I just got my PHEV!!!

[bigeasy]

I just got mine delivered yesterday from a NY dealership (I live in New Orleans) and it's actually my first Honda ever. My daily commute is around 10 miles to/from work and I like the fact that even if I go on a longer trip my gas mileage is excellent. I was considering the Lexus LS Hybrid and the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid but both were more expensive and neither had the plug in option.

I think the plug in & hybrid makes this a unique car and qualifies me for a tax credit as well. I did pay full MSRP for it which makes it much more than similarly equipped Accords but cheaper than the Lexus (CA dealers are all charging $5k over MSRP). My previous car was an Acura TL and admittedly this is not as nice on the inside but was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the finishings. Not having leather was kind of odd on a high end car but I'm sure I will get used to it and having rear seat warmers is enough of a trade off. I keep cars for ~6-7 years so there is no question that the premium price I paid will equal out to the gasoline savings (I am of the mindset that gas prices will only keep going up).

Anyway, I am really excited about this and I haven't really driven yet except from the street into my driveway but it really does look great in person. And the wheels actually look (dare I say) sporty on the black color of my car? And the blue tint on the headlights is something else... I will be posting pics and observations in the next few weeks. Excited to be a part of the Accord Club!

http://s175.photobucket.com/user/snvyas/media/accord.jpg.html

 

[Cobra]

Congratulations! I think I've seen you on another forum. Thanks for the pic.

 

[matt]

Hey, congratulations for your new Accord Plug in! That's outstanding!

 

[rico567]

Did you test-drive this car before you bought it? I suppose I could have it drop-shipped here (we've done that before, with a regular ICE car), but certainly not with this much of an unknown quantity. And we're not going to CA or NY to drive one, which means if Honda doesn't get off the dime an sell them here in the Midwest, we'll probably go elsewhere. The regular Accord doesn't deliver good enough fuel efficiency, which means our next ride (we must get a new one this year) will almost certainly be the VW Passat TDI.

 

[Cobra]

Did you see? Honda is saying they will not sell the PHEV anywhere put NY and CA. The Hybrid will be nationwide though...

 

[rico567]

You seem to be a regular on this forum, and perhaps privy to more information than I have. We would certianly be interested in the regular Accord Hybrid, if in fact it makes its appearance in the Fall. I understood that the PHEV would be distributed nationwide after an introductory period in CA and NY; perhaps that information was incorrect.

 

[Cobra]

No, not privy to any special information. I thought the PHEV would be available nationwide as well, but one of the news releases had a quote from someone from Honda, saying they did not have plans to release the PHEV outside NY and CA.

 

[GreenRide]

I just bought mine too. I used an auto broker to find mine here in Northern CA & he found mine after more than a week of research. Because there were only about 40 initially released, be prepared to pay sticker or above asking. I heard a few dealers were marking it up $5k-$10K higher. I'm a super commuter averaging 70 miles per day. I definitely save a lot on gas! A lot of service managers don't know how the PHEV works so be prepared to do a lot of research. They didn't even know the gas tank capacity or how to charge it.

 

[Cobra]

Congratulations, what do you think? What color? What do you like/dislike?

 

[matt]

I just bought mine too. I used an auto broker to find mine here in Northern CA & he found mine after more than a week of research. Because there were only about 40 initially released, be prepared to pay sticker or above asking. I heard a few dealers were marking it up $5k-$10K higher. I'm a super commuter averaging 70 miles per day. I definitely save a lot on gas! A lot of service managers don't know how the PHEV works so be prepared to do a lot of research. They didn't even know the gas tank capacity or how to charge it.

It's great1 Now we have several Accord Plug in owner in the Accord Plug in Forum! How is the experience of driving the car?

 

[GreenRide]

I have the white one. It gives a quiet, smooth and luxurious ride.

