GM says Two Mode Hybrid System Trumps Competition

True enough. To the extent that a driver does a lot of city driving (and here in Southern CA the "freeways" are steadily morphing into parking lots), you're going to get better mileage in a hybrid--even taking battery recharge cycles into account.

 

Freeways in NJ are a lot like parking lots, in fact they can be so bad that I've gone from 7 bars to 2 bars without moving more than 1/4 mile (Union toll plaza on the GSP). SO that definetly helps because otherwise I would have burned a lot of gas. Stuff like this, tho, can't really be considered part of "normal" driving.

 

Yes. I've seen the same thing. I don't know what all is going on inside the computer. Maybe on hills at freeway speeds , it decides it can put out a little battery push and let the ICE freewheel and maintain speed.

If the computer determined EV was reasonable, it will cut out at 42 MPH. If you have the EV switch, the computer will cut you off at 32. I don't know why, it doesn't make sense to me. Of course you don't want to waste your battery pushing uphill but I've had mine cut out because I was not careful and let it go to 33 on the flat or downhill.

It is kind of funny. Before the EV switch I was 'light on the eggshell' hoping the engine wouldn't cut in. Now, I can accelerate on the flat in EV at about the same rate I do with the ICE running but have to be pay close attention and not go over 32. I really wish the computer allowed CC with the EV button engaged.

 

Hey, watch your mouth! Just because I have a T-shirt with"OS/2 Up and running not up and coming" on the back, "Not There" on the front does not mean I can't participate in constructive debate. See my posts above and please do not generalize.

How VERY timely. A co-worker just came over to test NetMeeting on his machine. He loaded it on an NT machine in my office. It started. He initated a call, windows trapped with the blue screen of death. :lol:

 

I don't think any full hybrid currently in production would be able to sustain 20 mph for 30 min "on EV much--even most--of the time" let alone 20 avg including stops and starts to 30 or whatever. With all blue (6 bars), I have managed a little over a mile on relative flat with no stops or slowdowns before the SOC went to 3 bars. Even if I started at all green and ran it down to 2 pink where the computer will kick the ICE on, I suspect 2 miles would be the max I could hope for and even then I think I would need some down hill help. No way I could get the equivilent of 10 miles (20 MPH for 30 min). You would need some pretty big batteries for that.
I presume the Escape city test would run like the Prius, charging as you get to speed, then using it to maintain speed, regen when stopping at the next light or stop sign. I wonder if it has the same "warm up" requirements before going into EV.

 

And that is the feature that gets me thinking about having the EV switch installed -- trying to accellerate without the ICE kicking in. In neighborhood driving, with a decent battery charge, EV would be perfect.

 

Actually, I shouldn't have said that. I used OS/2, well, did some work with OS/2 I should say and can confidently say it's probably the most stable OS for intel based systems, period. I still chuckle at people who think windows explorer is all that... it still can't do what the WPS was doing like 10 years ago.

It's gone, but luckily we have Linux to fill in the gap. Of course, if Commodore had promoted the Amiga right this conversation would have an entirely different tone.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Dec 23 2004, 08:31 AM) [snapback]59476[/snapback]</div>

considering that the US government paid for a huge bulk of the research under the Supercar Fund, i guess not.

also, to prevent the technology from getting out, the prototypes, all research notes, etc were destroyed a few months after they were announced in May 2000