6-16-08: 2008 Altima Hybrid Update & Log
Monday June 16, 2008
It's that time again--yes, for our long-term update on the hybrid that's parked in our garage. Here's where we keep y'all apprised of the latest happenings with this ’08 Altima Hybrid.Mileage: 5,740
Fuel economy: 40.5 mpg
Weather conditions: Very warm in the 80s and 90s—summer’s almost here.
Maintenance/Repairs: None. It’s been smooth sailin’ and a pleasure ride, for sure. Warm sunny days with shorts and T-shirt temps are helping to keep the hybrid operating system toasty for long, regular intervals. While the internal combustion engine keeps the hybrid batteries charged, overall it translates into less operating system warm-up time which equals even more EV mode time. And that translates into better fuel economy—especially when I’m driving in city/town conditions. We’ll be taking a traveling road trip or two this summer in this car, so we’ll keep you up-to-date on how this baby performs passing more highway miles too. --Christine
photo © Adrian Gable
Comments
Can we run our car with water and gas?
Can anybody tell me is the HHO Gas is real working or is another scam?
Hey John -
Great question–we just wrote an article on this topic, Can You Really Run Your Car on Water? While we don’t think it’s a scam, it’s not quite all that they say it is either.
Best,
Christine & Scott
40.8 MPG is awesome. I was just wondering about the type of terrain on which you drive? Lets say you take certain route to go to a certain place, do you take the same route back? And my last question is, lets say, its around 90 degrees or more outside, and you have been driving mostly on EV mode for over 20 minutes, do you still have your regenerative braking working properly or as you would expect?
Thanks
Yeah, we agree, and have been happy with the Altima Hybrid’s fuel economy. Here in central PA we frequent hilly country roads, 2-lane highways and city/town streets–a mix of all these in any given week. As far as the same return route, it varies. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We do plan errands and trips to maximize hitting as many stops within a certain vicinity on one trip (as much as possible).
So far this summer we’ve been using a lot of EV mode when in towns/cities and anywhere that we can drive 40 mph or less. We haven’t found any difference in the regenerative braking regarding how long we’ve driven in EV mode–that is all determined by the computer regarding battery state-of-charge (and is all automatic). Of course, the engine will kick on once the battery gets low after driving for a long period in EV mode. Although we haven’t measured this distance precisely (yet–but we will!), it seems that the Altima is able to travel about 5 miles in EV mode before the engine kicks on. We’ve had no problems whatsoever with the regenerative braking–it works fine regardless of the amount of EV mode usage. The regenerative braking is not the only way that the battery is charged–the computer that controls the entire hybrid system constantly monitors the battery state of charge. If it drops too low, part of the engine power will run the motor electrically in reverse to generate power for the battery regardless of whether or not any regenerative braking is happening.