I have seen three options so far: A.Stealth mode. But this has been nixed as too militaristic. B. Golf-cart mode. This is too lame. C. EV mode. I don't actually mind, but we should be able to do better. I propose the following choices. Everybody chime in with their own. Then maybe a poll would be in order to select the best one. 1. Whisper mode (from the movie Blue Thunder). As pointed out in another post, EV is not truly quiet. 2. Owl mode. Kind of dorky sounding, but owls are regarded as intelligent, and are very quiet in flight. 3. Smart mode. "Smart" as in intelligent, and "Smart" as in the Get Smart Cone of Silence. Again, it wasn't totally silent!
I think you are confusing two distinct modes here. What some people call "stealth" (I think the term is too militaristic) and I call golf-cart mode (because a friend said that's what it sounded like) is the mode of operation when the car itself decides to go electric-only. What most of us call "EV" mode is when the driver puts the car in electric-only mode by engaging the EV switch (standard on Prius in Japan and Europe, available as an aftermarket mod in North America). In EV mode you can accelerate harder than in golf-cart mode, but in golf-cart mode you can go faster (42 mph) before the engine kicks on than you can in EV mode (34 mph). Therefore, if you don't like those terms, you still need two separate terms for the two distinct modes of operation. As you point out, neither is completely quiet. There is the whirr of the electric motor, and the sound of tires on pavement. "EV" mode is logical since I think the factory button says "EV." I don't mind if you want to re-name golf-cart mode. I can't think of any good alternatives offhand.
I vote EV mode also, but I like stealth mode too. I wounder if i can mount missles on a roof rack LOL. Opps not in this day and age i guess LOL better stick with EV mode
This question is about 4 years too late. The masses already use "stealth" to describe the factory-standard electric-only driving feature, even the Ford hybrid owners. Heck, I've even seen it in Toyota documentation as well. An advantage of "stealth" is the fact that it doesn't carry any misconceptions the way the other two choices do, since it hadn't ever been used in the description of a vehicle. That's pretty handy.
But you can hear pedestrians much better... which is important when it is a child (or an inattentive adult on a cell-phone), since they don't always hear a noisy vehicle anyway.
Daniel and anyone else; What is going on when you are above 42 mph. on the freeway going down hill but on a lesser incline and the screen shows that the MV1 is driving the car? This has happened to me on several occasions. I am going down a steep incline it levels out but with a slight down hill and you are going 65 mph and in "electric mode"?
At faster speeds, the engine must spin to balance the RPM internally within the PSD. No fuel is being consumed. And the motion of the engine is surprisingly efficient. So very little MPG is actually lost by that. Responsiveness of the engine kicking back at that speed in is impressive then too, since the pistons are already going up & down.
Like John said: engine turns but provides no power. And just to keep our motor-generators straight, it's MG2 that's connected directly to the wheels and drives the car in all-electric mode.
Let's keep it simple and self-explanatory. I don't like jargon that nobody but the initiated can understand. Electric mode (when the car does it by itself). Forced electric mode (when you force it with the EV switch). And I like your use of "ghost" as a verb. ("Ghosting up on the pedestrians.")
