Originally Posted By: ffracer
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As I have explained many times, it does slip. It may not slip like a torque converter, but input does not equal output, unlike a manual.
And each one of the many times you've said this, you've been incorrect. The ICE is permanently connected to the planet gear carrier. The planet gears are permanently engaged to BOTH the outer ring (again, connected to MG2 and the drive wheels), AND the inner shaft (connected to the smaller MG1). Mechanically, it is impossible for the ICE to slip and do nothing. It drives either the outer ring, the inner shaft, or as is most often true, both. Power that goes to the outer ring drives the wheels. Power that goes to the inner shaft either goes into the battery or right back to MG2. The driveline never declutches, and there's no mode whatsovever in which the ICE can run and do nothing but slip.
Originally Posted By: ffracer
Toyota has manual Priuses running around as a baseline and they are more efficient.
The HSD design is fundamentally inconsistent with a clutched manual trans design. Now, I've heard of Prius test shells that simply have the Yaris driveline in them (the same 1.5L I-4 as the Prius, minus the hybrid system). These cars would most definitely NOT be as efficient as a Prius. I'm not going to declare that there aren't any experimental Honda-style Prius manual test cars out there, but I've been on the net scouring for info about my car for almost two years, and I've seen no evidence of the existence of such a car. Can you prove it exists?
Originally Posted By: ffracer
It is not direct drive...
Yes, it is direct drive. Again, the ICE is geared to the outer ring, which is directly geared to the drive wheels. Direct drive is exactly what it is.
Originally Posted By: ffracer
, it does not have eyes, it is simply a better way to do an automatic. Amazing engineering feat. but not the end all. It's value is in city driving. Outside of that, there are better choices, if you drive primarily non-city driving. In city driving today, it is hard to beat.
Who said it "had eyes"? While this is a debatable point, I don't see the HSD CVT as simply a "better automatic". It's something different from either manuals or current stepped autos. Frankly, I think that it works better than both. The other thing you're overlooking is how, for non-city driving, the engineers have cleverly paired up the special characteristics of the engine (primarily the VVT-driven Atkinson cycle operation), with the transmission, to produce a unit that does very well both in the city and out.
Originally Posted By: ffracer
A hybrid is two parts, the actual supplimental power, and the coupling.
Again, one of the other key concepts you're missing is that the "coupling" as you refer to it, is integral with the motor generators -- with this design, you can't have one without the other.