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Old 03-03-2014, 07:18 AM   #18 (permalink)
RedDevil
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Red Devil - '11 Honda Insight Elegance
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Nope, both systems are so different that they are hard to compare.
The HSD gearbox is a planetary gear system where the electric motors/generators operate different gear-rings than the ICE.
These rings and shafts can be locked in different ways to produce 3 physical gears for the engine.
It also allows the electric system to operate independently of the engine.
In fact they do that all the time to simulate gears in between the fixed ones, by making one motor work as a generator to power the other.
The battery can smoothen it out further by storing or adding power. This way the HSD system can finely regulate the amount of torque it puts out, hence the smooth deployment of power.

The Honda IMA system has the single motor/generator bolted to the crankshaft, as a flywheell. When driving at a constant load it will not do much, just generate a bit to keep the electric systems powered.
When coasting the engine cuts and the generator will store some energy in the battery. To glide it neutrally you just have to press the accelerator ever so slightly to make the charge needle move out of the green zone.

Cutting the ICE means the IMA electric motor has to take over at once, so this system cannot make the transition as smooth as the HSD system does, where the torque stays the same (even though the electric power consumption does change).
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