Hey Jay,

Just a quick hello to a fellow Raytheon engineer. I work for IDS, but I'm located at an off-site location in Chesapeake Virginia.

I think the impression folks have that it's not peppy comes from two things:

1. Lack of the same sound/tactile feedback that comes with acceleration in an ordinary car. There is no winding up of the rpms with the accompanying shifting, and also less general noise unless really thrashing the ICE.

2. The calibration of the accelerator pedal. Toyota certainly made the "throttle" response very gradual, so that it takes more pedal deflection to produce the same level of acceleration. This undoubtedly is on purpose, as it makes it easier to make some of the subtle corrections needed for hypermiling, plus it will just tend to automatically make people accelerate more gradually and increase mpg that way.

I would like to add a third item:

3. From a dead stop with the ICE off, the hesitation as the ICE starts up when you floor it seems to make it feel sluggish. Once the ICE starts, it seems quicker. It seems quicker if you floor it from a dead stop and the ICE is already running.