Ignorance is bliss. Well, that’s how most people are with cars. They know vaguely that pushing the STOP/START button will make something happen with sparks and oil to cause the car to move, or maybe there are a few dozen capybaras or hamsters that survive on gasoline that hop on a treadmill under the hood when summoned. Hard to tell.
To monitor the sparks, oil, capybaras and/or hamsters and make sure they’re delivering all they can, gauges and warning messages are relied upon unquestioningly. Would your car lie to you? They may certainly stretch the truth.
Car instruments are essentially the PR people of the engine compartment; they control the narrative and tell you what they want to tell you, and not always clearly. With the emergence of EVs and hybrids – and car companies wanting to really impress you with this technology – consumers may find the messages their cars are sending are getting even more muddled. Can we find a better way? Let’s take a look back first.
A Gauge To Show How Much You’re Pressing The Pedal
Long ago, American manufacturers realized that most car owners just wanted the basic information fed to them while driving, and they were happy to oblige by providing the bare minimum (and saving them money). From the sixties onwards, most dashboards were nothing more than a big horizontal speedometer, a gas gauge and a bunch of warning lights to illuminate when systems were in critical mode. That’s how people liked it; “enthusiasts” might want to see more but individuals like my grandma assumed that more gauges only meant there was more to go wrong. Here’s a good example of a typical setup in a 1972 Chevy Impala:
If you were mister money bags, you could even pop for a clock to replace the strange starburst thing that alerted people you could have had a clock, but were just too cheap to tick that box. (Never mind that you would still be without a clock soon enough even if you did pop for the timekeeper, as they usually died after a few years in those pre-quartz days).
As the seventies began, changes happened as we entered what we now know as the malaise era. In 1973, the great Oil Embargo drastically raised the price of what scarce fuel was available, and it hit carmakers by surprise. American manufacturers were particularly screwed, particularly when their typical “standard” products were things like this aircraft carrier-sized Pontiac Grand Ville convertible:
Ah, but if the car companies couldn’t give you economy, they could at least give you an economy gauge, right? This was the ultimate thoughts-and-prayers, “at least they’re doing something” bullshit they could cobble together. Here’s what that giant Pontiac barge above got in its dashboard:
Yes, it’s the kind of thing unimaginable in the days of 20-cent-a-gallon gas: a fuel economy gauge. American cars from a number of brands offered up this silly instrument in cars of all shapes and sizes. Many times it was huge, even eclipsing the size of the fuel gauge itself. With the instruments of this Chevy Caprice version of that Pontiac above, you can see the actual fuel level gauge gets relegated to a more distant part of the dash.
The giant Oldsmobile version of this giant GM sedan got one, too:
Man, GM went nuts with this gauge on everything from Monte Carlos to Grand Prixs: it’s the size of the freaking speedometer!
At least this one is the same size as the actual fuel level gauge:
Chrysler went all out and called it a “performance” gauge, a rather all-encompassing description:
AMC seems to have really added spin to the gauge by having a massive area of GOOD economy in the calibration. What is “good”? Like 50, 60, 80 miles per gallon? [Editor’s Note: Really, this should have been labeled “Good Enough” at best – JT]
Here’s another great thing about this instrument: in virtually all cases it was merely a vacuum gauge. That’s right: in essence, the gauge’s reading reflected little more than how much you pressed on the gas pedal. The deeper you got into the throttle, the greater the amount of vacuum the engine pulled, and the farther the needle fell into the “not economy” zone. This was great for car companies since it really just put the whole “economy” onus back onto you, the driver. Poor fuel economy? Well, that’s your fault, isn’t it?
The gauge was a joke by almost any standard, and the message from the dashboard seemed to be “could a car with an economy gauge really be totally inefficient as before?” It could indeed be just as inefficient, of course, but displaying economy – no matter how dubiously – let drivers know the automaker cared (or “cared”). The whole thing was pure theater, and gives me a sneaking suspicion we’re seeing a revival of the concept today.
Are Hybrid Power Gauges Any Better Than That Economy Gauge In That Old Pontiac?
A few months back, part of my business trip involved making a four hour run to Atlanta. A Camry appeared to be the best tool for the task on the Enterprise lot, which I realized was a hybrid when I loaded in my bags. The car was exactly what you would expect; quiet and comfortable but painfully dull. However, the “Hybrid System Indicator” in the dash was quite a conversation piece, though I struggled to think of what it was besides that.
