92 Integra - Heater Blower stopped NOT resistor!

Sure you can. Both the Civic and Insight hybrid models are available with MT. Accord hybrid comes only with AT for now, but you can get an MT on your V6 Accord now so it isn't implausible that the hybrid may get it eventually.

I think that it will be a long time before fuel cell cars are any more than a curiosity.

Well, now the trend is to have both manual and auto trannies on the same car which is called million different names such as autostick, tiptronic, easytronic, multimod manual, activeselect or whatever... and all range of cars started to have this kind of transmission.. from cheap econobox such as Toyota Yaris 1.0 liter to expensive cars like MB and BMW. I just bought a

1.2 liter Opel Corsa with Easytronic transmission. It has 5 forward gears and you can shift the gears manualy if you want and it gets considerably better gas mielage compared to the same car with stick shift (6.8 liters / 100 kms in city versus 7.8 liters / 100 kms in city driving).

Ahmet

Turkey

of course, i didn't mean that these cars have 2 transmissions...just one with with the capabilities of both both manual and auto transmission...

ahmet

shhhhhhh......don't tell Honda, who sells them by the boatload with manual transmissions.....

Yes, I wonder how they (NHTSA) are defining "manual". Some of the ones you listed are typical torque converter ("slushboxes") where they just add a manual shifting mode. Others have actual manual trannies, just with an electronic clutch, ex: BMW's SMG. I believe your "Easytronic" is the latter?

I wonder how many folk who buy the tiptronic type actually manually shift. When I've driven those, I get tired of the novelty in the first drive and just end out driving them like every other automatic.

It's the Toyota system as used in the Prius and Ford Escape that can't have a manual; in fact, it can't have any transmission at all. It has an "electronic cvt" that is really just a pair of motor/generators in a differential arrangement with the gas engine... there is no place to put a transmission in the power train. If it were called a "virtual cvt" it would be less confusing.

Honda's IMA (integrated motor assist) works fine with a manual; Toyotas SHS (synergy hybrid system) could never have one, if only because the driver has no control over whether the engine is even running.

Mike

I wish they'd put a MT in the 4 door accord V6.

I think you are correct.. Opel calls it a clutchless automatic or semi automatic. When it shifts the gear, it is not as smooth as normal automatics..You definitely feel it. a slight pause and the shift. if you take your foot off of the gas pedal slightly, it shifts easier or less noticeably. It also moves backward when you are on a very slight incline and your foot is not on the brake just like regular 5 speeds.

Well., same here too..first couple of times I stole the car from my wife, I shifted myself and got tired of it and quit...

ahmet

Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "transmission", but I'd definitely say they have one! They have a set of planetary gears (which automatic transmissions also use). And yes, as you wrote, motor/generator is used to modify the gear ratio between the ICE and the driveshaft, as well as supply torque.

Describe that a little more, if you would. I have a Honda Civic Hybrid with CVT, and I understand how it works. The IMA is fixed to the crankshaft, so they are both turning at the same speed. The CVT is a steel belt on movable "pinch" pulleys to provide the variable ratio.

I don't understand the mix of two electric motors and the CVT in the Escape. Short of buying the service manual, can you point to a decent reference for how it really works? I've seen some misguided crud, but no real explanation. I assume that it is the same as the Prius, so reference to that would be good, unless I can spot a discrepancy.

sweet! I also was under the impression that hybrids were only AT (probably because Prius came out first), and I was saddened that I would have to give up MT if I ever wanted to get a hybrid. But now I can have the best of both worlds.

No, the Prius came out after the Insight. Insight: 2000. Prius:

2001. Civic Hybrid: 2003.

The Insight was available with both manual and auto trans, as is the current Civic Hybrid.

The Toyota is a complex system; the Honda is simple and straightforward. Integrated Motor Assist is probably more bang for the buck.

The Escape uses pretty much the same system as what Toyota uses, which is way different than the straightforward Honda Integrated Motor Assist.

Try this treatise:

I can't vouch for it being 100% correct, but it is similar to what I've read before about the Toyota hybrid drive. Basically, by varying the motor/generator1 speed, one can control the ICE rpm.

It's pretty neat, but also complex. 2 high-power motor/generators.

Another reference:

In the US, you are correct. But the Prius was released in Japan and Europe before the Insight was produced. Honda reportedly rushed out the Insight to beat Toyota to the US market. Succesfully I would say as a lot of people think Honda made the first commercial hybrid!

OK fine, is this better? =)

I also was under the impression that hybrids were only AT (probably because Prius was the first hybrid to be popularized in the mainstream US media).

That site is by Graham Davies, one of the genuine Prius gurus. He writes that he looked into it very carefully, and it is true - under many conditions MG1 is used as a generator to provide power to MG2. It makes my head hurt to visualize it.

Mike

I think of the IMA as an electric turbocharger. It uses mostly wasted energy later, to add some power to the little tiny gas engine that is able to get high mileage. I wonder what kind of mileage the civic would get if it just had the 1300cc engine, and no IMA. It is very simple to understand, and rather obvious in operation.

I don't understand the Escape very well yet. Definitely a different animal, and a precursor for the heavy hybrid (no pun towards the weight of the SUV). The electric-only mode could be extended with a heavier battery set and different logic so that it could operate completely electric and be charged at night, and yet have the gas engine for long distance usage. I have seen 99mpg on my average mileage display over a 10 mile stretch of commute traffic. Then the engine starts, and the mpg plummets ;-)

I picture today's Escape as a Gas-Electric Hybrid, where the next generation might be an Electric-Gas Hybrid.

By that way of looking at it, SHS has two transmissions, like pretty much all cars. The planetary "power split device" is a skewed differential and could have been made like a typical differential if ruggedness weren't important. No gears ever shift, there are no clutches or belts or hydraulics or solenoids or forks. It is all fixed gearing, which makes it different from automatic transmissions. The device should be bulletproof as long as the lubricant is kept up, without the weaknesses of manual trannies (no synchros, no clutch, no gear crunches possible).

The way I describe the system is to visualize an engine connected straight through to a differential. Instead of wheels, there is a motor/generator on each side of that differential. Connect another conventional differential and wheel setup to one side, and there you have it.

Mike