My GX4 gets 33.6mpg!

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WicklowMan

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2017
Messages
3
Need help please!

We bought a 2014 GX4 about 4 months ago and drive it with the B5 on and Eco off as we were told to by a dealer.

The last tank of petrol (45 litres) got us 605km i.e. 13.4 km/l

When you add a week's worth of electricity i.e. 7 days at 12kw per day X 11.15c per KW = €9.36

The electricity would have bought us another 6 litres of petrol.

So for the equivalent of 51 litres (45 & 6) we achieved 605km = 11.8 km/l

or

11.21 gallons for 376 miles = 33.6mpg which is the most uneconomical car we have ever owned. :shock:

Is my maths wrong or are we doing something wrong with the car? If not, we are obviously selling it ASAP. My gut tells me we bought the wrong car as we are doing 60km round trips and only getting 20km per charge.
 
B0 and Eco on!! And see the difference.
Although hard acceleration with Eco on does have worse economy than with Eco off.
 
Is the "12 kWh per day to charge" what the car is showing? The nominal battery capacity is 12 kWh, but the battery is never 'empty', so even when the car is completely drained, filling the battery only uses ~10 kWh according to my Charging Cost page. If you're measuring the charging accurately and it really is taking 12 kWh per day, I'd suggest something is amiss.

I've a feeling that Wicklow is reasonably hilly, so driving in B0 all the time would prevent you recovering any energy on downhill sections. Here in the Chiltern hills, I can get over 16 pure electric miles on a full charge, even in the cold winter weather.
 
Ok. Let's just try to sort this out. On 60km trips it should not be the worst car for economy.

1. How have you used 45 litres on one tank? Yes that is the tank capacity but I struggle to put much more than 38 litres in at a time. You need to measure mileage and litres put in, not max tank capacity.
2. You will not use 12kw per day. The battery capacity is 12 but a full charge will probably take about 10. There are small losses in electricity but the battery never gets fully empty so you shouldn't use 12 unless perhaps you are preheating. This won't make much difference to your figures but worth noting.
3. I haven't bothered to check your maths...
4. It appears the dealers still have no idea how to drive the car! Use B0 and glide wherever you can, use eco and a gentle right foot. Keep heating to a minimum - use heated seat only, if possible. Use proper heating only when running the ice and minimise air con use.
5. What is the profile of your journey - if say a 10 mile run to the motorway use battery for that then try using save or charge at motorway speeds (slower better) and keep some battery for slower (<40 mph) sections and to deal with jams. Use last bit of battery getting home on slower roads.
6. Temp will impact economy quite dramatically. Winter is not your friend (and nor is speed).
7. Check your tyre pressures.

I get not too far short of that mpg on a run that length towing 1400kg...

Let us know how you get on. And if you tell us about that regular 60km run we can give more guidance.
Cheers
H
 
And paddle up to control speed on hills. If you can, use up some battery (to about 50%) to give you "space" to capture regen energy on downhills). But obviously depends where any hills come on your journey.
 
Wow, didn't expect so much feedback, so quick, many thanks.

Our typical run is 20km through a town and then 40km on motorway at 75mph.

Tank: Its my wifes car and I asked her to measure the miles from full to fumes, I just assumed it was 45 litres.

12kWh - new to this so just assumed that if that is the capacity of the battery, I will re-run my numbers based on 10kWh.

Settings - The local Mitsubishi dealer said to drive in B5 and Eco off. I will try Phil's suggestion of B0 and Eco on.

Wicklow - yes it is hilly.

Tyres - will check them.

'Save or charge on motorways...' - I don't understand these buttons. When we are on the motorway and doing 75mph, should we press charge to charge the battery for town / city driving later?

HonestJohn.co.uk gave the PHEV an average of 58mph, is that what you guys are getting?

Really appreciate your time and advice.
 
The other thing to watch out for is seized rear brakes.

A couple of members have reported that their hand-brake was not releasing correctly IIRC.
 
The sweet spot for this car is if you normally stay within (or not far out of) electric range. Occasional long trips will bring the average down a bit, but if you are doing 2:1 or 3:1 petrol:electric daily it won't shine I'm afraid. You'd be better off with a diesel in fuel economy terms. But then you would be driving a smelly polluting diesel.

Steve
 
If you are driving everywhere in B5 but in the same style as an normal car, then every time you lift off the Regen brakes the car (like changing down in a manual). Although you will back some battery back as a result, if you are not prepared for it then the temptation will be to press back of the accelerator to maintain speed, probably burning extra fuel unnecessarily. Yes use B0 more but on the motorway use the cruise control, which sets it at B2 and manages the use of acceleration to maintain speed better (and more economically) than you can. :mrgreen:
 
As you 'admitted' to guessing the amount of gas that was added, there is some reason to believe you may also have guessed the amount of electricity that was added during a charge. So, it is important to know: is the battery really empty when she returns home? Why?

She says large part of the trip is motorway at 75 mph. This speed is very close to the speed at which the car is forced to run on petrol. When she is driving just above that speed for 40 km and then below it for 20 km, chances are the battery is not empty when she returns home.