Here’s another Toyota hybrid; the Hybrid System Indicator gauge is the thing on the left where the tach would be in a gasoline-only model:
What you have in place of where the tach would be was a needle that could rise into an “economy” and “power” area or drop into a section labeled “charge.” As you accelerated it behaved a bit like a tachometer, and then rapidly swung into the “charge” section when you hammered the brakes.
The gauge is meant to show you how much power you’re using. Does that mean power from the electric motor or the gasoline engine? Well, we don’t know. In fact, let’s look at the description of that gauge, specifically Point C:
Item C reads “gasoline engine power is not being used very often.” Very often. Well, that’s vague as hell, right?
Honda has a similar gauge in their hybrid models, and the video describes it the same way as the Toyota manual:
The circular area around the range, fuel, and mileage info is “POWER Gauge” and CHARGE/DECEL Gauge,” meant to show what percentage of available power is being used.
What do people think of this? Over at Reddit and in Honda forums, users seem to think a lot of wrong things. One person asked why there was no tach for the gas engine, to which one smug commenter asked “Why do you want a tach on a generator?” It only took a few lines for someone to correct them.
In the Honda hybrid, the engine certainly can act as a generator, but according to the manual there are three modes to the system:
EV Drive Mode – Active when starting from a stop, during light cruising and acceleration, and when braking. The gasoline engine is off in this mode and is decoupled from the drivetrain to reduce friction.
Hybrid Drive Mode – The electric propulsion motor alone powers the front wheels, with the gasoline engine powering the electric generator motor, which in turn provides power to the battery pack. This either supplements the battery by providing added electrical power to the propulsion motor or charges the battery if needed.
Engine Drive Mode – Under certain conditions, such as when cruising at medium to high speeds, the high-efficiency Atkinson-cycle i-VTEC® gasoline engine provides propulsion via a lock-up clutch that connects the generator motor to the propulsion motor. This effectively sends power directly from the engine to the drive wheels.
What this means is that “under certain conditions,” the engine is very much not a generator and does indeed power the car directly to the drive wheels. Many if not most hybrid systems work this way.
This raises a few questions about the usefulness of this gauge. First of all, the whole “reserve power” thing might be a bit silly since, unlike internal combustion engines, an electric motor gives you maximum torque from the word go. Also, the car can indeed power the wheels with the gas engine, which means that you might want to see if the engine is running and at what speed.
Let’s face it: Honda engines have historically not provided maximum power at lower revs. The beauty of most Hondas is that they shoot for five-figure revolutions quickly, and it’s essential to getting the power you need out of them; you have two unique power systems in a car that behave very differently. If that’s the case, then this “hybrid” gauge is a bit of a seventies “economy” meter in terms of usefulness.
A few commenters online said that “the power flow schematic you can bring up on the center screen tells a far better story.” I agree with that completely.
My theory on this type of “hybrid” gauge is that, in an effort to emphasize the future-thinking EV aspect of a hybrid, manufacturers want to downplay the fact that the car has an internal combustion engine at all. Honda even eliminates a temperature gauge for the gas engine. A hybrid system is a rather complex thing with aspects of two kinds of technology in one vehicle; seemingly a lot to go wrong. So the car manufacturers likely figures., “why worry the owner about it?”
Honestly, I get that reasoning, and this “one gauge for all” solution is a valiant effort, but the car does have a gas engine with arguably many more needs for monitoring than the electric motor requires, and we want to be able to keep an eye on that stuff. I think we can do better.
Just The Facts, Please
There’s no reason not to have a tachometer in a hybrid. As one example of this, Porsche hybrid vehicles offer a real tach (mechanical on older models like the pics below) with a series of lights at the bottom to show when the electric part of the system is charging or powering the car.
The lights work better than a needle-type gauge because they can react more quickly. In a hybrid, you switch from accelerating or cruising to charging the split second you hit the brakes, which is why the “hybrid gauge” needle swings wildly when driving around town. With the lights, they just switch off and on immediately.
Why not break down the information that a driver might want to know? Namely:
- Is the battery charging?
- Is the electric motor propelling the car?
- Is that gas motor running?
- Is the gas motor propelling the car?
That’s pretty simple right there, and it would seem a regular tach and a pair of bar-graph gauges could easily give us this information. Here are the original gauges and then my proposal:
If the tach is zeroed, you’re all electric and the motor is off. The tach showing revs and the “electric power” gauge at zero, then you know you’re running on straight gas power. Whatever the combination, these three graphics will tell the story.
