Honda Car Forum

...annoying? It takes forever for the cabin to cool down on hot days. It appears the compressor turns off during slow city driving. Once you get on the highway for extended periods the A/C does fine. But once you slow down the air coming out of the vents is noticably hotter.

It is the way that all hybrids are setup. When you are driving at under 35 MPH the car is running off the electric motors. Once you reach 35 MPH the gas motor turns on. The AC compressor is operated off a belt that is run by the gas motor, hence the reason why under 35 MPH the AC does not work.

That's how hybrids work. At low speeds the engine shuts off and it runs on the electric motor. This gets you good mileage because you aren't using any gas. At this point you could have 2 options. First is the typical belt driven A/C which you have that requires a running engine to work. Second is an electric A/C which of course would drain your battery that powering the electric motor and turn the engine back on to charge it back up. Either way you just lost all the advantages of a hybrid and end up with a Civic with 100+ lbs of battery in the trunk.Unless you spend all your time driving in the city with stop and go traffic (charges the battery with regenerative braking)a hybrid is just an over priced over weight compact car.