Re: New BBC soap

As I said in another post, it always starts in electric mode and stays that way up to about 15mph, when the engine will start. Now, if the battery was low then the engine will start earlier. Sometimes after I start the system the engine will come on early if I'm a bit slow pressing all the buttons and it feels the battery needs a quick boost. But if I can prevent that by pressing a button before it starts, then it'll stay in electric mode until about 20mph, until the battery is low enough, or I try too much acceleration.

In general the elctric traction motors will start the engine. Obviously any hybrid must have sone form of generator and it will be technically an alternator, It just wint be an obvious bolt on component.

How does it start - bump-start using the vehicle's momentum? Or using the traction motor(s) temporarily disconnected from the wheels by some sort of clutch?

Again, how? (_Can_ it start at all if the battery is low enough not to be able to move the vehicle?)

Easily. It uses the completely independent starter battery. The starter motor is 12 volts, the traction batteries a couple of hundred at least, and a converter big enough to operate a starter motor is much more expensive than an alternator and battery added together. The 12 Volts is also used for lighting and such.

We're at cross purposes here. This sub-sub-thread started with someone - presumably not you - saying s/he didn't _have_ a starter motor (or alternator).

AFAIK it is a very soft bump start

Probably not

A lot of cars (such as those which have stop-start) have combined "starternators"

Still doesn't explain how it starts without either. But TNP has said he thinks it _is_ a bump start using the car's momentum (having been got rolling by the electric motor).

Which, thinking about it, would make it unsuitable for those with a garage that's down a slope, such as a basement or semi-basement one.

Assuming the traction battery isn't flat, I'd expect the motor to have enough power to drive up a slope.

My car is one of the "mild hybrids" it uses a normal pinion starter when the engine is cold, but after that it uses the belt starter to re-start the engine when it's "paused" at traffic lights etc ... it's surprising how quickly it restarts.

What is a "belt starter", in this context? (And a "mild hybrid" for that matter - which part is "mild", the fuel engine or the electric one, or does "mild" refer to something else?)

the "starternator" I referred to previously

Also linked from the wiki article I gave, but in short a car that has stop-start and recuperates power to the normal battery during coasting and/or braking.

Ah, you meant "belt" as in "wallop", i. e. a bump from the "starternator", rather than - as I thought - a belt as in "fan"belt.

Right. So not capable of running directly as such from the battery.

No, it does does mean via the ribbed belt

That's correct.