Yes and no... Sure you just burn extra gas the next time to recharge the battery, however using the generator to recharge the battery is inefficient. Ideally in a hybrid all that energy in that battery WOULD come from the energy you would have lost to heat during braking. Ideally you'd never recharge the battery from the generator if you could get away with it, but there still has to be a net input in a real world.

There are losses in the generator, losses in the charging circuitry, losses in charging the battery, losses getting the energy back out of the battery, etc. Driving an A/C directly will use less energy than driving a generator, to a battery, and a battery to an electric motor. More transitions, more loss. The question is how much of a loss and how significant that loss is vs. passenger comfort. If its only 0.2MPG you decide one way... if its 2-3 you decide another.

A Prius gets great gas mileage with an electric AC compressor, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have gotten even better with a normal one.

An expensive but nice solution would be a compressor that had a clutch to be driven by EITHER power source...whichever were available and a thermostat so the compressor isn't on all the time.

 

Not the same thing Willard.

A heater pump takes 50 watts.
A decent size A/C takes 1000 watts.

 

Running the ICE ONLY to recharge the battery back because the A/C exhausted it, is also a horrible waste of FUEL.

IMHO, the bottom line is there no magic that can yield free A/C.

 

Well another thing to remember is that when its an electric A/C compressor it has less wear and tear in that it is not dependent on the engine turning it and very different speeds depending on the rpm. It runs as its needed and at peak efficiency. I had an 08 FEH and loved it but I too did not like having to idle at a stop light or in heavy traffic just to be cool on really hot days. I agree either way there is a "cost" to running the A/C, but I like that there is less wear and tear on the engine because it can shut down and still be cool when i'm in traffic or at a red light. I am not too worried about battary life and the cycles it goes thru, my friend has a 01 prius with 150,000 miles on it with original batteries and it runs like a champ. he still gets over 50mpg every tank!

 

I was about to say the same thing. ALL the power comes from gasoline. ALL of it. Regen....that comes from gasoline too. Every time you have to brake or slow down you are wasting kinetic energy that you burned gasoline to create.

I really believe that if there is a difference it is insignificant and the two mfg's chose different routes based on their goals/needs. Ford seemed to opt for wear on the engine and compressor as opposed to the battery, Toyota seemed to opt for passenger comfort and not worry about adding charge cycles to the battery. Ford may have chosen to play it safe, but with the 10yr warranty, the replacement cost of the battery, and the bad publicity that failing batteries would cause, I can't argue with it from their perspective. A domestic car company can't afford any worse of a reputation....or an increase in losses.

 

But my point is that BOTH are there so the ICE doesn't have to run un-necessarilly and thereby consume an extraordinary level FUEL just to produce ~2HP for the A/C compressor.

Why not also complain about the hybrid battery being used to act as a re-charging alternator (DC-to-DC down converter/inverter) for the 12 volt battery even when the ICE isn't running...??

The hybrid battery is the ONLY source for the 12 volt battery charge and what is the AMPERES consumed that way..??

 

Another consideration is the strength of the A/C. My husband SERIOUSLY looked at the Prius when buying a new car 2 years ago but even with the A/C on full blast, as the back seat passenger during the test drive, I literally had sweat running down my back for the entire 15-20 minute ride because it was so hot back there. The A/C really didn't do anything for passengers in the rear. Granted, YMMV (we live in Central FL and the "extreme heat 8 months out of the year" situation might not be as much of an issue in other places) but we weren't going to own a car where we couldn't keep all riders, including those in the back, comfortable.

Granted, that was 2 years ago and perhaps things have changed with the Prius now, I don't know. But when deciding to buy a hybrid, "how well the A/C worked" was a very important question. And if cooling the car off means losing some MPG sometimes (once it's cool, I can switch back and forth between recirculating the air and cooling it again when it starts to get too warm), so be it.

 

To get the best cooling efficiency and improved FE the way to run these new automatic climate control systems is to set them to use recirc mode ONLY, MAX cooling, lowest temperature setting, and then use the manual control of the blower speed to set your, and your passenger's comfort level.

 

One must also consider the cost of an electric compressor. The FEH uses of the shelf standard Ford compressor. The Prius and Camry Hybrid use a special compressor that is VERY expensive.

 

Pretty low. About 300 watts for the entire car daytime. About 400w at night.
Amps? 300w / 14.4v = about 20 amps.

Our hybrid battery packs can put out high peak wattage for short periods of time.
Our hybrid battery packs cannot put out high wattage for extended periods. These are "D" size flashlight batteries.... Not deep cycle submarine batteries!