When do both the Gas and Electric Motors run simultaneously?

[rslilly76]

My interpretation going from image top to bottom:

All electric power to the wheels.
If engine is on by happenstance, it is at idle just to warm up or something.

A little electric help, mostly gas power.

Almost no electric help, almost all gas power.

Regenerating. Coasting or braking.

Light duty about 40% of that light duty is electric power, 60% from gasoline.

When I'm doing 75-80 on hwy (grey/white) and punch the throttle to pass the blue will kick in for the tourqe (blue and grey/white together) this is when it's most noticable too, and you feel it.

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[Drb]

There is also an engine icon that turns from very light gray (engine off) to slightly brighter light gray (engine on) that indicates that the ICE is actively running. No I'm not joking, it is ludicrously subtle.

Yeah too subtle!

 

[Ecorydr]

.....
The "power gauge" in the instrument cluster has a little engine icon. It is, in my opinion, a rather poorly designed indicator. That is not actually my true opinion but I am being as polite as I can be so as to at least try and appear to be a well-mannered person.

If I could, I would rub the collective noses of whatever committee that designed and approved this indicator in it while repeatedly saying "no!, bad design, bad".
....

For sure...... ABSOLUTELY! When I first drove a new Mav Hybrid at the dealership, I thought it had thrown a code! Still today after owning my '26 Mav for the past 4 months, I still do double takes at times. A simple highlighted EV symbol whenever electric is being used would make more sense and less distracting IMO.

And then... the stupid engine symbol wouldnt need to be so ludicrously subtle.

 

[ikcelaks]

Background: there are four main "modes" of operation:

1. gas engine on; electric motors adding power to the wheels (significant acceleration or hill climbing)
2. gas engine on; electric motors regenerating power to the battery
   1. net power to the wheels is positive. (common when driving at a steady state and the battery is below 60%)
   2. net power to the wheels is negative. (common at the start of trips when the gas engine is still cold)
3. gas engine off; electric motors adding power to the wheels (driving on electric only power)
4. gas engine off; electric motors regenerating power to the battery (normal regenerative braking)

Mode 1 will show as "hybrid" in EV coach. The engine icon will be white, and you'll see both a white and blue segment on the power bar.

Mode 2.1 will also show as "hybrid" in EV coach. The engine icon will be white, and you'll only see a white segment on the power bar. This mode is almost indistinguishable from Mode 1, unless you have an ODBII display telling you that the battery is charging. The only time you'll feel a difference is if you get into this mode at slow speed when the engine will sound and feel like it is working "too hard" (which might happen after a long bit of EV only driving that depletes the battery below 40%). This is the engine running extra load to recharge the batteries for the next acceleration.

Mode 2.2 will show "Regenerating" in EV coach. The engine icon will be white, and you'll see a green segment in the power bar. You will feel some mild vibration as the engine is putting all of it's power into turning the electric motors as generators. This will always happens when the engine is still warming up. It also happens when your HVB (high voltage battery) is at a low level and you are only mildly decelerating.

Mode 3 will show "Electric" in EV coach. The engine icon will be light gray (annoyingly, this is very hard to distinguish from the white icon), and you'll see only a blue segment in the power meter.

Mode 4 will show "Regenerating" in EV coach. The engine icon will be light gray, and you'll see a green segment in the power bar.

Practical impact:
The two limitations with the stock gauges are that it's very difficult to tell if the gas engine has shut-off, and it's impossible to know if the HVB has enough charge to initiate a transition to electric only mode.

My recommendation to most drivers is to NOT intentionally put the truck into electric only mode or try to extend time spent in electric only mode, EXCEPT when approaching a stop or a long downhill. If you just drive normally, there is almost always enough charge in the battery that it will promptly put the vehicle in electric mode when you completely let off the accelerator for a couple seconds, which you'll want to do when approaching stops, downhills, or extended periods of slow driving. My second recommendation is to always give a punch to the accelerator at the start of a long acceleration or the bottom of a hill. You WANT the gas engine to run while accelerating one climbing a hill, because these are the most efficient times for the engine to add energy.

If you have a ODBII gauge, you can monitor battery level, which makes it easier to know if you're in a good spot to do a pulse-glide (which is when you accelerate a bit above your desired speed, let off to initiate electric only mode, and run without the gas engine until you're going too slow). Trying to do a pulse-glide when you're below 50% in the HVB is pointless. I also believe that holding maximum electric power while doing a glide at high speed is counter-productive. You are better off essentially coasting (you'll slow down faster, but you won't drain the battery, so you can initiate another pulse-glide immediately). Coasting, also means you're putting a lot less wear-and-tear on the HVB. My very non-scientific tests suggest that thrashing the battery by trying to extend glide phases gains nothing for fuel economy compared shorter glides at a coast. Therefore, I reserve using maximum electric power to situations where I'm going slow and doing so allows me to extend the electric only drive all the way to the next stop or significant downhill.

But ultimately, just driving normally, slowing down early enough to get a high brake coach scores, and not speeding on the highway is enough to get AMAZING mileage. Advanced techniques are really not required.

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