My wife and I test drove a '07 HCH this weekend. And I have a couple of questions that the salesman didn't seem to know.

I own a Ford Escape Hybrid, and it is able to run on complete battery power at low accelerations and slow speeds. We noticed that on the HCH, this wasn't possible. When you take your foot off the brake, the engine kicks on. Why is that? I love the fact that I can use all electric in my HCH in parking lots and in my neighborhood. That aspect of the HCH annoyed me. But, I guess I can get past it if there is a good reason for it.

Along those lines, the main annoyance we have with the FEH is that when the engine is off at idle or slow speeds and the A/C is "On", the air will warm up because, I think, the A/C compressor runs off the engine. (This is unless you put the A/C on the "Max" setting which over-rides the engine shut off keeping the engine on and the A/C cold). In the HCH, if we would have sat at a stop with the engine off for long enough, would we have felt the air get warmer? If so, is there an over-ride like on my FEH?

The one we test drove didn't have a NAV system, and we think we would want one with the NAV. How do you guys like the factory NAV system?

Thanks for any info you may have.

The HCH implements Honda's IMA technology in that it is a parallel hybrid. In other words the electric motor is directly connected to the gas engine's crankshaft. This means that if one turns so does the other.
The Prius and FEH happen to be serial/parallel hybrids, which allows the gas engine and the electric motors to power the vehicle independently of each other.
Also, the HCH-2 cannot propel the car in EV from a stand-still because the combination of the electric motor and the battery pack, do not provide that much power. So no EV-only for low speeds on the HCH-II.
The HCH-II can however be propelled by electric motor only at almost ANY speed above 20MPH or so. (too high a speed and the EV is not strong enough), but even that is not where the biggest HCH-II strengths are.
In fact, if you do mostly highway and steady state driving then the HCH-II really shines because its true strength lies in the very sophisticated gas engine, extreme high "gearing of its CVT" and low Cd.


The HCH-2 will retain a working AC even when the gas engine is stopped. This is because the car has a hybrid scroll compressor that is powered by the gas engine, the IMA (electric) or a combination of the two. At a red light the electric portion of the compressor will run thus allowing the gas engine to shut down.

Here's a quick run-down of its features:
http://world.honda.com/HDTV/news/2005-4050705b/


Cheers;

MSantos

Thanks for the info and link. That helps a lot.

Just to clarify a couple of things...

When you are driving at low constant speeds and the car is only being powered by the electric motor, does the Tach still register something or does it go to 0 like in idle stop mode?

Also, if you are sitting at a stand still in traffic for a very long time with the A/C running only off the electric motor/compressor and the hybrid battery gets drained, does the engine automatically kick on? Or does the air coming out of your vents just start to warm up? That would be a very rare situation, at least where I live. But, I'm just curious.

Thanks again,

Mark

Because the electric motor is connected to the engine's crankshaft, you will always get an RPM reading when operating on EV only. The way to tell you're on EV, is to see the RPM living in the 1000 rpm zone, the fuel consumption is 0 (100+MPG) and the EV assist is one bar or higher.

When the battery gets too low while at a stop with the AC running, the gas engine will start automatically to power the AC and recharge the battery.

MSantos

The fuel consumption is 0gpm, but it's infinately more than 100mpg when the valves are shut since there is no fuel used (1mi/0g = #/DIV0! ). The 100mpg is just where the gauge maxes out.

To some degree, all three happen. When the ICE goes into autostop, the air gets just a tiny bit warmer almost right away. It's still comfortably cool though. The battery will drain some and at a certain point the ICE will kick back in automatically.

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

Thanks a lot for the information.

What about the Navigation system? Do you guys like it? The salesman we talked to said it was capable of taking voice commands. Is that right? If so, does it work well?


Mark

RE: NAV

I like mine.

It does do voice commands, but I rarely use any of them. Some people have trouble with the Nav system understanding you, due to road (or tire) noise.

I occasionally ask it to turn the AC off (or on), and it screws that up sometimes. I'm sure if I used the voice commands more, I'd get the hang of it. It IS cool, I just don't use it much.

The Navigation (maps-n-such) part is quite good. A LARGE screen feels much safer to take the occasional glance at. Most of your portable auto GPS units have 3-4 inch screens. The ones with BIG screens are usually quite expensive. I imagine the standard screen-sizes will go up in the near future, but for now, an in-dash unit has about the largest screens available.

I find myself using the mapping, & finding restaurants (and phone numbers) often.

I also use the PCMCIA card slot for MP3s. I've got a cheapo Compact Flash adapter and a 2GB CF card. It holds a lot of tunes, and is very nice. You can also create a CD-R of MP3s, and play that on the Single-disc CD slot.

Not sure this all adds up to $1500, but it really added to the "feel of luxury" for my HCH2

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL