Has anyone noticed regen kicking in going uphill, even without a full charge on IMA?

I've been surprised to see it in two places in the SF Bay Area:

- going up the Sunol grade, along with very high FE
- going up from the Claremont Hotel on Claremont to Grizzly Peak Blvd

In the case of Claremont Road, I didn't see any difference in fuel economy using standard vs the 1st low gear ("S"), but did using the 2nd. Having the car in 1st low gear is where I saw the regen.

I thought my display gauge might be screwy, but when I computed the FE at the pump, everything seemed normal.

 

My HCHII often goes into 2 bars of regen while the engine is turning 4500 rpm, doing 50 mph up a 7% grade with 4 bars showing on the SOC.

 

If you have 4 bars on the SoC you will be in forced regen whether going uphill or not. You will get some assist if you press on the accelerator to speed up, but if you're maintining pressure on the accelerator, it will go back to forced regen and will continue until you have 5 bars on the SoC then it will continue to regen until you change the pressure on the accelerator.

 

Are you accelerating when this is happening? Like Angelo said, if you have 4 or less bars, you are going into forced regen.


This doesn't have to do with your post, but it's something cool. There is a downhill offramp (I think it's in San Marcos, CA) and when you're stopped at the stoplight at the bottom of the hill, you can shift into neutral and your car starts moving uphill on its own. It's really neat. Does anyone know why this happens? It's a really hilly area (I don't know if that has to do with it).

 

Hello Giantquesadilla.

There are many hills that are like this. I know of one in New Hampshire specifically, that's called "Magnet Hill" or something like that.

It's really just an optical illusion. Typically it's caused when vegitation or other structures in the area are growing (or leaning) in a direction that seems to be "downhill". When there isn't enough on the 'horizon' line to compensate, your mind tricks you into thinking you're facing uphill.

-Mo

 

Dale:
I thought you were crazy... or something was wrong w/ your HCH. Until this happened to me. When I am on the freeway w/ 5+ SoC bars and accelerating up a certain hill, after I get up to speed and don't need assist (I am still accelerating at about 2000-2500 rmp), one charge bar appears... I am not sure why. Maybe I will try to take a picture, as this happens to me almost everyday on my commute.

Mo:
That is exactly what's happening. It is a really hilly area and you can't see too far. The other hills make it seem like you're facing downhill.

 

Hey quesadilla-

This is pretty normal. The battery management often decides to 'top up' the SoC after you've eaten a bit of it on an accel or long hill. That's why many of the serious hypermilers try to minimize the assist, to avoid the forced charging (major and minor).

As for 2-bar regen at 4500rpm, that surprises me. My car tends to cut off the forced regen when I put a lot of load on the engine. However, sometimes I have observed a strange transient regen when going up hills and hitting the engine w/ a sudden extra load. Or maybe my hallucinogens are just kickin' in.