" but prefers to stay at a happy medium. The display only shows you the useable area of charge on the hybrid battery, displayed "empty" is about 40% and displayed "full" is about 80%. Actual charge levels of a NHW20 Prius can be seen at: http://www.privatenrg.com/#Full_SOC The two bottom pink bars are about 40-47.5% battery charge. The most common middle four blue bars are about 45-66.5% battery charge. The two top green bars are about 64-81% battery charge. Quoting from a June 22, 2004 Toyota press release: http://pressroom.toyota.com/photo_library/display_release.html?id=20040623 http://pressroom.toyota.com/Releases/View?id=TYT2004062345528 The Prius battery (and the battery-power management system) has been designed to maximize battery life. In part this is done by keeping the battery at an optimum charge level - never fully draining it and never fully recharging it. As a result, the Prius battery leads a pretty easy life. We have lab data showing the equivalent of 180,000 miles with no deterioration and expect it to last the life of the vehicle. .... To quote from Toyota: http://www.toyota.com/html/hybridsynergyview/2006/fall/battery.html Q: Do they [the hybrid batteries] ever run out of power? GS: No. A computer makes sure the batteries never discharge completely. They never fill completely, either. " So yes, it is normal to not see the battery display on the Energy Screen reach green/full very often. (Even when it does read "full" - like after coasting down a long hill/mountain - the battery still isn't charged to full, to prolong the battery life.) It is also not common to see a low/pink battery icon either - usually a long uphill climb or heavy AC use (since the NHW20's AC is electrically-powered off of the hybrid battery, and is not a conventional belt-driven off the engine AC (like on the Classic Prius)). There is no reason to be concerned at all to see the battery level at either extreme. The car takes care of itself, and you don't have to do anything special. (Turn off the display, or just stay on the more useful Consumption Monitor.) If the hybrid battery is too low on charge, the Prius will just turn on the gasoline engine to recharge it if necessary. If the hybrid battery is too high on charge, it'll bleed off as much energy as needed by running on electric only or occasionally by spinning the gasoline engine with the electric motor (similar to B mode). I'll note that the older Classic NHW11 Prius does not have any color changes on its battery icon on the Energy monitor... Normally just sits on 3/4, occasionally on 1/2, rarely to either 1/4 or "full."

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