Hi everyone,

I have a 2005 civic hybrid and a 120 mile round trip commute with nothing but wicked hills the whole way. (Plus, the speed limit is 75 for the entire thing, and I seem to be one of the only people on the road who doesn't see fit to drive that fast.) I've tried various hypermiling techniques to deal with them, but after reading some posts on various forums about how some people have better results on hills with cruise control, I decided to give that a shot.

On the plus side, it seems to have worked. I set it for 65mph and got 41 miles to the gallon coming home yesterday, which is about as good as it gets given my commute.

The flip side is that I noticed that with cruise control set I'll sometimes get assist from the battery, but it never goes over into the green 'charging' side. This is puzzling, as the battery never seemed to drain. It stayed up around 3/4 charged the entire way home, if my instruments are to be believed.

Any thoughts?

 

Zombie thread, but in case someone else wonders... The behavior you describe is due to low level trickle charging that is too low to register on the guage. This is very common during highway driving where the ICE is at near constant power settings for extended periods.