Well just wanted to fill everyone in on my first fill-up.

This week was a rather odd week. We test drove the car we bought 2 weeks ago this past Friday. We picked it up a week ago this past Friday. We drove the car a little bit Friday, and rested it on Saturday, and drove it on Sunday.

Thanks for all the tips. I know I won't be a hypermiler, but the tips get me great mileage in the difficult driving of Long Island.

So we got the car for my wife to commute in the NY HOV lane once we move. In the meantime she walks to work and I drive everyday. We've pretty much retired our 2003 Acura TL Type S that is on lease ending June 26. We love that car, it handles great, has plenty of space, has been very safe and is mega-powerful with 260HP and 232 Ft/lb. Tourque (old measurements, probably more like 240-250 HP by new SAE standards).

So I got to break in the Civic Hybrid all last week from Monday-Friday. Well wouldn't you know it, I didn't have to drive on Monday. Tuesday through Friday I drove it back and forth to work, about 40 miles round trip in a LOT of rain. However, Friday afternoon I averaged about 6-7 MPH-no joke-due to a major accident and downed wires some 30 miles away. New York (Long Island) is not a good place to drive...

That took my average from 37 down to 34 rather quickly!!! The battery level went down to 3 bars at one point!!!!

Yesterday (Saturday) we finally had a chance to really drive as we headed some 200 miles round trip to our friends in Long Branch, NJ. Most of the ride was 70-80 MPH with a few slow downs of 5-6 miles once in Brooklyn and twice in Staten Island. Otherwise it was clear sailing.

We filled up with about 8.6 gallons after 333 miles since gas is considerable cheaper in New Jersey than New York. With all that stop-and-go on Friday we still managed a respectable 38.3 MPG-including learning to drive the car and breaking it in.

We sped, we drove hard, we braked, but we still did okay. Had it been the Acura, the best mileage we would have gotten was 17-23 MPG and a range of maybe 290 miles using about 12-14 gallons and paying for PREMIUM.

Suffice to say, we are very happy.

The nicest part? The drive from New Jersey, which is more typical to my daily commute, the trip computer showed about 44.5 MPG so I know we are on the right track (and we sped and hit some backup in Staten Island).

Now only 1 time have I had the battery at full charge-just today, and that lasted for a minute. What is the benefit/goal of the fully charged battery? Why does it take so long to charge it and how can I minimize assist?

Thanks and good motoring everyone-we are so happy with the car!!!

Michael

A full charge is not a goal. You're probably better off with less than a full charge most of the time, so that when you slow down getting off the highway for example you can use regenerative braking. Driving on Long Island, which is mostly flat, you will probably stay at less than a full charge most of the time.

Similarly, minimizing assist is not a goal. The assist when accelerating from a stop or starting up a hill improves your FE. Of course you have to make up for it at some point with regen. If you were stuck in traffic a lot and found your batteries drained to 3 bars I suspect that you didn't drive as efficiently as you could. You probably accelerated too aggressively from a stop every time traffic started moving, and used a lot of assist each time. But since traffic was still very slow overall, you seldom got any regen. Try accelerating more gradually. It's okay if the car in front of you opens a 100 ft gap. Traffic is slow. You'll catch up. If you're too worried about cars cutting in front of you (I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case on LI) then you're going to burn a lot of extra gas keeping that gap small.

2006 HCH Alabaster Silver w/Navi
2003 Honda Accord LX

People tend to forget that the engine has IMA - Integrated Motor Assist as the name implies to give the car the performance of a bigger engine (1.8L). You should use assist. That is the whole point of the car. Assist is free energy that as the previous post said will help you accelerate more quickly from a standing start or when more power is called for. I find the acceleration between say 50 and 70 really excellent especially for passing slower vehicles. Don't worry about the IMA battery, the computer will do all the work for you, just enjoy this brilliant car!

Thanks for the advice. Actually the North Shore of Long Island is very hilly and the roads are built so hodge podge that they tend to rise and fall due to construction and reconstruction needs more often than reacting to the hills.

As far as the starting, I actually tried to ever so lightly touch the accelerator (otherwise the car tended to stand still) and I tried to glide as much as possible...unfortunately there was no way of knowing when things would take off and as smooth as I tried to be, the traffic at 7-8 MPH tops often was moving at 3-4 MPH. I have a feeling the accelerator pedal (since it is drive by wire) has not "broken in" yet and is very stiff so it is hard to give a gradual push to the accelerator without getting a bar or two of assist no matter how hard I tried. I even moved down to S & L a few times but with no luck.

Thanks again and I'll try to be more careful.

Michael

I personally agree that you might as well use assist otherwise you not really making full use of your hybrid.

I'm pretty sure Wayne would disagree and he is one of the best hypermilers around. I think he would suggest using as little assist as possible.
YMMV

One reason why this is deceptive is because the scales are not linear, one bar of charging is only putting about half as much power back in as one bar of assist draws out-- assist draws about 100amps of power, regen can only put in about 50amps at a time, but for aesthetics, they made both scales the same size. The reason max charging is less current that max assist is simply a physical limitation of the battery chemistry. Also, most of the time, there will be a gradual load on the engine to recharge the battery pack, with occasional supplement from regenerative braking. This is evident because when the pack is absolutely full, you should get slightly more MPGs at the same constant speed, and/or be able to coast in-gear further. The problem with a full pack is you won't be able to capture necessary braking power.

If you are normally not using assist at all, or using very minimal assist, that may mean that for your commute, you could actually do better with a slightly smaller engine. If you are constantly draining the assist, and incurring charging, you could benefit from a larger engine that would be handle a higher sustained load (such as someone living in the mountains). This is why I wish Honda would have given us a few controls to "tune" the IMA sensitivity to our own commutes.

Anyway, there are ways to control IMA use. One way to do this is by driving with load to get up hills: to reduce assist, accelerate gradually as you approach the hill and pick up extra speed, then hold the heaviest pedal position you can without triggering assist to maintain momentum. The use more IMA, accelerate a bit more briskly before the hill, and hold the lightest pedal position you can while still triggering assist. Both should indicate about 40mpg on the display, but the method with assist should keep your speed up more -- do that if you know you will have an opportunity to get regenerative braking soon, otherwise, assist will need to be repaid with direct charging.

On the flat ground, to use more assist, what I will sometimes do when accelerating from a stop is get on the gas hard just for a second to pick up the quick torque boost from IMA, but then quickly back off before the CVT decides to lower the gear ratio and wind up the RPMs. This maneuver is a bit tricky but should keep the assist going and the gear ratio somewhat taller. To minimize assist when accelerating, such as onto a freeway onramp (where you know you won't have an opportunity to regen brake for a long time) you can shift into "S" mode which will hold lower gear ratios and rev the engine more, while saving battery power.