I was driving on a relatively flat side-road at constant speed and my eye got caught by the energy monitor - my understanding was that the 40mph EV limit has technical reasons behind - I recall seeing a YouTube video on how the transmission works and the author mentioned that @ 40mph the electric traction motor reaches it's max rpm and then ICE kicks in, but attached video shows an interesting phenomenon where I clearly drove for a good 30s in EV only mode at much higher speed, you can clearly see the energy flow and instant fuel consumption=zero as in the video. It was actually more like a minute or so that I drove in EV only at that speed, it took a while till I fired my phone and recorded, etc

What do you guys think, how is this that even possible ?

 

The engine is just free spinning hence the lack of fuel usage.

To see if the engine is off, you'd need to either be in the tachometer mode (it would go to zero) or have the green EV mode indicator light configured (I have mine set that way and you can see it turn off if the car is pushing using only the battery but fast enough to spin the engine).

This generally only happens if your battery is high enough and the load demands low enough that the computer decides it needs to bleed energy from your battery (since even a free spinning engine is a drag). I'm kinda surprised your battery is one block from full because I've only seen this in mine at full.

(also, I heard the GS450h has a gear so it's also possible the system is using that but I heard it only kicks in at around 65mph. seems fishy to me though)

 

Thanks for capturing and sharing the video.

I agree with ChoronR that your engine is not off - it's just running in case you step on the accelerator enough to warrant the power. If you had dropped below 40 mph, you would have noticed your engine completely shutoff and the green EV indicator show up on you dash. In addition, you would hear silence from your engine (and you can feel when this happens or is about to happen if you're driven the car long enough).

Bottom line, if you're using the accelerator (not just coasting down a mountain/hill), you can't get over 40 mph without the engine firing on.

~ Im2bz2p345

 

I agree in general with what you're saying but the ICE was not consuming any gas at the time, similar to coasting downhill, which is shown in the video in the fuel consumption log in the main UI. Also, the power train was under load rather than coasting case with battery discharging (yellow) vs charging (blue) as when you're taking your foot off the acceleration pedal. At some point the ICE started, which I'm very familiar with (smooth but you can still tell a small thump and of course hear the engine noise). IMHO the ICE was truly off or at least not contributing to the propulsion which in my head is EV only - indicators or not

 

We just love our little GS Hybrids now don’t we now. If Lexus would just put a bigger battery in it like Volvo did, we could have best of both worlds. I have only driven my 2013 for approx. 5000 miles since I bought it 8n May 2019. Still a new car to me. Not like you GS 450h veterans.

 

Congrats - yeah I agree a larger battery would have been very interesting. Still, it will grow on you as you drive it - closing in to 100k miles on my 2013 and no signs of letting down

 

Since you're not driving it, I'll buy it from you