My question is this: Does anybody have official data on how much of the 2008 HCH's propulsion is provided by the IMA? Has it ever been broken down into a percentage or anything? In Oklahoma, you can get a tax credit for up to 50% of the purchase price based on how much of the propulsion is done with alternative fuel/energy. Without that data the credit is limited to $1500. With adequate supporting data, the credit would be equivalent to whatever percentage (up to 50%) of the total energy provided by the electric motor.

 

The total output of the combined system is 110 hp and the electric motor puts out a maximum of 20 hp at full assist. So at full assist you are looking at a maximum of around 20% however the car is not operated at full assist all the time. In fact your batts will be drained in about 5 minutes at full assist. Once drained the batts would need to be charged up again. The overall percentage of power that comes from IMA is small, in the single digits for sure. What makes the system great is that IMA helps at critical times allowing the engine to be smaller and save gas.

Really all the energy that is used to move a HCH comes from gas and none comes from alternate fuel or energy since the HCH is not a plug in hybrid. The HCH is a more efficient gas vehicle but it is not an alternative powered vehicle so I'd say zero percent "alternative fuel/energy". Sorry

 

Well... let's see...

It's got 110 HP. the IMA is rated at 20 HP, which means the ICE provides the other 90 HP. So, as a rough estimate, the HCH gets about 18% of its propulsion from battery power.

 

There's every reason to believe, and I've found documentation, that the elec. mtr. provides more than the 18% you calculated. The HCHII uses a valve system that can disable from one to all four cylinders when conditions warrant. I have observed that I can function on EV only, no ICE, for a considerable amount of time if I follow the hypermiling instructions I found on CleanMPG.com:

Adapting Basic Hypermiling Techniques to the HCH-II

 

Did you guys not read my post? 18% is the maximum possible figure at full assist. What percentage of the time is your hybrid operating at full assist? What percentage of the time is the car using zero assist? Where did the energy to provide assist come from in the first place?

 

Oh get off your high horse! Of course I read your post. YOU missed the point of my post completely. I was NOT talking about percent of horsepower, but the percentage of the time when there is NO gasoline being consumed and the electric motor is sustaining forward motion. This is when the intelligent valve system has disabled all 4 cylinders, the iCFD is reading 100% and the assist is showing up to about 4 bars of assist. If you don't understand how the system works, read the CleanMPG article I linked to earlier in the thread.

 

Ahhh, I see that you don't really understand how the system works, There are indeed times when the electric is the only energy source providing forward motion.

 

Yeah I forgot about the "upgrades" that happened in 2006. So how often does this actually happen? Almost never, from what I understand. So yeah during those times the car is 100% electric powered. Try putting down 100% and see if they give it to you.

 

You seem to know how the system works just fine, yet you don't want to admit that you are running on pure electric only a small fraction of the time. You also don't seem to want to admit that if the car did run on pure electric for very long you would get into "forced charging" so whatever you gained by running in pure electric would be paid for later during the forced charging.

One of the main points that were stressed about hybrids is that they never need to be plugged in and that 100% of the energy needed to propel them comes from gas.

 

uuuhhhh.... 100% of the energy comes from gas?? What about Gravity and Regenerative Braking. You're right, I don't want to admit that I'm running on pure electricity for only a small fraction of the time because it's simply not true. The more I read Honda documentation and learn about how the system works, the less I believe that you're right.

I have been testing some of the techniques for extending mpg and there are many instances during various driving segments that the HCHII is in cylinder disable mode and runs strictly on the electric motor. I plan to do more testing, but so far it looks like over the course of my commute to work, it runs on electric between 25% to 30% of the time.

It will take more trips and careful recording of the status to confirm this initial determination.