Passed a Lamborghini on the HIGHWAY!

Mine dropped down to two bars today while sitting in traffic. It was 95 degrees out and I had the AC Blasting. I figured it was because the A/C was on and the car wasn't moving. After traffic started moving again it went all the way up to one bar empty before I got home... No Lamborghinis though...

 

that's normal, (the battery, not the lamborghini) happens to me all the time in that type of traffic. you wonder why the engine doesn't come on sooner, but, i assume the battery isn't as low as the indicator suggests. on the other hand, i passed a tesla from connecticut under the same conditions around boston yesterday!

 

Because many drivers are MORONS, not Mormons, MORONS!!
Well, glad we settled that!!!

Well ya, gotta bust you on ths one, YOU WERE IN NEUTRAL!!!
This is the PEFECT opportunity to practice the Pulse & Glide, Hypemile, Etc techniques!!!

Like I stated, perfect time to practice technique. For an example, I live in SoCal, and one day my wife and I drove from Glendale to well below Disneyland. It's about 60 miles or so.. OK, when I saw the traffic, I first thought, WHEW, Screwed again!!!
But I started noticing that the Hypermiling techniques that I had been reading about well actually were working, and when we finally got to our destination I was astounded at the results!! I had my wife take a photo, of course I can't find it to save my butt, but I was avg 70 + MPG....

What would the Lambo have done....

Sadly, Going home was UPHILL, so we evened that BIG MPG down to normal....

Oh Well!!

In the slow run, you WIN, above 35, FUGGABOUDIT!!!

 

Trust me, I feel your pain, it took a bit 'O time before I could do this, but you will get the hang of it, and when you do, LOOK OUT!!!!

 

When the charge gets down to 2 bars (purple, not green) the ICe will turn on and charge the battery up to 4 bars and turn off again, unless you are moving.

 

and unless you are in Neutral.

When you are in neutral the car cannot charge. This is a BAD thing to do. If you are in neutral long enough the car will yell at you and tell you to shift out of neutral to help charge.

 

Not much use in having battery capacity if it is never used. The car uses the battery when it makes the most sense - like in your situation where you are basically sitting still. Nothing happens when you step on the gas in neutral because there's no reason to run the ICE until it is needed. You were expecting it to "rev?" The "go pedal" does nothing more than tell the car to go. If you have the shifter in N, the car knows it isn't going anywhere, thus the go pedal does nothing.

Yup! Just drive the car and not worry.

The ICE will always run (when left in Drive!) when it needs to run. But there's no reason for it to run if there is plenty of battery capacity. When the battery gets used up, the ICE kicks on to recharge it.

 

Again... if you don't actually use the battery, what's the use of lugging it around? It shouldn't worry you that it gets low. If it doesn't then that whole "hybrid" thing was sort of a waste, ya know? If the car tried to keep the battey topped up - or allowed you to rev the engine in N to keep it topped up - the fuel economy goes in the toilet.

That said - you are correct that there is tons of battery capacity that the car won't even let you have access to. The gage only shows you the small part of the capacity that it allows you to use.

 

I passed a whole string of Lamborghinis last summer in the Rockies. Along with several Ferraris, and a Lotus Exige following up the rear. There must have been at least ten altogether. It was quite a sight.

Of course, there were all going the other direction, but that's just a minor detail.

 

I pass Lamborghini's, Ferrarris, Aston Martins, Audi R8's, Bentleys many times a day and the odd new Rolls Royce and Maybach a little less often. Porsche's are so plentiful they don't even count! And a Mercedes is just a runabout for the wife.

They like their flash cars round here, but probably also why my taxi insurance is so high