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Old 06-22-2007, 10:30 PM
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Pravus Prime Pravus Prime is offline
Prof. of Hybridology
 
Real Name: Rich
Location: Michigan
Hybrids: 2006 Ford Escape 4WD
Posts: 1,973
Default Re: Slight surging and hesitation when cruising?

I hate it when people who don't own a vehicle chime in about said vehicles performance. However, if I may:

One thing that takes some getting used to with the HSD systems (Toyota/Nissan and Ford), is that when the system detects that you don't need much power, and the battery can be charged, it will start to divert power to recharge the battery, this happens frequently when you let go of the pedal when you've reached crusing speed and no longer need to accelerate. As it's recharging, either back up to capacity because the ICE is running and there's room, or because the battery was recently depleted so it's in a charging cycle, the vehicle feels like it's pulling back, your coasting results in a surprising amount of deceleration and that you've got to push harder to speed up, or in some cases maintain a high speed. That's because during that time, the ICE is both propelling the vehicle and recharging the battery.

At other times, especially at lower speeds, if the battery is full, it'll be more apt to use up that energy, giving you extra power in an attempt to bleed off excess energy that it has, so that next time you slow down, there's someplace for that power to be stored, resulting in what could be called power surges, where you let go of the brake and you actually accelerate slowly.

These don't happen that often, and with skillful piloting, their effects can be minimized, and aren't anything to be alarmed about. If you have a power display, that shows where energy is going and coming from, as well as a battery state of charge dispay, it becomes even easier to control.

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