There is no belt.

 

If you have your AC on, does the gas engine continue running when you are coasting or driving using electric motor?

I know traditional AC runs off belt and pulley on gas engine. My previous car, Prius Prime, had an electric heat pump/AC in place of traditional belt driven AC compressor. Does the 6th gen CR-V have electric het pump/AC or is it bell driven?

The AC will run with the engine off. The compressor is powered by the high voltage hybrid battery. At some point, the hybrid battery gets low enough to turn on the engine and charge it back up.

 

what year did they move the AC to electric verse engine driven?

 

What Jake said. The AC compressor is electric. A couple nice bonuses about that - it runs even when the engine is not running, and it can run at whatever speed it needs to. No sweating your sack off at a light because the engine idle is too low for the AC compressor to work well!

I don't think the system is a heat pump. That means the engine will have to run to produce heat, which is used for cabin heating.

The first hybrid vehicle I had was a 2002 Honda Insight. That car used a belt-driven AC compressor... and here in Texas, a long red light would have you sweating if you didn't goose the throttle to get the engine to start!

 

What Jake said. The AC compressor is electric. A couple nice bonuses about that - it runs even when the engine is not running, and it can run at whatever speed it needs to. No sweating your sack off at a light because the engine idle is too low for the AC compressor to work well!

I don't think the system is a heat pump. That means the engine will have to run to produce heat, which is used for cabin heating.

The first hybrid vehicle I had was a 2002 Honda Insight. That car used a belt-driven AC compressor... and here in Texas, a long red light would have you sweating if you didn't goose the throttle to get the engine to start!

Yes, it's nice that the AC works without the engine running. I like not having belts, tension pulley, compressor clutch, etc.

It's too bad it's not a heat pump, because in the winter the demand for cabin heat will cause the engine to run when it otherwise wouldn't and really reduces the mpg. I could make the engine go on or off sitting at a stop by pressing the button for the climate control on or off. I wonder how they do that on the 2024 plug in hybrid.

 

Unfortunately Honda did not use a heat pump…for the price it should have had one.

 

While i agree with you, unfortunately, there aren’t any hybrids that use a heat pump from any manufacturer not even Toyota. Only PHEVs and BEVs use heat pumps largely also due to cost.

 

Does anyone use heat pumps in a hybrid though, I thought they were for EVs with much larger batteries.

 

I can’t name another hybrid that does offhand but a/c is a one way heat pump, a two way has the same basic components plus a couple to reverse so that you can draw heat instead. Without it the cars engine comes on to provide heat earlier and more often as it gets colder outside.

EVs have heat pumps to save energy but should also have a back up resistive heater at least for climates that are colder so that you get stronger more reliable heat.