It could be even simpler than that, and even fun. A Dodge hybrid? How about using the “fratzog” logo for the gauge? Sections of the shape could glow to show what part of the hybrid system is working:
A Mercedes logo could do the same thing in a Benz hybrid, now that I think about it. Regardless, the less complicated the better, and the clearer the message.
Please Don’t Give Us Another Starburst Gauge
Are these concept gauges the answer? Maybe not, but with hybrid cars becoming more prevalent in a world where buyers are still a bit hesitant to go all-electric, we’ll see a lot more of them, and we need some better solutions. There’s no reason you can’t get drivers the information they need without scaring or confusing them. That’s what good PR is about, right?
Honestly, I think if you asked most owners about their current “hybrid” gauge that cars offered, they’d probably say that they’d get more use out of a cluster like this with a giant clock where that useless instrument was:
I think I’d have to agree with them, and that’s pretty bad.
What Are Your Favorite Car Gauges And Instrument Clusters? – The Autopian
Speedometers Are All Wrong And Stupid But I Can Fix Them – The Autopian
A Daydreaming Designer Envisions Some Car Instruments We Could Really Use – The Autopian
What’s The Most Beautiful Speedometer Of All Time? Autopian Asks – The Autopian
I thought all cars were propelled by putting leftover shower spaghetti in a flux capacitor…
Frank Costanza (in the headline):
“What the HELL does that mean?”
Also: “You want a…piece of me?”
P.S. Happy Festivus!
“I got a lot of problems with you people and you’re gonna hear about it!”
I have a Honda Accord hybrid, and I really like your first proposed replacement for the power gauge. I don’t like not having a tach.
The other thing I would do would be replace the hybrid battery charge gauge on the left with a temperature gauge like the non-hybrid model has. If it’s not a PHEV, I have absolutely no need to know what the level of the hybrid battery is, but I would like to know the engine temperature. The Accord Hybrid doesn’t even have a blue idiot light to show you that the engine is cold like I’ve seen in other cars without temperature gauges.
until the 335i i think every single BMW in history had a fuel economy gauge.
Most of the older M cars had an oil temp gauge in place of the fuel economy gauge, except famously the US market e36 M3 which got the fuel economy gauge.
While these are obvious dashboard kludges, *nothing* is more of a mind-fuck than the Toyota Mirai:
Ford figured out the hybrid power indicator a decade ago with their Engage gauge. It’s very much like the author’s suggestion of green lights marching around the dial in opposing directions. The Ford’s gauge features a blue (EV) and white arc that climbs from a base at 4 o’clock clock to peak at 2 o’clock. Half a glance is sufficient to show you what’s going on underhood. Also there’s a blue pinwheel that animates under regen braking. The Toyota power gauges look much more unintuitive.
“What power now?” isn’t a question that needs to be answered with great precision. It’s partially entertainment, but it also reminds drivers that they have a hybrid system and it’s working. Don’t make me look at the center screen – it’s distracting and its illustration provides too much extraneous visual information.
If you were mister money bags, you could even pop for a clock to replace the strange starburst thing that alerted people you could have had a clock, but were just too cheap to tick that box.
My father got the shittiest of shitty fleet car: 1977 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu wagon. His employer had a final say in what options my father could choose so we got one with the starburst thing on the instrument cluster.
Having the extensive experience and skills with electronics, he raided Radio Shack for the parts to build the digital clock to fill in the starburst thing. Lot of people thought it was the coolest thing in the 1970s and asked him to build the kits for them.
The second layout you have is similar to one choice on my Hybrid C-Max. It doesn’t have a tach, but it does have a round gauge with two bars around the outside, one for engine power, and one for electrical power being used, labeled in kW. It has about 5 choices on what it can show.
Lastly, on the old vacuum/economy gauges, ‘Good’ meant ‘As good as it’s going to get!’
The vacuum gauge actually made sense in GM and Chrysler cars as they were both equipped with spread bore 4v carburetors. Cruise around on the small primarys and fuel economy and vacuum were high, open the secondaries (the large secondaries) and the vacuum and fuel economy would drop. Quite different than a port injected engine with a single throttle blade.
Dont underestimate the value of a clock in a car. Arriving is often about arriving on-time. I agree that less is more in terms of a relaxing drive but I think every day is different and some days you just want or need to know the details.
A tachometer makes less sense in an automatic than a manual transmission car but is still relevant. I think Porsche has done a great job with the lights, but often the information that is really useful is the averages, the trends, the remaining (time, fuel, charge etc)
My buddy’s old Pontiac had one of those fuel economy gauges. I think we just pretended it was a tach
I added an aftermarket “fuel economy” vacuum gauge to my ’71 Datsun because it is ridiculous and pointless and made me smile.
