Advice on long distance driving.

Hello everyone. About long distance driving, should you press the charge button at times to charge the battery, or is it better to regen when braking? Any tips/advice on efficient long distance driving would be much appreciated...thx in advance.

Between us on this forum, we must have tried every combination of settings and styles of driving and operation. I just leave it to get on with it, unless I have a need to save some battery capacity for later. "Charge" is inefficient, and you really only need it if towing or climbing mountains, as far as I can tell. If you know you're going to need all the oomph available, say, for overtaking, then hitting "charge" beforehand will deliver full power with no lag. No doubt others will chip in with different opinions, but for day to day use, just leave it to it's own devices. That's my opinion.

I know this topic has been done to death. But my experience is put the car on save and it will charge slowly. It will also charge if on save +cruise. Seems to charge better when there is 50 mph limit over long distance like the chronic M62 amd M1. You dont need to charge unless you want to.

Thanks for the tips everyone...I will experiment different combinations and see what happens...now I await for news on why the entertainment system doesn't work apart from the rear camera.
Orginally, the car is from Holland, and the map/sd cards are missing, however when I took it the local Mitsubishi dealer here in Finland, they say the whole unto may need to be replaced, and the cost is over 8k...a price of a small car...but the dealer that I got it advise me of this procedure..."take it Mitsubishi and we'll pay for fixing it." Hopefully for their sake, it doesn't need replacing. The story continues...

Kesto said:

I know this topic has been done to death. But my experience is put the car on save and it will charge slowly. It will also charge if on save +cruise. Seems to charge better when there is 50 mph limit over long distance like the chronic M62 amd M1. You dont need to charge unless you want to.

Click to expand...

I don’t think that’s correct. On ‘Save’ you may see minor variations in the level of charge but it will generally just oscillate around whatever level of charge you had when you first pressed the button. I’ve regularly driven several hundred miles with ‘Save’ pressed, and have never seen any gradual increase in the level of charge over that period.

In relation to the original question, I’d say that generally there is no need to use ‘Charge’ when driving long distances, unless you know that at the end of your motorway journey you will be doing some extensive town driving. If you want to be able to drive around town in EV mode, then you may want to build up some charge while on the motorway. I don’t think it makes a material difference to overall economy figures, but if you want to be less polluting when driving in town then this might be something that you want to do.

Just an update and advice if possible...Seemingly the whole entertainment system needs to be replaced...costs around during 8000e...price of a small car...but anyway, the dealer he has said they'll get a replacement, but it won't be like for like, however it'll have reversing camera, bluetooth, cd/radio etc etc...is this advisable, but I guess my hands are tied that they have to fix it at a acceptable cost...besides am of course not prepared to pay anything.

geoffshep69 said:

Kesto said:

I know this topic has been done to death. But my experience is put the car on save and it will charge slowly. It will also charge if on save +cruise. Seems to charge better when there is 50 mph limit over long distance like the chronic M62 amd M1. You dont need to charge unless you want to.

Click to expand...

I don’t think that’s correct. On ‘Save’ you may see minor variations in the level of charge but it will generally just oscillate around whatever level of charge you had when you first pressed the button. I’ve regularly driven several hundred miles with ‘Save’ pressed, and have never seen any gradual increase in the level of charge over that period.

Click to expand...

I think in theory, COS can go up and down. I you have period of excessive regenning (downhill stretch) the SOC can be pushed over the high water mark of the cycle and reset itself to that higher level. If you have a period of excessive power consumption, SOC can be pushed below the low water mark of the cycle and reset itself to that lower level.

One would expect that periods of excessive regenning will be followed (or preceded) by periods of excessive power consumption, so the net affect should be minimal. Unless you decent from a 2000 meter high mountain pass and measure over the descent. The other way around can easily happen by just driving it hard. Or try towing a caravan in Save mode. That will take care of your SOC in a heartbeat ;-)

I have definitely noticed car getting charged on cruise and save ,over long motorway driving. But it stops at 18 - 20 miles. When the car is fully loaded I have noticed car charged upto 22 miles on M62 down from penines to manchester. It is a long gradual drop.

Kesto said:

I have definitely noticed car getting charged on cruise and save ,over long motorway driving. But it stops at 18 - 20 miles. When the car is fully loaded I have noticed car charged upto 22 miles on M62 down from penines to manchester. It is a long gradual drop.

Click to expand...

I think you are confusing estimated EV range and battery SoC. If there are lengthy periods of cruising under zero power then the car will calculate that you can travel further for the same charge. I see something similar when I occasionally use the ICE (Gxh3) for heating, whilst still primarily driving in EV. It would appear that the range drops very slowly as "overruns" on the bursts from the ICE as used to drive the car but the battery level does not increase.

The way mine works (2015MY) on the save button is to utilise any spare power not needed for forward propulsion to add charge to the battery. Once a high threshold has been reached, the car will use this until the charge level is back down to the save level (or prehaps just below) and start the cycle again.

There only seems to be spare power when cruising on a relatively level or slightly downhill road. Anything a bit uphill the car needs all the power for forward propulsion.

greendwarf said:

Kesto said:

I have definitely noticed car getting charged on cruise and save ,over long motorway driving. But it stops at 18 - 20 miles. When the car is fully loaded I have noticed car charged upto 22 miles on M62 down from penines to manchester. It is a long gradual drop.

Click to expand...

I think you are confusing estimated EV range and battery SoC. If there are lengthy periods of cruising under zero power then the car will calculate that you can travel further for the same charge. I see something similar when I occasionally use the ICE (Gxh3) for heating, whilst still primarily driving in EV. It would appear that the range drops very slowly as "overruns" on the bursts from the ICE as used to drive the car but the battery level does not increase.

Click to expand...

Agreed - the battery charge level will never increase significantly when running on "Save" - the control algorithm will burn off the additional charge. It will go up on a steep decent, but there are few long, steep descents in this country that can produce a significant increase.

From my experience, the save mode does increase the range by a couple of miles and then reuses them to maintain the level of charge. I find that using save on a long run is a little bit more efficient than using charge (although through roadworks at 45-55 mph there does not seem to be much difference). anyway - so on longer runs i tend to stay in save and when i notice a few miles added to the range i hit charge and then immediately go back to save this seems to then maintain the new level whilst still slowly adding charge. I then just repeat the action next time more range is added for use at my destination. As i say this if from my experience over 12000 miles since Jan.

I have tools that allow me to monitor many parameters that you cannot find on the dashboard, such as rpm, instantaneous fuel consumption, power output, generator output, etc. From what I have seen there is no difference between save mode compared to charge mode in terms of efficiency. All readings stay exactly the same when you switch from save to charge mode or back. The only difference is that one mode aims to maintain SOC where the other aims to increase SOC.

To get the best economy avoid braking, avoid regeneration at almost all cost. Even with regenerative braking there are losses in charging and discharging, to get the best efficiency try to allow the car to slow down on its own using the friction of the tyres etc. Set the "engine braking" level to zero when you can and use the paddles to slow the car if you have to slow quicker than road drag is slowing you. Of course running up the back of another car isn't efficient, don't do that.
Use charge for 20 or so minutes if the battery is depleted and you know you have hills ahead. Don't forget to turn it off on the way down.

This is my opinion from driving a 2004 Prius Hybrid for 10+ years achieving as good as 3.7L/100km in suburban traffic. (rated at 4.3L/100km) But I have little experience with the Outlander at this point. Only owned that for a few months.