Hybrids in the mountains
Created August 5, 2008, at 1:55 pm by SusanR.Halama
I am wondering if hybrids efficiency decreases when in the Rocky Mountains?
It seems to me that mileage might decrease when climbing to 11,000+ feet passes, like Vail Pass, not because of the altitude, but because of the steep ascent.
Conversely, the mileage would improve dramatically when coming down from such heights.
So, do the two balance each other out and still average a better than gasoline MPG?
Thanks for your thoughts.
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The biggest problem today's wimpy hybrids have in high mountains is that they don't have enough battery to really help them. The batteries get depleted after a few hundred feet of climb and then the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) has to rev very hard and still may have trouble maintaining speed. On the downslope, the batteries fill up pretty fast and then they simply freewheel like any pure ICE car.
They're still more efficient than an ICE car with comparable flat-land performance though since they have a smaller, hence more efficient, ICE.
I have yet to find an application where a hybrid is less efficient than a pure ICE car with comparable performance.
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