Quote:
Originally Posted by Gairwyn
Good point. I was reading one of the threads in the FEH hybrid section, and the poster was saying going downhill on a mountain was a very unpleasant experience.
I hadn't thought about it before, with the CVT...when you shift into S or L (or whatever lower gears are called in your particular car) what exactly does it do? If it doesn't "downshift" like a conventional automatic, what exactly does it do? A change in rpms?
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In cars using the Toyota system, there is no transmission in the traditional sense, and no gears to shift (in most vehicles). When in "D" there is no engine braking, but there is regenerative braking which charges the battery and mimics the engine braking one gets with an automatic transmission in "D". The brake pedal increases the regenerative braking as long as the battery isn't fully charged and speed isn't near zero, or uses the conventional friction brakes otherwise. In "B" engine braking is enabled -- the system spins the ICE (consuming no fuel) to absorb energy. This will save the friction brakes if the battery is fully charged.
The effect of "B" is much like shifting to "L" in a conventional automatic, however it feels weird and can be disconcerting because the engine response is opposite of what one would expect -- pressing the accelerator will cause the ICE to slow down until the point where no engine braking is applied then speed up when pressed further. Unlike "L", "B" has no effect when under power. You can drive all the time, at all speeds, in "B", but this will increase fuel consumption because there will be far less energy recovery.