A tale of two Kia Niros (2017 and 2025):
The first one has no tach, and the economy gauge. I like how the both the charge and eco are divided in half, so I know when I’m light enough on both the gas and brake pedals to maximize mpg.
The newest one displays the rpm and wastes a ton of dash real estate because it just displays a multi-segment LCD style number, not even a fake gauge. The only benefit I saw to this was realizing how large of an effect highway speed has on engine speed, and therefore mpg. There’s this horizontal 3-D effect bar on the center rectangle display between the speed and tach that serves as the eco gauge, but it was hard to interpret how I was driving.
Both Niros use a 6 speed auto in their hybrid system, so a tach is good… but I found the older Niro encouraged gentle driving habits better with the economy gauge design.
Agreed we have a 2023, same cluster on the HEV’s. unless you are a Euro buyer than you get a fancy 10″ full lcd which lets you choose a similar layout to the old Niro. I was a bit mad when I learned about this!
The early Prius had a dash layout that showed where the power was coming from, and where it was going – how much back to the battery and so on. It became a kind of a game to see if you could charge the battery all the way up on a trip.
I find myself doing the same thing with my gas powered car, trying to see just how high I can get the average fuel consumption gauge to read while maintaining warp speed on the highway.
The second proposed layout is exactly what you can select on the Gen 2 Volt. I have two lil bar graphs (one if running in EV mode) that shows output, or regen. The gas side of the bar essentially shows RPM’s, where the EV side just shows if its outputting power, or regenning. Pretty neat.
Yesss, so glad this is the first comment I saw here, because they did it right. The only way to make it more granular is if it showed kW separately for each bar – if the engine is on and propelling you and it’s also regenerating, it shows the total output (say, 8 kW) when maybe the engine is providing 20 but 12 is dumping back into the battery.
I’ve been in a few Hyundai EVs that show a real-time “mileage” (I think miles per kWh) in the instrument cluster as you’re driving, and that’s handy as well, but that’s similar to real-time MPG displays.
I think that the “power/eco/regen” needle seen here is one of those stopgaps when a vehicle that has only an ICE is retrofitted to a hybrid, and they swap the gauge out. Something designed from the ground up typically doesn’t have those.
My C-max has a choice with 2 bars labeled in kW.
That’s a good gauge choice. It’s small and easy to read.
The Kia Sportage SX AWD I drive does provide all the details you asked for, which is, what is going on with the drivetrain at any given moment. Yeah, the dumb “economy/power” gauge is an option, but there’s two options as well to monitor hybrid activity.
You can set the secondary display to show you the current operational mode of the drivetrain, including charge/drive/hybrid drive activity, and the dash can display which wheels are receiving power (and how much per wheel!) at any given moment, plus RPM, along with current estimated mileage. Way more useful than that silly gauge version. Easy to do too.
Sometimes that’s really cool stuff. Most times, though, I am watching the road and traffic. Overall, my driving habits have improved as a result of switching to a hybrid. And I’m paying a fraction per month of my previous vehicle’s fuel habit.
You inverted what the gauge reads. Wide open throttle means nearly zero vacuum and low economy, closed throttle increases vacuum indicating high economy
Good catch. A lengthy rant about vacuum gages by someone who apparently doesn’t understand the basic principle involved here.
Or, you know, the non douchey assumption of a simple error was made.
I’ve owned a 70’s Caprice with the economy gauge.
It was just as useful as the power / charging graphics my EV’s cluster options are full of. I would much rather have the option for front and rear tachs showing motor speed at each end.
If you have front and rear electric motors turning at different speeds, you have an instant stability problem. You won’t be looking at a dash gauge, you’ll be looking forward through the side window.
The ECO section or light that many hybrid vehicles have (specially Japanese) seems to be on par with vehicles that have an indicator to shift to the next gear (manual transmissions).
A couple of friends with Toyota hybrids always try to stay on ECO but they are sloooow, they get nervous when they enter Power territory because the engine is loud according to them haha
I ignore the ‘efficiency leaves’ on my C-Max, I just drive the car like a regular car. I already get like 2x the fuel economy of the car it replaced, so I’m not going to drive like a turtle to get another 2-3 mpg.
Anyone who’s rented a U-Haul in the past decade has seen the “eco gauges” the rental giant has installed, mounted oddly on the A-pillars of trucks and vans.
