My Japan built 2007 TCH looses it's preset CC speed when slowing below 25mph.

edit: Perhaps this is a subject for a new thread?

 

I was surprised to see the TCH cruise engage at 25/26 mph. Most cars that would be a high gas consumption setting to the the low rpm of the engine. Not so with the TCH as the Atkins Cycle engine is designed to be efficient at low rpm. Many times at 25 mph with the Cruise on I can go a ways in the EV mode if the street or road is level enough. My '07 TCH won't engage the Cruise if i'm under 25 mph.

 

I have a large decent near my home and have experimented with this(engine braking) several times. If i only use the brake pedal, I never get a full SOC, but when I combine the B with the brake pedal, it is the only time I can get the last bar to read full on my battery.

 

I suspect that even in "B" mode that engine compression braking is NOT used unless you are actually BRAKING, the frictional brakes are in use. It would make no sense to "save the brakes", prevent then from overheating, if they are not being used.

And I see no reason that regenerative braking would be completely discontinued (absent a FULL SOC) in any case, just forcing the engine to turn over with throttle fully closed as an aid to frictional braking.

 

jbollt — My previous (1993) Camry did lose its CC memory when the car was braked to a stop (or even to below some minimum speed, but I forget what it was). The TCH is different, and I'm sure you'll find that, if you manually accelerate to >40 km/h (~>25 mph), the "resume" will work, showing that the previous CC setting was still in memory. My TCH is a Japanese-built 2007 model, but I'm sure that they all behave similarly.

wwest — Engine braking is definitely used in the TCH in 'B' mode. Scangauge shows this clearly if you shift to 'B' while coasting in EV mode in 'D' at say 50 km/h (~30 mph). The ICE rpm goes from 0 to >1000 rpm, while staying open-loop. Coasting at higher speeds, the ICE rpm can go much higher (to 3000 rpm or above), so applying even more engine braking. The arrow in the MFD, pointing from the wheel to the battery, indicates that regenerative braking is also being applied, provided that the battery isn't "full." Applying the brake pedal in addition presumably increases the regerative component, and will also bring in the friction brakes if enough force is applied (or the battery becomes "full"). The reason for spinning the ICE like this in "fuel-cut" at speeds above ~64 km/h (~40 mph) has been discussed before in other threads (search on "fuel-cut"), and is related to the safe operation of MG1, whose speed would become excessively high (or pose an electrical over-voltage risk to the motor-drive electronics) at these road speeds were the ICE left stationary.

Stan