OK, so everbody knows the HCH will do a stealth regen on the highway and also with the lights on.

We don't seem to get the highway regen, since only 1/2 the engine is on and that's too busy pushing the car most of the time, although you can see some regen when it makes sense- momentarily when you crest a hill before the engine adjusts to the reduced load, etc.

I'm talking about a Goldilocks pack- say, 3-4 bars. Not so high where IMA is just splooging assist, or so low where the engine is always recharging a little.

Has anyone noticed a stealth regen with the lights on? I definitely feel a change as I flip them on/off. The engine is certainly loading up a little although no regen bars are lit- hence the stealth part. Our SoC displays are pretty coarse- only 6 bars (how many are on the HCH display?), so it may take a long time to see a full bar change if it is charging. But at night (lights- duh) I don't see the bars climb, even after 1/2 hour on level highway with no call to IMA. The HCH appears to recharge fairly quickly with lights on.

It seems that the HAH only regens enough to replace the energy lost to the lights- maybe a 'refinement' from the HCH algorithm? I sort of like the HCH's ability to 'charge on demand-' it lets you prep for spots ahead where you know you could use a lot of IMA.

Thoughts/observations?

 

About the only answer I can give for certain is that that HCH's SoC has around 20 bars, so it can be plenty fickle in its rise and fall.

I don't really know about our stealth charges. Mine are usually forced charges now up to 50% or so tops as I use FAS very frequently nowadays. Sometimes if it's too low I'll turn the lights on as I know it can't hurt, but whether or not it helps, I don't know. I'll try tomorrow and see if I can feel a significant difference; you've got me curious now.

 

I don't know if this qualifies as a stealth regen, but the observation is probably worth posting anyway as I found it interesting. I had to stop for what turned out to be a very long TRAIN. I sat with Auto-stop on for probably 10 minutes (I didn't time it) with A/C running (very hot day). As I sat, I noticed the battery charge bars very slowly slipping away...started with 4 bars...when it finally dropped to 1 bar, auto-stop disengaged (with my foot still on the brake) and the engine fired up. The interesting thing is that as soon as the engine fired up in idle, regen immediately went about about a third of the way to max and just held there (at least a full minute or so or until took off when the train cleared). So the ICE was turning the electric motor as a generator to re-charge the battery as I sat. The train finally cleared and away I went. I was back up to 4 bars after about a mile of travel and a couple of decel's and braking for 1 traffic light...probably 2 minutes after I took off from the train stop.

 

yeah, that's normal- described in the manual. The system will not allow the battery to drain too far before it recharges by itself, to include starting the engine back up or preventing autostop in the 1st palce. Feels odd when it does happen, though.

By 'stealth' I refer to what the HCH owners have noted- that the system will seem to trickle a charge to the battery at highway speed, as I understand it, although no bars light up on the display. Same 'phenomenon' may occur with the lights on.

My guess is that the HAH will do this as well, but its magnitude is too small to register on our coarse SoC display.

 

I owned a HCH before I traded for a HAH. The HCH would slowly recharge the battery while highway driving and the bars would light up. With the HAH I do not see this happening. While highway driving in the HAH, the bars slowly go down to 3 and then after awhile it will force charge back up to 4 bars, you can see one or two bars of regen lights on . The battery gets discharged slowly from the occasional assists on small hills. The only way I see 5 or 6 bars in city driving. Once on the highway it stays at 3 or 4 bars.

Rich