Has anyone seen more than 4 bars on the battery meter? I have had the car one month now and its never been any higher.

 

Not on the highway, but around town, I see 5 *fairly* often and every great while, I'll see six. I would guess you're driving as you did in a non-hybrid. When coming to a traffic light or stop sign, I always coast a good bit before getting there, providing it doesn't hinder traffic around me. Also, when I'm coming to a stop, I've found that I can apply just enough brakes to peg the charge bar without increasing much drag on my coast.

I've always been a bit of a hot rod, but using this technique I seem to hit more green lights and my travel time doesn't seem to have suffered much.

Also, when you have five or six bars, you get boost a LOT more often, helping your mpg.

 

After nearly 5K miles, I've seen 4 bars 75% of the time, with 3 or 2 after some longer IMA assist during hill climbing. With my "normal" driving pattern I've never seen 6, and if 5 don't recall it, very rare. I have not, as Tink advises, worked on a braking pattern to enhance batt recharge. I do ease throttle downhill and coast to stops, both of which produce some batt recharge benefits. The one 3/4 mile hill climb with IMA leaves me with 2 or 3 bars at the top. If it’s 2, I see batt recharge from the ICE.

Yesterday, I had the HAH in the shop for a “Check Engine” light (more on that later). Tech mentioned that my batt was “low,” but my recall is that it was 4, no lower than 3. He said it was “full” now. Don’t know what he did, but when I got back in the car, I saw a 6-bar charge for the first time. BTW, this was the tech’s first HAH service experience, and he did not know how many “bars” there were on the batt charge indicator.

As Tink noted in his post, the IMA was very active with a 6 bar charge for about two miles. However, within a mile, I was down to 5 bars, and within two miles back down to 4 bars with IMA activity “volunteering” less and less as batt charge came down to 4 bars. My claim is that under these relatively flat roads and mostly light traffic with occasional stops, I would have had to use extreme braking to maintain a 5 bar charge and that such braking that would cause lower FE than driving with ECO on and coasting to stops.

In other threads here, discussion of the HCH and the HAH indicate that the best FE comes from keeping the ECO light on as much as possible, and that 4 bar batt charge seems to be the most common pattern. If a 5 or 6 bar charge is “intended” or “better” by Honda design plan, my car does not seem to be set up to produce such charges, and the batt recharge functions now–after service–the same as it did before.

Lewis

 

Morning, Lewis.
I really believe your car sounds fine. My normal reading is, also, four bars. I, also, see two or three after a long climb.

As far as "tricks" for higher mpg, I don't believe all of what works on an anemic (by comparison) hybrid is the same for our 255 hp car. For example, the eco light on all the time - I seem to get better results just getting to my speed at normal (for me - that's faster generally than the cars around me; but not crazy fast) acceleration and into the "zone" quicker and longer. "Driving with load" is also much tougher (I believe) with this car because of all the extra power - makes the accelerator very sensitive. It can be done, but not easily.

I will sometimes anticipate hills by trying to gingerly accelerate into them and letting the energy bleed off as has been described on other hybrids, but with this more powerful one, it doesn't seem to make much difference in overall mileage.

Even coasting in nuetral doesn't seem to make much difference, although I'm still not convinced because it certainly seems, to me, it should. I've heard the arguements against it: 1) it's illegal - never heard that! At least not in TX, so I'm not bothered, and 2) you don't get you IMA regen - on a long sloping hill, I don't anyway; otoh, a sharply sloped one, yes.

My car is very new - one week today. There's a nine mile stretch of some up and down, but an overall 400 foot drop. Coasting in nuetral some, I received 68 mpg. Leaving the cruise alone up and down hills, I received 74 mpg. More and more (except in extrememe up & down situations when I try to use the "drive with load" a bit), I'm leaving the cruise alone. And we are constant hilly terain here. VERY rarely just flat.

Again, *I* don't think the ECO light all the time is the most important. I think with the hp, the car gets you up the hill quickly and allows the extreme FE on the other side to more than make up for it.

Disclaimer: I've owned a hybrid for 1 week. The advice I am sometimes shunning comes from much more experience hybrid drivers. The Accord, however, is relatively new for everyone.

I am alternating with having fun trying to figure it out and being frustrated at not making new gains.

I guess one of my frustration after two tanks was trying to achieve close to the first one with the second one. The first included a 375 mie round trip combined with another 200 miles of normal driving yielding 37.1 mpg. The second had no long trip and I recieved a frustrating 33.7. Expectations.

I am, however, LOVING my car!

 

Hi Tink:

___I have not driven an AH but I do know that keeping VCM invoked is more FE then running on all 6. As for having a more powerful ICE, the MDX has an even more powerful ICE and all the techniques I use in the Insight work for it just as well if not better! The same with the Ranger, Corolla, Mountaineer, and LeSabre I have driven in the last few years. Give yourself some time to figure it all out but a blanket statement after just two tankfuls is putting the cart before the horse. There is a lot to be said about Driving w/ Load vs. not but beating physics with an aggressive use of the accelerator is not going to happen. When you finally do hit 53.2 mpg over a nice 180 mile distance using your own techniques (see attached pic for a 44% above EPA highway estimate segment in the MDX), you might be on to something that all of us will definitely be interested in!

___In regards to the Delta between tank 1 and tank 2, if your data entry is correct, you went from an average 70 degree tank to a 50 degree tank. A possible 10% + drop could be attributed to that temp differential alone depending on how low in the 50’s you were driving on tank #2?

___Tinkerbell, I am out of my league in regards to knowledge of the AH’s SoC meter but for longevity of the pack and for maximizing ones FE, pack use is the last item I rely on. There should be some highway hidden charging as there is with the Insight and HCH. The next time you take your AH for a nice highway trip of over 30 minutes, use very little to no assist and watch the SoC climb. The Insight will never hit 20 of 20 bars except for some very specific circumstances but will sit at 19 of 20 bars for what seems like forever in my case of mostly highway driving. I have a sneaky suspicion that the AH will act very similarly given its heritage. Let us know the results when you do …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

 

Hey, Wayne. As I said in my disclaimer, "I've owned a hybrid for 1 week. The advice I am sometimes shunning comes from much more experience hybrid drivers." I am an admitted rookie.

The difference in tanks 1 & 2 may be slightly temp related, but before the long trip, my FE was right at my average of the second tank. All of the increase came on that trip. Of course, that's the way it's suppose to work - 29 city - 37 hwy. I'm actually getting about 32 city and 40ish hwy (the "ish" is dependent on overall increase/decrease of sea-level - could be 36 or 48).

I agree (remember disclaimer again) that pack-power is the least thing I rely on, as well. It does help, but not as much as sensible driving. I can verify, as you guess, there is charging that is not strong enough to show up on the meter. There are times when I'm at 3 bars and then I'm at 4 - no sign of charging in the interim.

I've mentioned the we occasionally go to Ruidoso. I expect 44 or better round trip based on what I've seen so far. I'm looking forward to trying it, but it may be a few months off.