Autoblog: 2014 Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid First Drive

Very cool car. Nice to see other auto makers finally putting out some decent competition to the Prius. Me thinks in a few short years my Prius V will be considered a gas guzzler. Now when Honda smartens up and makes a wagon version maybe i'll trade in my gas guzzling Prius V.

 

it is very cool car but it is very poor review by AB - they gave us almost nothing about how it drives or feels...

 

wow, that was confusing. did i miss the mpg estimates?

 

i do think the car looks like crap.

 

God that is ugly. Hideous actually!

 

100+ MPGe

 

thanks snead! better than pip? amazing.

 

i'll hold judgement until we can actually drive one of these things AND see the EPA numbers for it.

 

I found one reporter saying....

From 2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid Review: Car Reviews

If so, then Honda has hit a home run. Wonder if the next HCH would get into the 60ish mpg then with this setup.

 

Never trust the in car computer.

 

If not ugly, at least boringly unattractive. I'm glad they mentioned it and the fact they like it better in person than in pictures, because the pictures do not make it look appealing.

The write-up seemed a bit disjointed, and I couldn't tell whether the writer really was in tune with hybrid vehicles or plug-ins. If Honda made it to be simple to drive and not difficult to understand, why is the write-up so trying?

I'm wondering why kind of transmission(s) are involved that allow the car to be driven either EV, gas only or hybrid (and a variety of hybrid setups, too). The HSD's planetary gear is a beautiful way of handling it, and I'd like to know how Honda tackled the issue.

 

it could get 100 MPG like that... they used EV mode which didnt use any fuel at all and at some point they switched to HV mode... MPG is from both combined.

 

It does seem that Honda has a good car in cards, but what they probably failed to articulate is that they like to be complicated. Their hybrid operation buttons are scattered around the dash, i see something like charge button and economy mode on the left side of steering wheel and then HV button under the shifter... its confusing and so Honda.

 

This is not like the PiP where the EV motor will use more juice than gas until gone. The reporter moved it to the "conventional hybrid drive mode", which is equivalent to the Volt's "hold" mode. Which puts the battery in a semi-static SOC state.

I read somewhere that their chief Engineer quoted as saying mpg on the conventional mode is between a PiP and Volt.

 

that has nothing to do with what I or they wrote.

They drove HAP (?) in EV mode for unspecified amount of miles, then drove it in Hybrid mode for unspecified amount of miles and got 55 mpg...

So their 55 mpg is from ev mode, unspecified amount... real hybrid operation could have been 20, 30, 40, 50, we have no idea.

 

Did you read the part about that reporter RESETTING the gauge before putting into HV mode to evaluate HV mpg? From what you wrote, I assume not.

 

If you reset the gauges, you get rid of the cold start penalty. So, 55 MPG they got is not realistic. I can't wait to see their official EPA figure because that's the only way to properly compare.

Autoblog article was not written well. The author thought Volt is a pure series hybrid (engine does not turn the wheel mechanically), which is incorrect.

This is what I got from reading various article about this two motors Honda Accord plugin hybrid. The electric motor is 124kW but the battery is 6.7kWh. The PHV pack won't be able to supply the entire 124 kW which is why the gas engine would kick in. The battery should be able to supply about 70 kW (guessing based on Prius PHV) and the rest (about 54kW) should come from generator (gas engine turning it).

When the gas engine kicked in, it could operate on either pure series (Hybrid Drive) or pure parallel (Engine Drive). There is no blending or splitting of gas engine power so you won't have infinitely variable blend of parallel/series (eCVT) like HSD. So, I don't know why they are calling it eCVT.

They are calling the charge sustain mode as HV mode. That's good since hybrids maintain the state of charge of the battery. The SOC may go up or down depending on various driving conditions but it'll always return back to the target SOC. The battery functions as a buffer energy to boost the gas engine efficiency. That's what Accord PHV will do whether it'll be in pure series or pure parallel drive.

I think the strategy it'll take is to use the series drive for high torque situations (low gear) and use the parallel drive as an overdrive (like torque converter locking up for automatic tranny). So, I would expect the City MPG to be lower than the Highway EPA rating. That's because series drive will have the conversion loss and the architecture doesn't have the ability to blend in parallel drive like HSD.

If you are cruising on the highway, the gas engine would be turning the wheels (Engine Drive). However, if you pass someone the torque from the gas engine won't be enough. The battery will have to assist to get more torque from the electric motor. Even if that's not enough, the gas engine would need to disengage and enter the Hybrid Drive (series hybrid mode). The gas engine turning the generator would provide more electricity to make up for the required torque at the wheels.

Due to that, a spirited / aggressive driving would really hurt the efficiency of it. Taking it easy and staying in the Engine Drive mode will give you great MPGs -- well, at highway speed. It would be almost impossible to drive in the city traffic / stop-n-go with Engine Drive.

 

I know that. I was just saying as a point of reference. Can a TCH do something similar though into the 50s mpg? From my experience, Toyota hybrids gets close to its EPA rating. So I assuming mid 40s in most best cases? If so, 55 in this short test, if it is true, is not too shabby.

Their Chief Engineer has quoted as saying that he expects it to be in the mid 40s for EPA figures... between a Prius and a Volt.

Of course, I am very interested in waiting for real numbers and $ to be reported. I am thinking of upgrading a 2005 Prius for my wife. She is complaining about road noise and comfort... or lack there of in her Prius. Funny it was her that really wanted the Prius in 2005, but not another because of it. Guess she is getting old.