Standing start acceleration for a hybrid SUV ?!
When I had the HR-V Hybrid for testing from Honda Malaysia, curiousity got the better of me and I did take the car out to a quiet, reasonably level and straight road for a few quick rounds of simple 0-100kph acceleration timing.
I only have my old Racetech meter so I used that to time the runs so obviously my results are not professional standard. But to get straight to the point, I managed to average around 10 seconds for the standing start 0-100kph run in the HR-V Hybrid. My best time was 9.98 seconds.
The HR-V is programmed for smooth start off from standstill. This is for smooth driving and fits its design as a family SUV, but it do work against getting good acceleration times. The low-end pull is consistent and relatively strong but I did not managed to get a strong launch. I used the standard technique of flooring the throttle all the way down and holding the HR-V stationary with left foot hard on the brake. When I lift off the brake pedal, the HR-V smoothly got moving, and acceleration picks up steadily. I could not get the tyres to break traction, but once it gets moving, the HR-V surges forward steadily. 100kph comes in 4th gear from what I remember and I almost couldn't feel the gearshifts from the i-DCD gearbox. I manually shifted the gears using the pedal shifters on the steering wheel. When left in S mode, the timing was just a little bit slower.
Honda's newest IMA hybrids are no longer designed purely for lowest possible fuel consumption and the HR-V and Jazz Hybrids are both more powerful than their petrol only versions. I also had the Jazz Hybrid i-DCD for test drive and later will put up the 0-100kph timings I got for that.
