So it could just be that I'm really babying the car and my engine load isn't always high enough, so I don't see the regen very much.
I could swear I saw the regen during very slow acceleration too - don't know if anyone has seen that.
- Yes you can. Anytime the engine senses it has more power than it needs at that moment. Could've been a localized dip in the road, wind gust, accidental jerk of your foot, etc that reduced the engine demand, even during acceleration. You will come to recognize how sensitive the system is to your foot's movement- things that have no visible effect on the speedo are still sensed and reacted to.
I rarely see the assist - I assume it's because I'm not driving it very hard at all.
- probably. Drive harder and see if you see it more.
I got about 28.8 mpg on the way to work this morning on surface streets with a fair amount of stop and go but lots of "ECO".
- sounds about right.
I've decided that the power of this vehicle to save gas is really two things:
1) The will of the driver to save gas
2) The constant feedback so that the driver can retrain for gas-saving behavior.
I think if we just added a real-time mpg update to every regular car, you would see gas consumption go down for people who wanted to save gas. It's just that right now, they don't know how to do it.
I'm confident that I will be able to make 40 mpg without a problem if I want to.
Also, on a slightly unrelated note:
I did discover that the reason my Auto-Stop wasn't working yesterday was because I was using the defroster setting for the A/C (it probably assumes that if you're using the defroster, it's very cold outside and disables the auto-stop). By the way, the auto-stop is great! I'm already getting used to it and the lack of noise is welcome - I'm sure the first time I idle in a regular car I will notice the idling.
--- yes, I think its in the manual- the compressor is always on when the defroster is on- thus the engine is on. Even if the display reads "AC off" Not temp related, just engine load- max AC will clear the glass quickest. Same thing will happen if you leave the temp control to 'Lo' instead of a specific temp.
Only 36 hours with the thing and I'm already starting to feel like I know what's going on
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Its a fun car on so many levels!
Wes