A few comments after 580 miles today - mainly non-interstate highway in rolling country with quite a few small towns. Indicated fuel consumption was 37.8 mpg - I had it nearly to 40, but then my co-driver took the controls and it fell back some. Ambient temperature was 45 - 62 - 45 deg F. I am happy to see EPA estimates already being achieved with a tight engine.
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The item I am looking for and have not really read of are the critical fine points of real world FE in temps, how natural or “grabby” is the Regen during braking as well as transition to the mechanicals, VCM enabling/disabling load transitions, and SoC variations in a variety of traffic conditions
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VCM kicking in or out is not perceptible from the passenger seat and feels about like a shift from 5th gear to 5.25 gear when driving, if you know what I mean. Assist only helped on uphills about 5% of the time according to the gauge, with no apparent pattern. Normally transition was into VCM at the crest and out of VCM about halfway up the uphill segment.
The regen is pretty natural - feels slightly more in gear than a normal automatic when slowing (although not as much as a manual transmission). The transmission downshifts smoothly but perceptibly when slowing/coasting to a stop. There is a more noticable decoupling of the transmission when auto-stop kicks in around 10 miles per hour as you are coasting or braking for a stop. The regen meter shows about halfway when coasting down, and between 50 and 100% depending on the brake application.
SOC I have noted is between 2 bars and 5 bars (out of 6). At 2 bars, the regen/charge indicator shows that the battery is being charged by the engine at times, but autostop still functions. Have also noted once or twice that with 5 bars, regen/charge indicator indicated no charge on slowing or braking, but I have not determined a pattern for this behaviour.
Extex