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Comment by jgilias | Hacker News Reader

To be fair, it did take some time for me to get used to how a hybrid sounds. It’s fine when not driving aggressively. When you floor it though, it does feel weird when the engine jumps to the highest safe revs and stays there. That’s a small price to pay for reliability and smooth power delivery though.

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I actually prefer that over the usual revs going up and down depending on speed. I'm not American so my default before hybrids was driving stick. Never liked this steampunk-esque drama of moving from a standstill in such a car

Anyway revs do go up over a certain speed, but you need to be on the Autobahn to legally test it.

Are you talking about how the CVT transmission sounds?

Not sure exactly what you mean. As in, hybrids don’t have a CVT transmission, one with belts and the thing that changes diameter to achieve variability. Haven’t had one, but heard only bad things about those.

But yes, in that the power transmission is variable (e-CVT, right?), and that sounds a bit weird. You’ve spent so much time hearing how the engine gets louder with acceleration that it feels weird when the engine behaves slightly differently.

But again, that doesn’t bother me enough to buy a less reliable system.

Yeah I meant e-CVT. We actually own a highlander hybrid with e-CVT.

Actually every vehicle I've driven was CVT/e-CVT. 14 Corolla, 18 RAV4, 21 Highlander hybrid and 24 Integra. All super reliable. I'd still say CVT bothers me and I love it every time I get to rent a vehicle with traditional automatic.

My ICE CVT is like that, and hybrid systems behave sort of like CVTs.

The computer has an idea of "At this low RPM the engine is most efficient, at this high RPM it produces maximum horsepower". So if you floor it, the computer in either a CVT or a hybrid will bring the engine to full power and it will just sit there as the car accelerates.

The engine is getting loaded up and putting out more torque, and the throttle is opening, but it isn't really revving. In mine it does slowly climb from maybe 4,000 to 5,000 RPM, but it doesn't do the "rrrrRRRRRR... rrrrrrrRRRRR..." like a transmission with fixed gear ratios.

check out civic 11 gen, they are almost indistinguishable from regular ice cars when sitting inside

Does it have a power split device? E.g., a planetary gearbox?

No, it’s a different system than what Toyota uses: https://global.honda/en/tech/Honda_eHEV_next_generation/

Thanks!

Looks like a series hybrid with a clutch that bypasses the generator for a high-efficiency overdrive gear. It's simpler than the planetary gear system in a Prius, but they must have made the drive motor (equivalent to MG2 in Prius diagrams) bigger if they never combine power from both MG2 and the ICE. Or, that's not shown in the diagram.

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