At last, it's here!

[Brian Ellis]

After years of waiting, I now have a hybrid car, a Honda Civic Hybrid. Driving it the 30 or so km home, mostly freeway, I obtained a very poor 5.9 l/100 km (~40 mpUSg), which I ascribe to the fact that the battery was practically flat when I started but was fully charged on reaching home, plus an altitude difference of 200 m, plus tight bearings, plus the special run-in sump oil. I guess consumption will drop more to what I expect after the 1500 km service.

[az]

So what do you expect?

And keep us updated

[cjolley]

Congratulations!

...I guess consumption will drop more to what I expect after the 1500 km service.

1500km service?
What 1500km service?
I think our first service was an oil change at 6000 MILES.
Our owner's manual even warned against doing the first oil change early.

Pictures! Where are the pictures?

PS We got about 42 mpg on the freeway on our last trip
@75mph, in mountains.
Against the wind (both ways!)

[Brian Ellis]

There is a free service at 1500 km. I would have expected <5.5 l/100 km. Actually, I hadn't thought about the wind. Yes, on checking, I find that, at the time of the trip, there was a head wind averaging 4-6 m/s (14-22 km/h), gusting up to 11 m/s (40 km/h) and this could also be a contribution. Funny, I didn't feel this wind, presumably due to the low penetration coefficient.

Ni pics yet!

[rylan]

From what I've heard, 40mpg is about it for what you can realisticaly expect from the Civic hybrid. The estimated MPG on the car sticker are too high.

[cjolley]

From what I've heard, 40mpg is about it for what you can realisticaly expect from the Civic hybrid. The estimated MPG on the car sticker are too high.

The good news is you'll get about the same (we get 39.4mpg) in town too.

[schmosef]

congrats, Brian!

[ZokesPro]

Hybrid good.

Congrats!

[Brian Ellis]

It is what I would expect in urban conditions (realistically) but not on the highway. However, it is very early days yet.

[VJ]

1500km service?
What 1500km service?
I think our first service was an oil change at 6000 MILES.
Our owner's manual even warned against doing the first oil change early.

Strange, here it is quite common to have a first service (oil change) at 1500 km; sometimes even a second one at 3000 km. After that, the service interval follows suit: every 15.000 km or so...


Jörg

[Fat Tone]

Congrats Brian.

I'd also wonder about the accuracy of those figures on such a short journey.

[Brian Ellis]

Strange. Today, 30 km on highway to Nicosia at 4.9 l/100 km. Coming back, 5.9 l/100 km. Could the difference be the 200 m altitude change???? Average gradient 0.7%. Wind today somewhat lighter. Anyway, average of 5.4 ain't bad.

Hmmm. Forgot to mention, did a 4 km trip round the village this morning: 7.3 l/100!!!!! Until the engine reaches full temp, it sucks in the juice!!!

[Jon P. Inghram]

You might want to check out sites like http://www.gassavers.org/ or http://www.cleanmpg.com/ for various hints on what kind of fuel efficiency to expect and how to get it up to where you want.

[VJ]

Can it run on electricity alone, or is the combustion engine always working?


Jörg

[Brian Ellis]

When it wants to run electric alone above 20 km/h, it cuts fuel injection and ignition and opens wide all the cylinder valves. The engine turns but does nothing, but there are still friction losses of course. I haven't yet mastered all its "thinking". For example, if I'm on cruise control at, say, 80 km/h and start to climb a quite moderate hill, it always seems to adjust the speed to about 3 km/h less than the cruise setting, adjusts the "gear" ratio so that the engine runs at 3000 rpm and sucks in juice like there's no tomorrow. If it were a manual car, I'd have kept it in 5th gear and run up the hill at constant speed (2300 rpm on the old C-RV). I guess this is where the small engine shows, but I'm surprised the electric motor doesn't boost it (the indicator may hover between 0 and the first mark for electric consumption).

As I live 300 m up, it means I can get anywhere with remarkably low consumption. My best trip, to the next village, was 2.7 l/100 km (88 mpg) but the worst was coming back again at 9.1`l/100 km (26 mpg). However, I suppose the average of 5.9 l/100 km (40 mpg) was acceptable. It seems the gradient is the most sensitive feature.

Jon

Thanks for the hints.