but if I'm not mistaken the idea of gliding is to drive with neither the batteries nor ICE driving the wheels, nor regen going on.

3 Comments:

1) Only on brief occasions have I seen the energy screen go blank (gliding?) where no ICE, no Battery AND no regen. Personally if the car is not accelerating I want it to regen. In this method of gliding you will constantly be speeding up and down and not maintaining speed. The car will slow down. A 3600# mass will slow down no matter how pumped the tires are. If this is "true gliding" then I don't practice it and I don't think it's actually possible for more than a second or so (at least keeping regen from occuring).

2) In the process of (let's call it) "assisted gliding" I believe this is all that is possible unless you're on full E mode, I speed up to or above speed, let off the throttle to either kill the ICE or drop it to the 60 FE mark and then gently apply the throttle to maintain speed or allow gentle but reasonable deacceleration. I get full benefit of battery usage with minimal ICE involvement. In this case the electric 40hp is adequate to maintain speed. As I slow or approach a hill the ICE will kick in (under 42) or gently assist, then as I level off or go down a grade the ICE backs off to stand by operation. I assume this is what you've practiced as well as most others. If it's not gliding, then I'm suggesting it's the only reasonable method of driving the TCH to maximize fuel effeciency.

3) What's the point of NOT using the batteries. In my 15 mile loop, I had stop signs, 25 miles per hour, 35 miles per hour, 45 miles per hour and 55 miles per hour limits. I had flat city streets and rolling rural roads. I watched the energy screen to see the effect on the battery. Only once did it get down to violet, and that was in town running on E mode. When I was doing that I was not getting my best milage of the loop as the ICE would kick on to charge the battery. Slow driving on E feels great, but you're not covering a lot of miles which in turn has little impact on overall tank FE unless that's all you're driving in. When I hit the rural roads, non stop, steady speeds, I was able to let my milage climb (to the above 50 range). It was interesting as I watched the gage drop up hills and rise on down hills, but the battery never got below 3 blue bars, and never got into the green (most of the time it will for me). The computer did an excellent job of keeping an adequate charge to assist when needed and I did the rest by practicing "gliding" when possible.