Hi Moosh:
___With at most a useable .5kWh pack, spun up ICE, and live electronics all the while in EV, you won’t be doing 34 miles per hour in EV mode for very long, that is a guarantee … Another of Honda’s screw ups to get it out on the road instead of designing IMA properly in the first place.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

As Jar Jar Binks would say, "How wude!"

You'd think with the fourth generation they might get it right. Seeing how I can't build a car, I'll have to go with what Honda has to offer. I like the added torque and electric-only mode.

I'm hoping for a PHEV mod sometime in the future. This is the first Honda that has the ability to run on electric only, so I have to assume that the mod has a good chance of happening. Hopefully CalCars or some other group will come up with the technology to replace the batteries and battery control computer for the HCH.

Moosh - You list your hybrids as "2006 Honda Civic Hybrid" How you do that?

Larry
'06 Magnetic Pearl HCH #7264

I typed "2006 Honda Civic Hybrid" in the Hybrids section in my profile. I also added my car to the Mileage Database, which you can do from the Mileage Database section of the website.

Hi Moosh:

___I do not know if you understand how an IMA based Honda’s MGSet is mated to the ICE’s output. If IMA could run separate via clutch based torque converter or whatever and had a much larger and more robust pack, IMA would be a kick-@$$ system the likes that could not be duplicated at any price. Since the MGSet and ICE cannot spin independently, an 06 HCH-II converted to a PHEV won’t do anything but show how inefficient an IMA based hybrid is when running in a pure EV mode. CalCars would not give a second thought to an 06 Civic PHEV let alone wasting their time and your $’s on the conversion due to IMA’s lack of independence from that of the ICE. If Honda does not fix this ICE/MGSet dependence in their next IMA reiteration, Toyota, Ford, and whoever else will own the automotive world. HSD/eCVT only needs a fix of its MG1/ICE spin up dependence after 41 miles per hour and they will kill the Honda’s of any type in the FE arena at even higher speeds.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

I would guess that the current HCH'06 design was a compromise between "mild" and "full" hybrid. There is a HUGE advantage to the "mild" design: if the battery dies (ie. left the lights on, etc), the car is immediately drivable on gasoline-only after a jump-start.

Maybe there should be a new classification: "three-quarter hybrids", since the HCH'06 is more than "mild", but I wouldn't call a car with a 90 second EV mode exactly a "full" hybrid either.

I think the new design is pretty cool.

Of course, people forget that you can also make the FE better by making the ICE more efficienct. Apparently, Honda just announced a new engine technology called HCCI that burns fuel 30% more efficiently. If you put that enging into a HCH'06, you'd get 65 MPG, without having to change the IMA at all. here's the link:

http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/hyview/hcci

HCCI is technology that every car maker wishes they could do. Ford made a lot of noise about HCCI in their lab about 6 months ago claiming it was more efficient and much cleaner than even high pressure common rail diesel. The big problem with HCCI is that it's so hard to make it work, even in the lab where you control all the variables. In theory, something as simple as a mass air meter sensor going out of calibration, or the intake air temp sensor being wrong for a split second could lead to the destruction of the engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCCI

Does anyone know what the most efficient pulse and glide technique is for the '06 HCH? I'm guessing slowly accelerating to 35 then decelerating to 30 and repeat?

Also, what does FAS stand for?