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Off to install MIMA! Update: First road trip..

E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Headed down to Albuquerque in a few to meet someone else with an Insight and MIMA. He's going to help me with the install. Should go much more smoothly with someone who has done it before.

90MPG, here I come! 😀 Watch for it this summer. 😉

I also picked up some Renewable Lubricants 0W-20. Made from vegetable oil stocks, and is impressive stuff. Now my car will be greener than ever.. lol.

Edit: Well, I went on our first road trip last weekend, after having MIMA for a week.

I'm still learning more about it and how to use it every day(it has a lot of features!).

I don't really think anybody but those who own the Insight really understand how different it is to drive from other cars. Lean burn is an amazing thing, but difficult for "outsiders" to grasp the full concept. It's easy for most people to understand that the engine can run an air:fuel ratio of up to 25:1, but they don't understand what that means when you're actually driving. It took me a long time to learn how to get the best MPG out of my car, and now with MIMA it's like I have to learn all over again. But that's a good thing!

Winds were light out of the SW. I've mentioned this before, but environmental conditions - particularly a head or tail wind - have a profound impact on average mileage.

I was able to achieve 85.7MPG during the 280 mile trip from Santa Fe to Canon City, CO. Not bad, overall. MIMA definitely came into play, and I cycled my battery twice during the 8,000 foot total elevation gain along the route. Having even the light tail wind made all the difference. Power was abundant, and I was able to cruise at 100+MPG for many tens of miles at a time, while finding ample opportunities to top off my battery. Average speed was ~50MPH.

During the trip back, the slight tail wind turned into a slight head wind. I was able to achieve 71.4MPG on the 280 mile trip home. I found it difficult to find opportunities to charge my battery, and was only able to use MIMA in small bursts, as my battery hovered around 1/4 to 1/2 full. Average speed was 47MPH.

So that's 78.5MPG overall for the whole 560 mile trip, and an average speed of ~49MPH. Not bad, but not ground breaking either. I suppose one must consider that it is winter time. Indeed, I've never taken a road trip in the winter, so that may in fact be fairly excellent.

The average speed will seem low, but most people don't know their average speed. It is almost always lower than the speed limit, sometimes by a surprising amount.

I'm excited to continue integrating it into my driving style, and I look forward to the numbers this summer. 🙂
 
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Eli said:
Headed down to Albuquerque in a few to meet someone else with an Insight and MIMA. He's going to help me with the install. Should go much more smoothly with someone who has done it before.

90MPG, here I come! 😀 Watch for it this summer. 😉

I also picked up some Renewable Lubricants 0W-20. Made from vegetable oil stocks, and is impressive stuff. Now my car will be greener than ever.. lol.
Click to expand...

90 mpg would be cool, if that is what you are going for.... but please don't call your car green when the manufacturers raped the land for materials to build it (batteries)
 
Zivic said:
90 mpg would be cool, if that is what you are going for.... but please don't call your car green when the manufacturers raped the land for materials to build it (batteries)
Click to expand...

lol

NiMH batteries are certainly more environmentally friendly than the lead acid battery found in every car ever made since their inception.

I can, without a doubt, say that my car is greener than 99% of the other vehicles on the road, battery pack included.

Just like with lead acid batteries, the recycling programs for NiMH batteries are well established.

Though, I wouldn't doubt nickel mining is bad for the environment. But I think that goes without saying; mining anything is bad for the environment.
 
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The install went well. I managed 62.0MPG on the way home from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, which is a ~2,000' climb.

Definitely going to take some time to learn to incorporate it into my driving..
 
Do you know how GINORMOUS the battery pack in that car is? Here, let me help you with a comparison.

Regular car battery [===], here's the prius' battery [=============================================================================================================]

There, environmentally friendly that!
 
SSSnail said:
Do you know how GINORMOUS the battery pack in that car is? Here, let me help you with a comparison.

Regular car battery [===], here's the prius' battery [=============================================================================================================]

There, environmentally friendly that!
Click to expand...

My car's pack is a fraction of the size of a Prius pack, 0.58kW.

But I'll bite.

Nickel's toxicity when returned to the environment [===]
Lead's toxicity when returned to the environment [=============================================================================================================]

😛
 
thescreensavers said:
what does this do?

Also I thought newer cars are using Lithium ion packs now?
Click to expand...

This allows me to manually control the hybrid system of the car. Basically an interface between the car's computers and the car, allowing me to control assist and regen via either of two small joysticks, one mounted on the shift lever and one mounted on the e-brake lever, for while in town(shifting a lot) and cruising, respectively. It's genius. Major, un-ending props to the man who developed not only such an amazing tool, but such a well engineered, truly plug and play system.