Another reason for not emptying the battery would be (extensive) heating. If her car has no electric heater, the engine must run frequently to provide heat. If it does and she does not properly pre heat the car before taking off, the engine will also ruin to provide heat at the beginning of the trip (which happens ro be the slow part of the trip?)

If the battery is not depleted during the trip, your numbers would be a little bit better when taking that into account. But your numbers should be much better when slowing down just a tad. Or pre heat.

The statement that there is no regen in B0 is not correct. There is regen when you hit the brake pedal, but at lower B settings the amount of regen maxes out earlier and friction brakes are applied more often (which is more a concern than fuel economy when you live in the hills).

I would first look at:
- how much gas is really used
- how much electricity is really used
- is my driving style suitable (stay away from 75+ mph speeds)

And only then worry about B setting and ECO mode.
 
WicklowMan said:
HonestJohn.co.uk gave the PHEV an average of 58mph, is that what you guys are getting?

Yes, I've averaged almost exactly that, using your method to adjust the consumption to reflect the extra cost of recharging (I don't know how Honest John works it out). If I look at pure fuel consumption as reported by Fuelly.com, that's around 85 mpg (3.3 l/100km). That's 15,000 miles in two years over fairly hilly terrain. I reckon (working back from the quantity of petrol I've bought and assuming 35 mpg) that I do around 3:2 electric:'petrol' miles, i.e. I've bought enough petrol to take me 6,000 miles without charging. If you're doing a smaller proportion (and it sounds like you would, given your typical daily run) then your consumption will be worse - if (like some posters on this forum) you do almost all your driving in electric mode, you'll do much better.

But if you're charging every day, I find it hard to imagine how you'd get consumption figures as low as 35 mpg - unless you're hammering it down the motorway, while towing a heavy load :)
 
ChrisMiller said:
I find it hard to imagine how you'd get consumption figures as low as 35 mpg - unless you're hammering it down the motorway, while towing a heavy load :)

Overestimating real petrol consumption and overestimating real electric consumption helps a lot for reaching such calculation results...

;), Harald
 
ChrisMiller said:
[If I look at pure fuel consumption as reported by Fuelly.com, that's around 85 mpg (3.3 l/100km). That's 15,000 miles in two years over fairly hilly terrain.
I am at 3.7 l/100 km (76 MPG), over 140.000 km, more than 10% of which I have been towing a 1500 kg caravan. So, I am a bit curious too.

Then again, my daily commute is 40 km one way. Until not to long ago, I did not need my ICE during the week. That helps. Now with my battery deteriorating quickly, I can no longer make it to work and back IN EV mode, and already my average consumption is suffering. As a matter of fact, I haven't driven the PHEV for the last two weeks, as my wife has it now. But that is a different story.
 
For reference I have just done approx 86 miles starting with a full battery. Temp 1 degreee. Lights and wipers on half journey. Some heating and air con only occasionally to clear screen. Charged 2 hours on a 13 amp socket half way. Motorway for about half the miles at between 50 (variable speed limit) and 75mph (running late!) Rest mix of A road, urban and lanes. 47 mpg (not factoring in electric cost).

I don’t bother looking at electric cost as have solar panels and sometimes use free public chargers.

My main tip would be to drop motorway speed if possible - speed kills (battery range).
H
 
Oh and take a look at the “don’t be afraid to use charge” post below. Charge is more efficient if you have run the battery down to say 1/3 full. Regen also more efficient at that level. Aim to come off the motorway with just enough battery to get home.
 
A lot to do with speed as said above, and driving style. I drive it as best I can as to reduce the need for the petrol engine to cut in on throttle, my better half has a lead foot and doesn't notice the petrol engine kicking in :lol: and I have given up trying to moderate her girl-racer tendencies.
 
WicklowMan said:
Wow, didn't expect so much feedback, so quick, many thanks.

Our typical run is 20km through a town and then 40km on motorway at 75mph.


.....

HonestJohn.co.uk gave the PHEV an average of 58mph, is that what you guys are getting?

Really appreciate your time and advice.

The PHEV is a big, heavy, un-aerodynamic lump and it does not do well running on petrol. It also performs a lot worse in cold weather than it does in warm so, if you've only had it four months you are seeing it at its worst. It is capable of averaging about 42 mpg over a full year even if you use it almost exclusively as a petrol car - as we do with ours, but in the middle of the winter it quite possibly will only turn in a figure of around 33 mpg for the pattern of usage that you describe.

The good economy figures that are quoted are very dependent on a driving pattern in which the bulk of the distance you travel is on battery and your speed is relatively low. With 20km in town and 40km on motorway at 75mph, I would not be too disappointed to be averaging somewhere between 30 and 35mpg in the winter, expecting this to go above 40mpg in the summer. If you do the sums this time next year, I would hope that you will see a year-round average of better than 40mpg - quite possibly closer to 50mpg.
 
Quite worried about my battery now, I have been through previous winters so I know what its like, but I tried working out my battery range today by recording trip mileage and applying EV run time ratio to it. Even going really gently, eco on, preheated on mains, getting 14 miles! and REALLY struggling to get any more than 30mpg on any petrol use trip.

I seem to remember someone had an app connected via the engine dongle that could read what the car thought the current capacity of the cells was? or did I imagine that?
 
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