Things I love about my plug-in:
Option to plug into 110 or 220 volts
Has a mean looking front & doesn't look whimpy
Heated seats including the back seats
Standard GPS/Bluetooth connectivity
Side & back cameras

Things I wish Honda would consider:
Larger battery capacity
Larger trunk space [I know this suffers due to the battery]
Have knowledgeable sales & service personnel

 

[bigeasy]

I have been driving my black PHEV for the past two weeks and absolutely loving it. It is shocking to me that it makes so much sense (15 miles on pure electric which is ~1/2 of all trips and the rest of the time averaging 46 MPG) and it's in such limited production. I do lots of highway driving for my job and have averaged 45-46 MPG for the last 1500 miles.

Things I love
All the great technology
Nice looks
Comfortable and quiet ride
Less stops at gas stations
This thing is definitely a game changer

Things not so great
All the things the above poster stated
Not having leather seats (I get the point about bamboo seats but loved having leather ones)
Not having XM radio (has Pandora & Aha but thought that XM was standard - am I missing something?)

Questions
I know we don't have too many owners on here but the whole switching between HV mode and non-hybrid mode is a bit confusing. I still have to read the owner's manual more carefully but is it smarter to leave the HV mode on all the time while driving on the highway or should I switch to gas only at that time?

 

[Cobra]

Questions
I know we don't have too many owners on here but the whole switching between HV mode and non-hybrid mode is a bit confusing. I still have to read the owner's manual more carefully but is it smarter to leave the HV mode on all the time while driving on the highway or should I switch to gas only at that time?

Hmm, not an owner yet, but I have read the manual...

I read it that you don't really switch between hybrid and non-hybrid mode.

You can, however, control how much of the battery you use. And as I understand it you can't really run in 'gas only mode'. I think you are thinking of the charge mode, which seems like gas only mode, but Honda doesn't recommend it normally (this is the long press of the HV button, which will start and run the engine continuously in most cases.) This mode is designed to charge the battery as much as possible while running the gas engine. Honda says mileage will probably be lower in this mode. You'd only use this if for some reason you wanted to charge the battery while driving. I'm not sure how often this would really be desirable. It's certainly the worst case. You get much better efficiency by plugging in to recharge.

The other two modes (EV and HV) are setup to either use as much battery as possible, or keep the battery at it's current charge level. So you can decide, based on your planned driving, what may be best for you. If you are close to 15miles with your trips and can plug in, you get the best by running in EV mode all the time.

On the flip side, if you want to pretend you don't have a Plug In vehicle, just leave it in HV mode, it will use the battery to balance efficiency, but will maintain it at about the same level all the time. And get 45 mpg, it sounds like.

Thanks for posting your mpg numbers!

 

[bigeasy]

Questions
I know we don't have too many owners on here but the whole switching between HV mode and non-hybrid mode is a bit confusing. I still have to read the owner's manual more carefully but is it smarter to leave the HV mode on all the time while driving on the highway or should I switch to gas only at that time?

Hmm, not an owner yet, but I have read the manual...

I read it that you don't really switch between hybrid and non-hybrid mode.

You can, however, control how much of the battery you use. And as I understand it you can't really run in 'gas only mode'. I think you are thinking of the charge mode, which seems like gas only mode, but Honda doesn't recommend it normally (this is the long press of the HV button, which will start and run the engine continuously in most cases.) This mode is designed to charge the battery as much as possible while running the gas engine. Honda says mileage will probably be lower in this mode. You'd only use this if for some reason you wanted to charge the battery while driving. I'm not sure how often this would really be desirable. It's certainly the worst case. You get much better efficiency by plugging in to recharge.

The other two modes (EV and HV) are setup to either use as much battery as possible, or keep the battery at it's current charge level. So you can decide, based on your planned driving, what may be best for you. If you are close to 15miles with your trips and can plug in, you get the best by running in EV mode all the time.

On the flip side, if you want to pretend you don't have a Plug In vehicle, just leave it in HV mode, it will use the battery to balance efficiency, but will maintain it at about the same level all the time. And get 45 mpg, it sounds like.

Thanks for posting your mpg numbers!

Thanks for the quick reply and what you are saying makes sense. However there are 3 modes, that much I am pretty sure of... If you press the HV button once 'HV' lights up on the dashboard (hybrid), long press it and 'HV Charge' lights up, short press it and nothing lights up (gas only I thought). When I first got the car I quickly read over the manual and distinctly remember reading something about the three modes - although it was late at the time and I could be wrong. Will check up on it and post here when I do...