What most people don't understand about the Insight is that it's fuel economy has little to do with the hybrid aspect of the car, overall. It only helps in certain situations. It's very easy to pull 70-90MPG+ for very long stretches without ever using a single watt hour of your stored energy. Anyway, being able to manually control assist is like having a manual transmission vs. an automatic. Instead of the computer choosing when and how much assist to apply, I do.

So, during those situations where using your stored energy would be beneficial, you can.. increasing your overall MPG.

To better explain my 62.0MPG number during the 60 mile drive home.. I mentioned that it is a 2,000 foot climb in elevation. What I didn't mention is that I thought I had a pretty good head wind, and that was indeed the case. When I got home I checked, and the winds are out of the north at 4-10mph, gusting to 15.

So with all that in mind, 62MPG is actually a very spectacular number. I would have expected mid 50s at best under these circumstances before. And this was my first experience with it on the highway. Needless to say, I'm very impressed and can't wait to integrate it into the already fairly complicated driving style the Insight commands. It'll just take some practice.

---------

I think the Volt is the only production car using LiIon packs.

NiMH batteries are cheap, safe... LiIon packs are expensive and require sophisticated monitoring techniques to make sure you - and the block - don't end up a smoldering hole in the ground after the lithium fire burns out. 😛 Exaggerations aside, LiIon is superior to NiMH in many ways. I hope to eventually get a 2kW LiIon booster pack for my car, to supplement to existing pack.

What I'm waiting for is Chevron-Texaco's patent on Large Form Factor NiMH cells to expire in 2015. They are essentially withholding the technology from the market by requiring potential customers to commit to insane quantities. Evil bastards.
 
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Eh, the lead batteries are recycled... what? So it's OK to fuck the environment all up, and still have to worry about the toxicity of the ton of batteries when disposed. Yup...
 
wow 62 mpg... can you even drive 62 mph?

I'll stick to my environmentally friendly evo. I don't quite get 62mpg. More like 12-13 mpg, but I run E85, so I am saving the environment.
 
Damn, some harsh replies.

The NiMh batteries are environmentally friendly. A few years ago someone wrote an article claiming that Humvees were more environmentally friendly than hybrids due to the damage on the environment based on mining nickel. The article was later proven to be pure fud.

Here is the original article: http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/DUST PDF VERSION.pdf
Note that they even call it a non-technical report and that it comes from a marketing company.

The stock Insight pack uses roughly 40lbs of Nickel, the Prius packs use closer to 70. Eli was correct, that nickel is 100% recyclable. Not only that, but the batteries last a very long time if properly maintained. In my car I run two modified packs. the oldest of which is now 11 years old and the newest is now 7. Both have over 90% stock capacity and will most likely last the remaining lifetime of the car.

For a car that is mostly aluminum (built in the same plant as the NSX using the same technology), was highway rated for 70mpg, does 0 - 60 in 10 seconds and has a top speed (artificially governed) of 112 mph I would say that is damned impressive.
 
Eli said:
What I'm waiting for is Chevron-Texaco's patent on Large Form Factor NiMH cells to expire in 2015. They are essentially withholding the technology from the market by requiring potential customers to commit to insane quantities. Evil bastards.
Click to expand...

Wait...an oil company invested in battery tech, then crippled it? Silly oil company.
 
Why not get a Citroen Xantia. 2.1liter turbo diesel, 62mpg. Oh wait, this is US, a country of cars loaded with unneeded stuff right from the factory.
 
ThatsABigOne said:
Why not get a Citroen Xantia. 2.1liter turbo diesel, 62mpg. Oh wait, this is US, a country of cars loaded with unneeded stuff right from the factory.
Click to expand...

You're barking up the wrong tree. I would love to have a small diesel automobile. Even better if it were a hybrid.

But currently, the Insight is the most fuel efficient production vehicle ever made.

My car is about as bargain basement as it gets, for a modern car. It has PW, PDL and cup holders. That's about it.
 
PhoKingGuy said:
43 mpg in my Jetta TDI while on a roadtrip, I never went slower than 80 mph.

I'll take that 🙂
Click to expand...

That's pretty good in all honesty.

I managed 64MPG during the trip down there, and I was flying by my standards - only dropped below 70 a couple of times. But that is because of the 2,000' elevation drop and the winds as previously mentioned, but in this case they were a tail wind.

It is absolutely amazing how much environmental conditions affect this car. A head or tail wind can be the difference between +20MPG and -20MPG. So 40MPG on the low side and 90MPG on the high side.
 
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Zivic said:
wow 62 mpg... can you even drive 62 mph?

I'll stick to my environmentally friendly evo. I don't quite get 62mpg. More like 12-13 mpg, but I run E85, so I am saving the environment.
Click to expand...

