I've thought of this too. I would love to just top off my small HCH battery at night. I could use EV mode maximally on my way home and deplete down to 30%. Then back up to 80% or so. Wouldn't make a huge difference but I bet I could go to 55 mpg from 50. Obviously shorter trips would benefit more.

Billyk - I think the HCH can EV up to about 65 miles per hour. It won't hold that speed but will allow EV mode. I would think you would do a lot of P&G to maximize electric use. So you would pulse up to 65 - and glide in EV mode until you fell down to 45 miles per hour or whatever - it would deplete the battery fast.

I would also want a button to prevent regen. You could pulse to speed and glide as long as possible without regen.

I would love to see calcs with a 1 mile trip, 5 mile trip and 10 mile trip using a HCH PHEV lite - Does the battery hold enough to travel .5 mile at say 30 miles per hour? Now - a block heater would clearly be needed for such a short trip.

Hey - if you could get a charger/block heater combo for a few hundred $$ - wouldn't it be worth it? (after the warranty of course...)