How to charge the battery?

Just like any normal car, you have to jump start your car or replace the battery.

Your owner's manual has complete information on that.

The battery is in the trunk and is easily removed, once you open the hatch; however, Toyota has thoughtfully provided jumper posts under the hood so you can just jump start it.

Read your owner's manual. It has all this information.

The manual is incomprehensible. For the start, it doesn't explain how to open the hatch. After lots of trying, I found the button under the hatch, found the stick which should keep it opened, and found the hole for this stick (this part was the hardest, it is well hiddened). I easily found the auxiliary battery, opened it, found "+", but was unable to find "-", no matter how hard I tried. The small picture in the manual is incomprehensible. It seems that "-" is somewhere in the right upper part, far away from the battery, near the tank. The sentence "Connect the clamp on the negative (black) jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the booster battery" doesn't help at all. Where is the negative terminal?

The manual is incomprehensible. For the start, it doesn't explain how to open the hatch. After lots of trying, I found the button under the hatch, found the stick which should keep it opened, and found the hole for this stick (this part was the hardest, it is well hiddened). I easily found the auxiliary battery, opened it, found "+", but was unable to find "-", no matter how hard I tried. The small picture in the manual is incomprehensible. It seems that "-" is somewhere in the right upper part, far away from the battery, near the tank. The sentence "Connect the clamp on the negative (black) jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the booster battery" doesn't help at all. Where is the negative terminal?

The manual is incomprehensible. For the start, it doesn't explain how to open the hatch. After lots of trying, I found the button under the hatch, found the stick which should keep it opened, and found the hole for this stick (this part was the hardest, it is well hiddened). I easily found the auxiliary battery, opened it, found "+", but was unable to find "-", no matter how hard I tried. The small picture in the manual is incomprehensible. It seems that "-" is somewhere in the right upper part, far away from the battery, near the tank. The sentence "Connect the clamp on the negative (black) jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the booster battery" doesn't help at all. Where is the negative terminal?

The manual is incomprehensible. For the start, it doesn't explain how to open the hatch. After lots of trying, I found the button under the hatch, found the stick which should keep it opened, and found the hole for this stick (this part was the hardest, it is well hiddened). I easily found the auxiliary battery, opened it, found "+", but was unable to find "-", no matter how hard I tried. The small picture in the manual is incomprehensible. It seems that "-" is somewhere in the right upper part, far away from the battery, near the tank. The sentence "Connect the clamp on the negative (black) jumper cable to the negative (-) terminal on the booster battery" doesn't help at all. Where is the negative terminal?

I don't know why my post continues to appear again and again. I posted it only once.

Maybe because you haven't found the negative post...

On a Prius? There is no "stick that keeps it opened".

And if your battery is dead (it's not an aux battery, it's the car's battery, just like a conventional car), then the hatch won't open. Hence the jumper posts under the hood.

Are you sure you're talking about a Prius?

On my Gen 2, there is a stick that can prop the panel above the battery in the raised position. I had not noticed for a very long time, and just removed the whole floor panel for access.

What year is your Prius? I have seen 2004-2009 referred to as Gen 3 in the far east and Gen 2 in N. America.

-Al

Yes, I am sure. I wrote about the big hatch which covers are all the batteries, the motor, the tanks, etc. It should be opened before doing anything with the car internals. There is a stick which keeps it opened. (There is also a small hatch above the 12V battery, which I opened also.)

By auxiliary battery, I mean the 12 V battery, as opposed to the

201.5V one. As far as I understand, Prius has two different batteries.

Here is the URL where the term "auxiliary battery" is used:

Now I tried to charge the battery with Hella Power Charger (using the picture), but it failed. Maybe it is still wrong "-" or the charger is incompatible with batteries.

Whatever it is, I think that Prius is poorly designed. Obviously all the lights should be switched off when the battery is almost discharged, leaving enough "juice" to start the car. And "+" and "-" should be clearly marked as such and easy to find.

Those are people who are obssessed with the idea that the Prius is an "electric car," which it's not.

For turning on purposes, there's a battery. It's not an auxiliary battery. The car can't run without it.

There's only one battery that the user worries about--just like on any gasoline car (which the Prius is).

I assume that you mean the hood. It opens the same way that the hood in almost every car.

You found the remote terminal connector for the battery; the battery itself is in the back of the car.

The body of the car is the negative terminal; there is no need for a separate negative connector as with the positive one.

The booster battery is the one you are charging the car's battery from.

There isn't any (-) negative terminal, just the one (+) post because the entire frame of the Prius is the (-) post. Just put the red cable on the (+) post and clip the black cable clamp onto some exposed part attached to the steel frame of the car in the general underhood area.

Yes, if it was an "electric" car, it would run for 100 miles and then you'd have to charge it up at home for 8 hours on slow charge or, alternatively, try to find a rare fast charging station before the battery went dead where you could charge it up in only 30 minutes. A Prius can easily run for 400 miles and then recharge in only 5 minutes.

There's TWO batteries on a Prius. There's the very little 12 volt battery which starts up the computers when you push the 'start' button and powers the 12v systems and then there's the big 100+ volt battery that powers the drive motors. When you 'jump' start the Prius with the

12v power cables from another vehicle, you are just providing 12v power to boot the computers and close the main power relay to bring the big battery online.

For all intents and purposes, there is only one battery when you're talking about the driver interfacing with the car.

How the car manages its energy is immaterial to the user dealing with a battery. Regardless, it is NOT an "auxiliary battery". It is 100% necessary to the operation of the car. Without the battery, the car will not operate.

Thanks, I needed a good laugh.