What to do when storing a hybrid

Thanks Steven, that's looking like the best option. A pain having the battery in the boot - do you leave the door wide open, or just ajar? I'm not sure if it can be moved manually.

Yes, we just leave it ajar and not wide open. Agree it is a pain, had to open it manually by opening the hatch in the door and not the easiest thing to do if you are not agile.

.
. "Just use a simple 3 stage charger."
Agreed, or maybe a 3 Amp 240v/12v battery maintainer which simply holds the battery at full charge. That is what I have in the Sprinter for the lead-acid starter battery.

Owner's manual requires a crash course in double Dutch, so unfortunately not much help :-(

Listen up Wildmax. I don't think you've thought it through... If its in DD then it should be at least twice as understandable...

Agree but the OP is talking about the 12V battery.

The EV battery is usually lithium which should hold its charge longer than a 12V lead/acid battery.

You think disconnecting the 12v battery doesn't effect the EV battery?

The owners manual for my Corolla cross hybrid indicates to disconnect the battery negative lead before charging. Doesn't mention any thing about anti spike or anti surge measures needing to be employed just to disconnect the negative lead. It also shows how to connect and vehicle to allow jump starting and again doesn't mention any surge or spike prtotection being required so it would appear the 12V side is just as robust as any 12V vehicle.

The reason the battery goes flat so quickly is because it is about saving fuel. The selling point for hybrids is that they are fuel efficient, to acheive this as well as having the hybrid drive setup the vehicle has special low rolling resistance tyres and the car is manufactured as light as possible which includes putting a small 45Ah 12V battery in them which yes isn't the smartest idea. How serious are they about the weight issue, my Corolla cross is the all wheel drive version. To acheive all wheel drive they put another electric motor in the rear, as part of this upgrade they need to move a power cable connector which ends up being located where the spare wheel normally goes so no spare wheel on those model which I thought is just stupidity and what engineer came up with that idea as there was plenty of other places they could have put the plug. Having pondered on this though I now think they put the plug where it is as it was convenient and they always had not intended to fit a spare wheel to these models offset some of the extra of the rear motor assembly.

I have seen a 55Ah battery which appears to be the same foot print and might give a few days more idle time.

I have also looked at a Lithium drop in replacement but the only one I could find in the same battery package was targeted for racing cars so was lighter and had less capacity than the lead acid and would only give about the same idle time. I'm Hoping by the time the battery needs replacing in my unit there will be a battery with a higher Ah capacity available but probably not.

As the 12V battery is charged by the hybrid inverter one would have thought they would have simply made it so that the hybrid system would recharge the 12V battery if it got low while parked up but there probably worried they traction battery could get drained the problem then being that traction battery is used to start the internal combustion engine which would mean you would have to have the car towed to someone who has the equipment to put some charge into the high voltage traction battery.

There not that serious about saving weight they still use lots of steel when there has been other materials like carbon fibre available for years but mainly used in Europe for luxury or expensive supercars etc. It is expensive but costs should come down when all car manufacturers get on board but who will take the first step towards mass production of the more popular every day cars.
There was a documentary years ago about how car weights have increased by approx one third instead of reducing.
Like most things in the world people keep adding and not reducing which adds kinetic energy and impact energy for eg only the 75 air bags that cars have in them ha and heavy drive line because of the amount of power people think they need to have these days to sit in traffic congestion on a daily basis but you have to beef up areas to support that it would be a never ending battle that stops where ?
Then there's the usually lame excuse of progress which is usually just a half ars#d excuse to hide faults or to deter attention from the real truth about it being money hungry people in this world that want to empty your wallet and fill theirs.
How many buttons dials etc etc in the average car actually get used by the owner probably not many.

In my Corolla there would be very few buttons that I would not use from time to time. Toyota stayed with buttons and many manufacuters are going back to them. My wifes Mazda is mostly menu driven via a rotary knob and it is a pain in bum. From memory Mazda is one of the manufactures that has indicated they will be going back to buttons.

Problems with things like carbon fibre is change of production methods, much easier to stamp out a metal sheet than to lay up carbon fibre, and then there is the repair factor, might be acceptable with luxury cars but cheaper and easier to knock out a dent in metal than repair/replace carbon fibre.

Thanks Nick. For that trip last year I ended up just getting a mate to drive the car for me every couple of weeks, so not a problem. This time he's coming with us :-)