I know it's only a dial and it's innacurate, at best, but I noticed something interesting (or maybe it's not interesting).
My TCH's (winter time) temperature indictor gets to slightly below half way between hot and cold after approximately 2-3 minutes of driving.
I drove my daughter's 1999 Ford Escort the other day and after 20 minutes the dial was at 1/4 of the way between hot and cold and never got much above those levels.
Now, I know these are only approximations, but found it odd.
Do these cars warm up faster or is the perceived difference a result of the different ways the car manufacturers display their readings?
(not really interesting, huh?)

 

My TCH does the same thing. I'm sure that it means the ICE heats up very fast. To get fuel economy up and increase efficiency, the Atkinson cycle engine is designed to do this. The faster it heats to "normal" operating temp, the more efficient the engine will operate. That is one of the reasons they used the Atkinson cycle engine. The ICE has a completely different intake and exaust cycle..........to heat the engine quickly and improve emissions and fuel economy.

 

One other question.
After 2 minutes I came to a stop and the ICE shut off after one second. So I was not in 'full EV mode', right?
In any event, I drove about three miles and half the time I was 'in the blue'. So I was in EV mode, right?
I came to a red light and the ICE shut off after 5 seconds. So this indicated I was finally in EV mode, right?
If so, what about the middle stage of my commute?
Was I, or wasn't I, in full EV mode?

 

There is another thread here that speaks about the temperature guage and correlates it with actual temperatures read with a scanguage. It implies that although it is a dial guage, it is actually driven by digital data, and that the markings on the guage are reasonably consistent from one vehicle to another, and represent a fixed temperature difference in degrees betwen markings. I forget the details, but if you hunt you'll find the thread.

There is another thread (actually, several) that discusses the difference between partial and full hybrid mode. Essentially, before you go into full hybrid mode it is possible to have the car drop into EV, but when gas is required, it won't go back into EV until you complete a full stop. When in full hybrid mode it can go into and out of EV as often as needed, while driving. Typically when the car takes 6-7 seconds at a stop for the ICE to shut off, that is the indication that the car has gone into full hybrid mode. This is a simplistic explanation, but I beleive that covers the essentials. Again, a search will find you much more detailed explanatations of this.

 

Thanks for the explanation, it makes sense.
These cars are so confusing!

 

No problem. Incidentally, one point I forgot to mention is that the "normal" operating temperature on the TCH seems to be indicated by one tick below halfway. This represents an operating temperature of 60 to some point above 93 degrees C (taken from the thread that I found here.

 

My past Toyota Camries have all warmed up very quickly. It is one thing I really like about them.