the engine starts and stops when u need it. Won’t that be bad for the engine all the cold starts? Engine not getting to proper temp?
I would imagine the engineers have taken that into consideration before they put them out for sale.
At least one would certainly hope they did.
Time will tell the real story.
My understanding is that in the winter time in Minnesota, the engine runs all the time so that it can produce heat for the heater. So much for fuel savings in the winter.
You still get the benefits of regenerative braking and load leveling. Only the first start is a cold start, the rest are hot starts. Engines don’t get ice cold just because they were shut off for a minute or two.
Iy’s not bad for the engine and I guess they put a really well designed starter on the car. Golf carts do it.
All reports are the same, it is a good system and it does not suffer from stopping and starting, the engineers did their job well. That is not to say I would want one or that I feel it is the savior of the world, that is for you to decide, but by all accounts, even a skeptic like me has to suggest your need not worry about that.
I have rebuilt quite a few motorcycle and car engines and it is a total myth that your bearings are dry after the engine sits not running for a while. Surface tension (capillary effect) keeps the bearings full of oil when the engine isn’t running. Even on engines that haven’t been run in a month, it can be difficult to separate the bearing shells from the crank shaft when you disassemble the connecting rod big ends. The suction of that oil film sticks them to the crank just like a film of water sticks two pieces of glass together making them hard to pull apart.
Even without oil pressure, your crank is hydroplaning on a oil wedge within a few degrees of rotation.
My understanding is that in the winter time in Minnesota, the engine runs all the time so that it can produce heat for the heater. So much for fuel savings in the winter.
My neighbor has a Civic Hybrid and we test drove a Camry Hybrid last year…The engine is NOT on all the time. In fact that is ONE reason we went with the Lexus instead. Wife didn’t like the first 10 minutes of her commute with no heat. The heated seats are nice, but on real cold days (-5) they only help a little.
Not sure about the Camry, but many hybrid cars will not shut the engine off until the engine has reached operating temperature - then it goes into the stop/start mode as needed.
In other words, its another variable with hybrids to think about - not only do you need to drive a lot of city miles to make them cost-effective, but you also need to consider your climate and how far your trips will be in cold weather…
Wife didn’t like the first 10 minutes of her commute with no heat.
Isn’t that something you have to put up with even with a regular car? My car takes about ten minutes to reach operating temperature.
Can you get a block heater for a hybrid?
Isn’t that something you have to put up with even with a regular car? My car takes about ten minutes to reach operating temperature.
So does mine…but it’s putting out heat LONG before it reaches operating temperature.
I really have no idea what they did in my 1990 Jetta to get around that, but on really cold days, I’d crank the heat to max, and no matter how cold it was, I’d get heat. I figure they must have electric heating elements or something, because it was way too fast to be from the engine (it’d be within seconds, even if it was 0 degrees outside).
I always just figured Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Honda did the same thing with their hybrid heaters. Guess not…