New (possibly unsafe) trick for saving fuel with the TCH

I often stop at Wal-Mart on the way home, usually for just a thing or two. When I get back to the car after 3 to 5 minutes the car seems to need to go through a warm-up of 4 (by my count) or 5 (as claimed by the internet) steps. Regardless of the number, the warm-up steps do not seem to be the most fuel efficient.

Step 1 seems to be running a short way on EV which lowers the battery SOC a tiny bit.

In Step 2 the engine runs but the car seems to use mostly the battery and motor for propulsion, draining the battery a fair bit in the process.

At some point the car will get much louder as it enters Step 3. Step 3 seems to be designed to charge the battery back up after Step 2.

Finally in step 4 the engine calms back down and the car drive "normally".

So here is the trick: The other day I put the car in park but did not hit the shutdown button. When I got back to the car a few minutes later the car drove off "normally", skipping the warm-up steps.

I expect this could be a very bad idea for a number of reasons. Please discuss if you think it saves gas or not, or if there is a safer way to do this security wise. I don't think the Camry will lock in this condition.

I did this the first time by accident when I was not accustomed to the new push-button vs old key and it most certainly did not save fuel because it was cold and the car actually ran the engine for part of the time I was in the store.

 

The silly thing is that the car IS still warmed up after only a few minutes of being off. Heck it is still fairly warm after being off for an hour. My old car would run the fan after it was turned off sometimes. That seems silly to me. I'm not sure it did that when it was new.

I'd not get a Fusion till they fix their silly trunk space issue. I went to buy one and was turned off right away by the tiny 2 tier trunk with the battery taking up way too much space. The Fusion's trunk is worse (much worse) than my 12 year old Civic Hybrid's. The HyCam is perfect in this regard with the traction battery under the seat which makes room for a full sized trunk with a spare and fold down seats. That was a big selling point for me.

 

Thanks for that. Thing is I really doubt that the warmup steps really help with that. I expect that the engine is running a bit rich during warmup which is one reason it seems to tank the mileage so much. What do you think?

I'm referring to when the car is already warmed up BTW, not when it is starting from cold.

 

The mileage is pretty horrible during the time the warmup is taking place. Maybe not that much for the entire trip but during the event you might only be getting 20 MPG or so.

 

The 2018 Camry seems to warm up very quickly from a cold start. I think they did some work in this regard but I'm light on technical specifics.

 

Some other discussions about the steps or stages of warmup (evidently for the Prius which may or may not be similar to the HyCam):

The Five Stages of Prius Hybrid Operation | PriusChat

Gen3 warming up stages | PriusChat

 

So the other day I tried to lock the car with the ignition still on and had no luck. The normal way of touching the handle does not work. Pushing the button on the FOB does not work. Finally I could not easily figure out how to lock the car from the outside with the manual key since only the driver's door has a keyhole.

Maybe the other doors can be locked from the inside first?

Maybe there is a setting I could change?