Re: Hybrid cars and dormancy, harmful?

If a hybrid car is laid up for a month on an airport parking lot while
> you're travelling overseas on a world tour, will it restart, run normally, > and suffer no permanent battery damage? In an emergency, can a hybrid be > "jump started?"

The Honda hybrids have a 12v battery and a 12v starter, and can be jump started just like any other car.

The Ford Escape Hybrid has an on board inverter, allowing the HV battery to be recharged from the 12v battery by pressing a button in the driver's kick panel.

NiHydride batterys self discharge over a month's time. That leads me to > doubt there'll be enough juice to crank the engine. If it does start on

There is a warning in the manual about long term storage, but I don't accept your premise that a NiMH battery will discharge fully in one month. The manual suggests starting the car and letting it run for 10 minutes per month, or disconnecting the 12v battery for longer term storage, after which the 12v battery may need charging, and the high voltage battery would be charged by the onboard inverter.

I wonder how hybrid car batteries are any more durable than the the AA NiH > batteries I use around the house? Regular household NiH batteries seem to > deteriorate over time, holding less and less charge with repeated > charge-discharge cycles.

The hybrids have very sophisticated battery management. They never fully charge nor discharge, staying within a narrow range that is expected to allow the battery pack to last for the life of the car.

With proper charging, your home batteries would last longer, too.

morning, just like conventional cars? Could a hybrid be conveniently > converted to run as a conventional gas engine powered vehicle with a > regular lead-acid battery towards the end of its life, when it is no longer > economical to replace a mult-thousand dollar NiH battery? This capability > of running it as a conventional car would add to its resale value, > otherwise it will be a total loss junk car.

I don't accept your premise that the battery pack is a multi-thousand dollar item. The Honda battery pack can be replaced for less than $1000 now, and there's no aftermarket demand yet. There are more cells in the Ford, currently putting it at near $2,000, but again, there is no aftermarket demand for them yet. There is a sealed lead acid battery pack ready to go to market as a replacement, at sub-$1,000 pricing, but it will offer less capacity, and there's no demand for it yet.

The Honda would run as a normal 67HP car without the IMA assist, if one chose to do that. The Ford Escape cannot run without the electric as delivered. It might be possible to do some drastic back yard modification of the hybrid system if that were desirable. It would be grossly underpowered without the electric boost.

My personal feeling is hybrids are being way oversold, maybe for political > reasons. I can't see them as making engineering sense. A durable, > reliable, efficient turbo diesel is far more appealing, particularly if > somebody can figure out how to make a "flex-fuel" diesel variant.

That would be your personal opinion, then, wouldn't it? Some people would rather walk than drive a diesel.

If diesel is the answer, a hybrid diesel would be a natural adjunct, kind of like most train locomotives.

I think the Honda Civic IMA makes wonderful sense, a booster for a high MPG underpowered car.

The upcoming GM/Mercedes hybrids should be technology that is applicable to a wider range of vehicles.

The hybrid in the upcoming Saturn "greenline" is actually an aftermarket add-on that could have a broad range of applications.

The idle-stop alone, fitted to the Chevy and GMC trucks, is a remarkable savings in fuel in some applications, and although it is only fitted to gasoline engines, I don't see why it shouldn't work on diesels as well, as long as the diesels don't mind repeated start/stop cycles.

As I watch the PG&E meter reader working in my neighborhood, I think his vehicle is just crying out to be a Ford Escape Hybrid. He drives a couple hundred yards at low speed, leaves his Ford Ranger idling while he gets out to read a meter, gets back in the truck, drives a couple hundred yards...

New York cabs and some police department are moving to the Ford Escape Hybrid. "Idling" takes on a whole new meaning. Sometimes the engine is running, sometimes it's not. The passenger compartment is kept warm, the heater can run, and I would imagine that the savings in fuel (whatever that fuel might be, E-85 is soon to be an option), would be substantial.

Creeping in heavy city traffic, the Ford Escape gas engine starts every few minutes, runs for 20 seconds, and shuts off. If you aren't paying attention, you don't notice a thing. It even "creeps" in drive with the engine off.