Hi All:

___A bit of Insight With an Insight 5-speed, hidden charging as it is commonly described has been understood for years. At steady highway cruise, the SoC no matter where it was at the time you started her up will work its way back up towards 19 of 20 bars as long as you are not using Assist in any fashion. In very cold temps, hidden and even sometimes forced charging can be seen as there is a hidden and non-hidden forced charge to warm up the pack. This can be seen as 4 bars of non-hidden Charging when just driving off or idling from an initial very cold start … We are talking 5 degrees F and below type temperatures for the forced non-hidden charging to warm up the pack irregardless of SoC from the night before.

___And to help answer some other questions about hidden charging on the HCH although this is Insight specific … Having your headlights on will always induce hidden charging up to 19 of 20 bars on the Insight. By Hot_Georgia_2004’s HCH detailed experiences of day/night driving, I can bet the HCH’s BCM is doing the exact same during the night time hours. In other words, with the headlights on, you are receiving hidden charging and it will take the SoC right back up to its std. 80% of max cap or 19 of 20 bars. This is as it was designed to do.

___What I do not understand or necessarily like is that the HCH does not run any hidden charging in day light hours to bring the pack back up to 19 of 20 bars? This is not anything like the Insight 5-speeds.

___Lakedude, we are going to have to exchange vehicles sometime this summer as I really need to get behind the wheel of an HCH for some distance hypermiling to learn its inner secrets. The fact I want to receive 70 + mpg over a lengthy segment from one wouldn’t have anything to do with it … Trust me on this

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net