Anyone have any experience taking the HCH up long stretches of inclines? I'm just wondering how it performs. Does it have enough juice to comfortably pass cars? I'm thinking of certain stretches of some 2 lane highways where you really have to push your car to quickly pass.

 

Depends how steep.
Depends how long the incline.
Depends how fast you want to go.

One things for sure at some point the hybrid battery will no longer hold enough charge to help the gas engine and you will be climbing on the engine alone.
I doubt I will ever experience that, but I dont' live in the mountains.
If you live in the Rocky Mountains and have a daily 7000 feet rise in elevation and you are used to doing it at 75 MPH, and passing at 85 MPH uphill this may not be the car for you.

It is not a powerful muscle car.
But for the MPG it gets it is a rocket.
Put another way, for the torque it has it has astonishing MPG.

It also depends what YOU are used to, and what YOU expect in a car.

You have to test drive one up the incline you had in mind to answer your question to your satisfaction.

 

Try driving to Vegas, it happens at LEAST a couple of times going north on the 15. Also, the 10 has a pretty decent incline east of the 605. So now I take the 605 to the 210 to bypass that part of the 10.

In regards to your post. There isn't much you can do bud, but try to keep your mpg as high as you can while keeping a speed that is comfortable for you. Just concentrate on keeping a steady foot on the pedal.

 

Driving south on I-5 from Sacramento towards Los Angeles, you go over the 'grapevine', which starts at an elevation of about zero and rises steadily to 4144 at the summit, in about 25 miles.

It does not take very long for the battery get down to about 1/2 or 1/3, at which point it is no longer an asset, but rather a liability of sorts. It's a liability because the system will try to recharge the battery, even when you are going uphill. So it's a double-whammy on the ICE, having to both help the car up the hill, while intermittently recharging the battery.

That said, however, I have not had any problem maintaining the speed limit and even passing many other cars that are struggling up the grade. So I don't really have any complaints about the ability of the car to climb long uphill grades.

 

One other thing, as I notice your question is about passing on a two-lane highway. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be passing somebody in that situation, with a drained battery. It probably depends on how slow they other cars are going. Very slow, not a problem; close to your speed, probably not a good idea.

If the battery was charged however, I would not hesitate -- the instant pickup from the IMA when passing is quite sufficient, for my tastes.

 

While 0-60 mph acceleration may not be great, I find the overtaking speeds using the IMA assist more than satisfactory. but then I usually pull back into the inside lane.

 

I think my HCH2 has fine acceleration, they only thing I have to remind myself when I want/need power (rarely) is to step on the accelerator pedal harder. Minus a Prius2 this is the only car I've driven with a CVT transmission and I never accelerated fast in the prius, but I was told by a few sales people that CVTs feel a bit different and you have to stand on the accelerator pedal a bit more to get the same acceleration. The same kind of acceleration is there, it's just a different feel to it with the pedal position and rpms, that's all.

 

I'm taking the HCH2 to Vegas and through the incline just outside of Baker. I'll post on my experience.

 

I drive on the hills of western Pennsylvania every day. Today, I drove about 200 miles on Interstate 79 which is very hilly. I had no problems, nor have I had any problems since my purchase of the HCH II two weeks ago.