Improvements to the HAH
 

The '06 model HAH offers a few nice improvements (spare tire, sunroof, stability control). I've had my HAH for a couple months now, and have my own list of improvements I'd like to see:

1. More auto stop: Why must we come to a stop to power down the ICE!? there should be more generous criteria, like coasting at any speed for 3 seconds and tapping the brake. It could stay powered down until you press the gas pedal again. I think on the highway at 60 or so, this would make sense and not interfere with driving at all. Especially nice for coasting down long hills.

2. Bigger battery: I usually don't get over 5 bars, but recently drove up in the VT hills and got 6 bars when coasting down hill. Unfortunately, I reached 6 bars half way down - the rest of the hill was wasted as there was no more battery to charge.

3. Bigger electric motor/smaller ICE - how about a 4 cylinder Accord with a 30 HP electric. It would be nice to average 40mpg rather than 33. This would probably require the bigger battery.

What else would people like to have improved?

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

I would lean towards a 4 cylinder Accord with a downsized electric motor and normal battery pack. Make it a navi with the cool hybrid features. For fuel economy, I bet it could equal the HCH, or come darn close.
It would be the perfect replacement for our Acura TL.

Regards,

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

Hi Johnww:

___Anybody who is a AH or IMA fan has been waiting to see all that you have described for more years then you would care to count :(

___Why the AH fails to shut down at speeds of the Insight or HCH and why those two do not shut down at even higher speeds is an absolute mystery to me given the technology to make this happen with complete safety can be installed for just a few $’s?

___As for the battery, make it much smaller and far less expensive if all it will be used for is assist. In fact, make it just large enough for a few regen based stops to bring it up to full and for IMA starts. I could care less for the assist portion during acceleration until they make it full EV capable as Honda did with a portion of the driving envelope in the HCH-II. Honda did not design that capability properly either :(

___Place the 06 1.8 L Civic LX/EX ICE with an “IMA Lite” setup and some intake tricks (3 cylinder ECO mode?) for even higher FE and I would have considered an I4 based - Accord Hybrid instead of the one I own now too! Eject the HCH-II’s mechanical A/C altogether while using a slightly more robust all-electric unit should suffice although the larger pack may be needed for the all-electric A/C unit?

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

About the low-speed autostop "problem"...

After freaking out coworkers (engineers who should know better) with just neutral coasting and the normal autostops, I really think the decision to not do a high-speed autostop is based on public psychology that it is 'not safe.' People just do not like (yet) the concept of being unpowered at 70mph. Call it a 'control issue' ?

Like so much that you preach, Wayne, it is about education. We cannot begin to count the superior technologies and practices that failed because of a lack of educating the public, or at least correcting misconceptions.

Perception being 80% of reality, and reality being 100% of the bottom line, IMHO that is the answer to why autostop exists only at low speed.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

I want to keep the 6 cylinder, but I'd also like to have a 30hp+ electric motor assist instead of the small one we have now. This way the car would not only be quicker, but we could cruise in ECO mode more often as the electric assist would be more powerful preventing the car from switching over to 6cyl operation while cruising to maintain speed. :angel:

The only other thing that I would like to see change is the auto-stop feature. I'd like to see it kick on a little sooner at like 15mph instead of the 8 or 10mph that it is currently set to.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

it is set at 15. Well, more like 13 in my car, at least. I'm looking for "engine off shortly after your foot leaves the gas pedal at any speed."

I don't think we need more acceleration, but a larger IMA is always nice for the other reason you mentioned.

The IMA in the HAH can have a different usage than simple assist- it can allow the ICE to remain on 3 cylinders during harder climbs and to handle other accelerations. That is a quantum step, literally, beyond simply assisting in a linear manner.

It is pitifully difficult to stay on 3 and accelerate in any but the slowest way, and IMA assist in 3 cylinders is touchy- very very sensitive to pedal pressure and it quickly just flops over to 6 cylinders. Climbs are very doable on 3, but a larger IMA would allow more speed to be maintained while keeping the ICE load constant.

So while I don't like using IMA very often, if it were larger it would make it far easier for the driver to remain on 3 cylinders over a wider range of conditions, instead of calling on 6 for a slightly-too-hard situation that only last for a few seconds.

--> My ideal HAH would be a 3-cylinder car that happened to have 3 more available for those few times you actually need >100HP. Instead of sometimes going down to 3, the system would be biased towards 3 as the normal state and 6 as the "assist" state, even at startup from a stop. The same overall performance if you want to use it, but the 'preferred' condition would be more efficient.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

[QUOTE=
--> My ideal HAH would be a 3-cylinder car that happened to have 3 more available for those few times you actually need >100HP. Instead of sometimes going down to 3, the system would be biased towards 3 as the normal state and 6 as the "assist" state, even at startup from a stop. The same overall performance if you want to use it, but the 'preferred' condition would be more efficient.[/QUOTE]

I love this idea, unfortunately I don't think this has been done because the issue would be the 3 cyl that are used for the extra 100hp would wear at a different rate than the normal 3 cylinders.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

ahhh, but then flip which bank gets used periodically. :)

there are other issues- low speed vibration and other problems- associated with odd# cylinders in a 'regular' engine arrangement. The vib damping on our HAH is good, but has limits. It can be done, but the KISS concept goes out the window. So I'm not optimistic. But its still my dream HAH.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

I olike your idea Gonavy - a 3 cyl car that has 3 more for power when needed. But can the same not be accomplished by having a 4 cylinder ICE, and a bigger IMA (60HP?). that way, you have the 150 HP of the regular Accord 4 cylinder, plus 60 IMA when you need it. you'd get 210 with lot's of low end torque from the IMA.

Re: Improvements to the HAH
 

the permutations are endless.