E85 saving the environment


tumblr_ldp3jukzHo1qb9a2wo1_500.png
 
Well, I went on our first road trip last weekend, after having MIMA for a week.

I'm still learning more about it and how to use it every day(it has a lot of features!).

I don't really think anybody but those who own the Insight really understand how different it is to drive from other cars. Lean burn is an amazing thing, but difficult for "outsiders" to grasp the full concept. It's easy for most people to understand that the engine can run an air:fuel ratio of up to 25:1, but they don't understand what that means when you're actually driving. It took me a long time to learn how to get the best MPG out of my car, and now with MIMA it's like I have to learn all over again. But that's a good thing!

Winds were light out of the SW. I've mentioned this before, but environmental conditions - particularly a head or tail wind - have a profound impact on average mileage.

I was able to achieve 85.7MPG during the 280 mile trip from Santa Fe to Canon City, CO. Not bad, overall. MIMA definitely came into play, and I cycled my battery twice during the 8,000 foot total elevation gain along the route. Having even the light tail wind made all the difference. Power was abundant, and I was able to cruise at 100+MPG for many tens of miles at a time, while finding ample opportunities to top off my battery. Average speed was ~50MPH.

During the trip back, the slight tail wind turned into a slight head wind. I was able to achieve 71.4MPG on the 280 mile trip home. I found it difficult to find opportunities to charge my battery, and was only able to use MIMA in small bursts, as my battery hovered around 1/4 to 1/2 full. Average speed was ~47MPH.

So that's 78.5MPG overall for the whole 560 mile trip, and an average speed of ~49MPH. Not bad, but not ground breaking either. I suppose one must consider that it is winter time. Indeed, I've never taken a road trip in the winter, so that may in fact be fairly excellent.

The average speed will seem low, but most people don't know their average speed. It is almost always lower than the speed limit, sometimes by a surprising amount.

I'm excited to continue integrating it into my driving style, and I look forward to the numbers this summer. 🙂
 
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Cool post, Eli. I was hoping you'd do MIMA one day. I would absolutely love to have an Insight with MIMA, but I need my daily driver to have a back seat. 🙁
 
thomsbrain said:
Cool post, Eli. I was hoping you'd do MIMA one day. I would absolutely love to have an Insight with MIMA, but I need my daily driver to have a back seat. 🙁
Click to expand...

Yeah, understandable.

We're actually thinking about selling my fiancee's Civic and buying another. She wants a blue one, or the wacky green. You can find them for 3-4k occasionally, now. There was one for $2900 in LA - with 440,000 miles on it. I'd have jumped on it, actually, but we saw it several weeks too late.

Unfortunately, I bought the 3rd to the last MIMA system.. and they have all since sold. So no MIMA for her. Though, Mike is said to be working on a more simple, cheaper version. Price point is supposed to be $200. That would be excellent.
 
90 mpg is cool and all, but it seems stressful to be driving your car worrying about headwinds and tailwinds and recharging the batteries. Seems it would take away any joy I get out of driving. Can you listen to the radio or is that sucking too much juice? A/C? Checking tire pressure every stop? What about accelerating? Are you the guy that makes it to 30 at the end of the on ramp and trying to merge into 65 mph traffic?
 
Zivic said:
90 mpg is cool and all, but it seems stressful to be driving your car worrying about headwinds and tailwinds and recharging the batteries. Seems it would take away any joy I get out of driving. Can you listen to the radio or is that sucking too much juice? A/C? Checking tire pressure every stop? What about accelerating? Are you the guy that makes it to 30 at the end of the on ramp and trying to merge into 65 mph traffic?
Click to expand...

Are you really this stupid, or do you just pretend?

It actually makes it more fun to drive - to me. Trying to get the best MPG I can is fun. I don't "worry" about a head or tail wind, they're just facts of life. Wanting to keep your battery full is natural; why would you want to keep it empty?

I listen to the radio, don't be ridiculous. I also turn my headlights on at night. Wow! It was 50 degrees outside, there was no need for A/C. I'll use it if I must during the summer.

The Insight would surprise you as far as acceleration goes. You don't need much power with an 1800lb car. I go slow(relatively) out on the open road, I do NOT go slow while tooling around in the city. I don't hold anyone up. You get the best fuel economy with the Insight by getting to the speed you want as quickly as possible, and then letting off the throttle to enter lean burn mode.

For the record, I'm usually passing people that are on the highway as I come up an on ramp. Nothing pisses me off more than people who don't know how to merge.

I drive my car very hard while in the city. The only time I hypermile is when I'm out on the open road on a long road trip.

Stop being an idiot.
 
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