I can address the one mention of 'charge not coming on at certain speeds when I coast'...

A couple of weeks ago, Xcel and I discovered that under the right conditions, coasting regen will be skipped. Depending on how fast you're going, brake regen will be skipped as well.

Before you think... 'oops...it's broken' - there's an advantage to this - and Xcel thinks that it's by design (although Honda will probably never acknowledge this, because they guard their IMA logic so closely).

The advantage is that you will coast faster, without slowing down so fast. Regen slows the car down faster than regular coasting...so if you're driving for FE, there are certain times where you *don't* want regen. I don't have many occasions to use it myself, but I *can* force the condition...here's what I've noticed so far...

Under 20mph, and gradual release of pressure from the accelerator - regen is very rare (brake or coast)

Under 40mph, and *very* gradual release of brake (use this for lightly traveled roads, when you see a long way to coast before your stop, and no one's close behind you) - coast regen can be skipped; once you get past 20mph, you'll skip brake regen as well.

This is fairly hard to do deliberately - if you're trying it, and start seeing charge bars, put your foot back on the accelerator until you see the bars go away, then ease your foot off the gas again, lighter this time. However, most of the time, once I see the bars start, they'll keep coming back for that cycle, no matter how many times I retry it. Since I've generally run out of the coasting portion of road, I generally don't retry after I see the charge bars.

One more note - I can more easily skip brake regen than I can coast regen, due to the fact that I'm often coasting down to < 20mph by the time I have to hit the brake.

Xcel can chime in with other good reasons to force skipping regen, if any exist. It may be that fewer discharge / recharge cycles are beneficial to the pack, as well.

Mark

Sometimes we could all use a little less

My hybrid automobiles:

Current:
2006 Honda Civic Hybrid (CVT, w/o Nav)
Magnetic Pearl / Blue - 008661, born 12/28/05
Mods: Neck pillows, Garmin C330 Nav, Draw-tite 1.25" hitch (for bikes, not towing!), Pioneer Inno XM receiver via Aux jack, OEM mud flaps, more to come!

Hypermiler status on 3/12/06 @ 3077mi.

Previous:
2005 Honda Accord Hybrid (5AT/Navi)
Desert Mist / Ivory - 001254
Retired 1/21/06 - LMPG 34.1

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