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Originally Posted by slajeune
The article says that the best way to accelerate to cruising speed (for city driving) is to accelerate with about 50% ASST and then, try to be as light as possible on the accelerator once the cruising speed is reached. The cruising speed should be reached within a few seconds.
Does this still apply for the 2006?
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I'm curious about this too. On the one hand, you will use more gas when using 50% assist because the assist level seems to be a function of throttle position (or more precisely, rate of change of throttle position), so the engine is running at higher RPM's. On the other hand, you get up to speed faster. I haven't figured out yet where the sweet spot is on my 06. It's really difficult to accelerate without ANY assist though.
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Originally Posted by slajeune
I have also read the threads where at low speed, the civic can go into EV mode only, this would be optimal in city driving. So once cruising speed is reached, we should strive to go into EV mode.
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I've found that the best general technique is to just try to coast as much as possible. You can use the EV mode to extend your coasting distance. Rather than thinking of it as 'trying to get into EV mode', you can accelerate up to speed, then take your foot off the gas until the ICE shuts off (zero fuel flow, new in the 06). Then, apply just enough throttle pressure to extend your coast to the next light/stop sign. Depending on how far you need to coast, that may be anywhere from no throttle pressure (allowing a few bars of regen if the battery needs it) to enough pressure to get a few bars of assist without turning the ICE back on (true EV mode). This takes some practice, and I couldn't do it when I first got my 06, but ~300 miles into the first tank it is becoming second nature (and I haven't done that much city driving).
Oh, and congrats on your purchase!!!