It is, as you say, just a vacuum gauge. But I would argue – not useless! While you’re never going to get “good” mileage in a box truck, I suspect many folks unused to driving a commercial vehicle don’t understand quite how widely the milage can swing between a light touch and a lead foot.
Of course, big orange doesn’t care how much you burn – they circle the little gas gauge on the contract to remind you – but I’m sure encouraging drivers not to constantly floor it saves them in engine wear and speed-related accidents.
Yeah, I’m young enough where a U-Haul is the only thing I’ve driven with one of those. I found it silly… but still tempered my foot while driving to at least keep it consistent.
The way they have those gauges set up may not be the most useful, but I’d certainly rather have it than a giant clock.
Pfft, who needs these gauges. Just plug in your Fuel Shark and never worry about fuel economy again!
This is why I had a ScanGauge in my old Cruze. That little readout helped a lot, especially once the car got a chiptune. Ignition timing, fuel flow, boost and average fuel economy were my choices. Super helpful in driving for fuel economy without being a rolling roadblock.
Funny thing is my aircraft carrier sized Oldsmobile didn’t come with a factory vacuum gauge, so a previous owner mounted one to the steering column. And since I’ve thrown a hotter cam in the thing, it’s actually become a useful indication of how the engine’s running.
Point is, if you care about fuel economy, maybe don’t get a big block.
My daily is a Fusion hybrid, which I do not leave on the leaf setting. Little too cutesy for my taste.
I find the leaves better than the compass.
Did I start this with my comment about vacuum gauges in the too many speedometers post yesterday? (or whenever, I’m not in my usual time zone right now) vacuum gauges are great, sometimes they are boost gauges as well. I don’t know that they are great indicators of fuel economy, in their own, but they are great indicators of how things like how m cylinder pressure is and how much heat you are probably generating. On old stuff with manual spark advance … oh this is more in the weeds than necessary, you are probably thinking of new ( post mid 20th century anyway ) cars.
Anyway, what’s the point of a tachometer when you aren’t shifting gears manually?
Gauges I like:
Coolant temp.
Oil pressure.
Oil temp
Vacuum / boost
Exhaust oxygen sensors are neat on carbureted cars. I can tune by smell ( and are there ever a lot of cars running over rich ) but there are obvious problems inherent to driving the car and smelling the exhaust
Pyrometers
Ammeters, fuck the stupid voltage meters why do they bother with volt meters anyway r
Tachometers if you are shifting yourself they can let you know that you probably
Just messed up the lower end of you
but if you have to look . Transit
Why do automakers insist on tachometers on automat trav transyewu
“Exhaust oxygen sensors are neat on carbureted cars. I can tune by smell ( and are there ever a lot of cars running over rich ) but there are obvious problems inherent to driving the car and smelling the exhaust”
If an emissions controlled car is running rich enough to notice the smell why do you think you can trust the accuracy of the gauges being controlled by the same sensors that adjust the mixture?
Or are you talking about old carbureted cars and if so where are you finding enough of them to notice a lot of them running over rich?
Central Valley of California, lots of carbureted old cars and motorcycles.
Also there are lots of “tuner cars” that I think take the catalytic converter off and run a “performance tune” between visits to the local smog shack. These are the same nitwits that run wheel spacers, skinny tires on wide rims and lots of negative camber. Almost as bad as the coal roller dudes.
Smell something, say something, here ya go!:
https://air.arb.ca.gov/Forms/VehicleComplaint/SmokingVehicle?_ga=2.57968106.1380698077.1734626791-1660857080.1728642307
> but if you have to look . Transit
> Why do automakers insist on tachometers on automat trav transyewu
Are you OK there, bud?
been doing a bit too much tuning by smell, perhaps?
…it was at that moment that the gummy engaged.
Combo of iPhone and travel brain.
But thanks for asking!
The tach is provided so you know what’s going on under the hood!
My Kia Sportage SX has one. Very useful to tell when charging/hybrid drive is going on, because it’s pretty seamless when the engine engages and disengages.
Plus, if you use engine braking on a hill, especially with a trailer, you definitely want to know so you don’t explore the redline and ruin your day/bank account.
I like voltmeters because they tell you the same information as a Ammeter, without a bunch of dangerous and extra wiring. With a volt meter if you’re over 13 you’re fine, between 12.5 and 13 you’re using your alternators complete capacity, and it you’re below 12.5 you’re draining the battery fast.
My 10sp auto F-150 has a tach. I use it when towing so that I can control which gear is being used. I like to keep the revs between 2,000 & 2,500 to reduce overheating and gain another 0.2 mpg. (When you are down in single digits, every bit helps).