When you take your foot off the gas pedal at the lights (after a full engine stop) is the Internal Combustion Engine actually using gas before you hit the gas pedal...or is the indicated RPM just coming from the electric motor turning over the ICE?

This might be difficult for U.S. owners to answer because your instant FE readout is in MPG - to a max of 150mpg I think. So this cannot truely indicate a "no fuel consumption" situation.

Whereas my readout is in litres per 100klm's (L/100klm) - indicating how much fuel I am actually using.

When I take my foot off the brake the RPM comes up, BUT...there is no indication of fuel consumption at all. But of course once I put my foot on the gas pedal, the readout goes way up - maximum is 12L/100klm. It always max's out on take off.

So is my assumption correct - that the although the ICE is turning over, it's all being done by the electric motor (in readiness for instant takeoff)?


Ta.

 

The ICE comes on as soon as you lift your foot from the pedal. The engine is, in fact, idling in preparation of you stepping on the gas. BTW, in the US version the iFCD displays can switch back and forth between metric/liter consumption and MPG.

 

If you are stopped at a light and the rpm's are greater than zero, your engine is using gas. For some reason, your engine is not auto stopping at the light.

 

Actually, this is an awesome topic.

In Tarabell's article (find it here), she details our 06 Civic's ability to actually start from 0 (km/h or mph) solely on battery power alone.

Of course, this is hardly something most of us would want to do on a regular basis - but it is possible. I was fascinated by this so much that I had to try it myself.

Cheers

MSantos

 

No, the engine is consuming gasoline in that situation. The reason that the display shows zero is that the L/KM formula when you're not moving produces a zero-divide condition (in other words, your liters consumed per 100 KM are infinite). Instead of blowing its brains out, the computer is programmed to show zero in that situation.

 

That is a good point - and highly possible.

However, when the speed readout is reading a non zero value as the vehicle slowly starts to move (with assist!), the proper re-calculation should accurately reflect a 100mpg (or 0l/100km - in my case). Correct?

While I am not able to reproduce this "EV-only" mode every single time, when I do, it appears to be a very different experience. At first, I was a little frustrated as I was unable to duplicate it, but then, when I had the engine warm enough and on flat stretch of road - it happened. I managed to duplicate this phenomenon a couple more times just to be sure.


This is definitely worth investigating a little more.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

I am a bit confused with the instant FE indication and need some enlightenment. When the car is at idle, zero KM/hr ( Canadian) the instant FE indicator should read zero? A zero-divide condition is infinite...mathematically divison by zero is always infinite so should not the instant FE indicate MAX - 12L/100KM? Currently my car reads at idle Zero and I thought this was wrong and planning to take it to the dealer. Please tell me what is normal as I just got the car a week now and don't want to look like an idiot at the dealer. Cheers

 

You're right (I think), but I think what happens is the instant FE indication just sort-of shut's off. It's obvious gas is being consumed (as long as AutoStop hasn't activated), and the consumption per 100km is indeed infinite. That's normal behavior though.