Quote:
Originally Posted by ag4ever
Yes, but from an economics point of view, the non-hybrid will get nearly the same lousy warmup mileage as the hybrid, as both engine will be running in a open loop warm up cycle, and the battery assist will help very little to boost the warm up mileage.
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Perhaps... then again we have been unable to back that up through empirical evidence.
We've literally taken a set of 06 Civic LX (1.8 liters I-4) and compared their instantaneous mileage (Via ODB-II readers) to that of 2 06 Civic hybrids. We did that when we were evaluating the units for city Taxi duty.
We found that during the first 5 minutes of operation at -10C the 06 LX vehicles were hitting 13 liters/100km while the 06 Hybrids were registering 8.5-9.0 liters/100km. This is a measurable diference in part attributed to the design and operating characteristics of the engines as well as their nominal displacements (1.8l versus 1.3l).
Yes, the hybrid versions pay a price for the additional weight particularly when that weight can help very little in terms of motive power. But despite this efficiency handicap, the net result still appears to give the advantage to a hybrid powertrain.
We believe that from subsequent observations, this assessment is at least apllicable when comparing similar vehicles.
Cheers;
MSantos