 

[Cobra]

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear.

Short press for HV, as you mention, is standard Hybrid mode.

Short press again is EV mode. They call it Electric Vehicle mode. That one is the one I was trying to describe as battery only. If you charge with the plug and expect to drive under 15 miles, putting it in EV mode will use only battery as much as it can. It will try to run on battery until the battery gets low, then switch the gas engine back on as needed.

I have some pictures I can check, I thought the dash showed 'EV' when that was the mode? Are you not seeing that on yours?

 

[bigeasy]

Yep, my post wasn't clear either :/ The below stuff I am clear on:

Dash shows EV - electric only for 15 miles
Dash shows HV - hybrid mode
Long press - Dash shows EV Charge - charging up the battery

But...

Dash will show yet a 4th mode with nothing lit up (not EV nor HV nor EV charge) if you short press. That I am assuming is gas only. My question is if I am cruising on the freeway at a constant speed - is that gas only mode better or is it better to just stick on HV mode?

What the car does right now in the morning (after being plugged in at night) is to begin on EV mode and then when I get on the freeway to ~ 70mph - the EV mode switches off by itself and the dashboard shows no mode lit up. I am assuming that it is now gas only and also assuming that the car is telling me that at that point gas only is the most efficient way to be.

Also, I leave the Econ mode on always.

 

[Cobra]

Dash will show yet a 4th mode with nothing lit up (not EV nor HV nor EV charge) if you short press. That I am assuming is gas only. My question is if I am cruising on the freeway at a constant speed - is that gas only mode better or is it better to just stick on HV mode?

Interesting... An undocumented mode.

What the car does right now in the morning (after being plugged in at night) is to begin on EV mode and then when I get on the freeway to ~ 70mph - the EV mode switches off by itself and the dashboard shows no mode lit up. I am assuming that it is now gas only and also assuming that the car is telling me that at that point gas only is the most efficient way to be.

Also, I leave the Econ mode on always.

Actually, it's probably a mix of EV and HV... Here's a question. When you start in EV and speed up, does the gas engine start before or after the dash turns off EV?

I just ask, because I thought the gas engine would cut in well below 70mph. The articles I've read said as low as 35-40mph, but I didn't believe them all...

I'd expect the most efficient to be a different mode than what Honda offers anyway, so maybe that's what it does. I'd think the best would be to run on battery as much as possible, but start the gas engine for higher speed where you need more power, then drop back to battery only as soon as possible. HV mode doesn't do that, as I understand, because it tries to maintain the battery charge. If you have shorter trips, with a small amount of high speed driving, you're better letting the battery provide as much power as possible then plugging in afterwards. It sounds like maybe it has as mode like that, but it's not mentioned in the manual. Smart.

 

[Javel]

The EV light just means the car is running without the engine. It doesn't mean you're in EV mode. The EV light can be on in HV mode when running electrically or regenerating. It can go out in EV mode, if the engine helps with hard acceleration or freeway speeds. So no EV light and no HV mode indicator would mean you're still in EV mode but the engine is running. The engine should stop when you slow down.

 

[GreenRide]

Thought I'd post an article entitled "Honda details development of powertrain components for Accord plug-in hybrid", check out the article below. It has a blurb on the 3 or 4 different modes.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/04 ... 30417.html

So far, I leave it on HV mode because of my driving patterns. I do mostly freeway driving anyway but I noticed that when I'm in bumper to bumper traffic I'm able to travel farther on the battery.

In terms of charging, the car charges in less than 1.5 hours on 220V. The Leafs & Volts in our building like to ping me I'm usually done charging before lunch time.

 

[rwsimon]

I just got the silver model this week. Great color!

I don't understand why one would not just leave the car in EV mode. In this mode, I never use any gas at all driving around town as long as I go less than about 15 miles. Switching into HV mode means that the bulk of the energy in the battery is retained. But why do that? What would I want to save it for rather than drive with it?

At the moment, I have about 100 miles on the car and have used a total of about half a gallon of gas.