Before Making the Plunge...

Hi, I test drove an Outlander PHEV yesterday (New Jersey, USA) and I am expected back at the dealership to purchase the car on Monday. Before I make the plunge I was hoping that someone might be able to give me an idea what kind of gas mileage to expect with my commute?

I drive 78 miles each way to work. The first 22 miles is on a highway traveling at 58-60 mph with a few traffic lights. (It's a short ride from home to get to this road.) The remainder of the 56 miles is on a relatively flat super highway. The maximum speed on this highway is 65 mph. I would hope to use EV in combination with the serial mode. Would this be possible? What overall mpg should I expect. The bottom line, should I buy this car given my driving needs?

I apologize if a similar question has been posed elsewhere in the forum, but I could not find it if it was. Thank you all for your attention and help.

Honestly, I think your commute is too long to get very good efficiency out of the PHEV. Once the battery is used up, the gas mileage is not particularly great. Will you be charging at home and at work?

HI Generaltso,

Thank you for your reply. Even though I teach at a university, there are no charging stations; I can only charge the car at home. You don't think I could drive in series mode and get like 50 to 60 mpg? Thanks again.

No, I don’t. The Outlander PHEV is rated for 25 mpg by the EPA. You may do better, but you won’t be anywhere close to 50 mpg when the battery charge is gone. There are vehicles out there that can get that kind of mileage on gas alone, but the Outlander isn’t one of them. My commute is 10 miles and I charge at home and at work. For me the PHEV is perfect. For your commute, especially being all highway miles, I think you’ll be disappointed. Have you looked at the Kia Niro hybrid? That can get the kind of mpg you’re looking for.

At that speed, your EV range will not be much more than 20 miles. Once the battery goes flat, you'll get between 35 and 40 mpg (UK gallons, not US) - plug those numbers into a spreadsheet and you should get a reasonably accurate running cost.

Driving the PHEV from the petrol engine (whether in series or parallel mode) might give you 40 mpg (UK Imperial measure, that's about 34 in US gallons) if you drive carefully. So if you allow a conservative 25 miles on EV that leaves you 131 miles to cover each day, which will take nearly 4 gallons. So my guess would be you might expect 45 mpg overall (a bit less in winter, a bit more in summer). Then (if you want to be pedantic) you need to factor in the cost of roughly 10 kWh of electricity every working day.

But that's still better (or, at least, no worse) than a 'compact' car like a Honda Civic, and you're getting the fun and comfort of a large SUV. You pays your money and you takes your choice (as we say on this side of the pond)

generaltso said:

No, I don’t. The Outlander PHEV is rated for 25 mpg by the EPA. You may do better, but you won’t be anywhere close to 50 mpg when the battery charge is gone. ....

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Our PHEV is effectively used as a petrol vehicle. We've had it just over 3 years, done about 40,000 miles and the lifetime average fuel consumption is just under 40mpg (UK gallons). Note that I'm not a particularly careful driver - I put my foot down...

Thank you all VERY MUCH for your insights. Unfortunately, this car is not for me. Now I'm working on convincing my wife to trade her Honda CRV for the Outlander PHEV. She works about five miles from home and would almost never need to buy gas (petro, as it called our friends on the other side of the pond.) Thank you again.

TedA said:

Thank you all VERY MUCH for your insights. Unfortunately, this car is not for me. Now I'm working on convincing my wife to trade her Honda CRV for the Outlander PHEV. She works about five miles from home and would almost never need to buy gas (petro, as it called our friends on the other side of the pond.) Thank you again.

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Note that the PHEV is not a particularly good off-roader - it is better described as a "soft-roader" - may be OK for your wife, but don't expect to drive it miles over rough ground.

ChrisMiller said:

you're getting the fun and comfort of a large SUV.

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It always amuses me when I hear the Outlander referred to as a large SUV in Europe. In the US, the Outlander is in the compact SUV class.

maby said:

TedA said:

Thank you all VERY MUCH for your insights. Unfortunately, this car is not for me. Now I'm working on convincing my wife to trade her Honda CRV for the Outlander PHEV. She works about five miles from home and would almost never need to buy gas (petro, as it called our friends on the other side of the pond.) Thank you again.

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Note that the PHEV is not a particularly good off-roader - it is better described as a "soft-roader" - may be OK for your wife, but don't expect to drive it miles over rough ground.

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But not any worse off road than the CRV she’s driving now.

generaltso said:

In the US, the Outlander is in the compact SUV class.

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And that is rather shocking :mrgreen:

anko said:

generaltso said:

In the US, the Outlander is in the compact SUV class.

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And that is rather shocking :mrgreen:

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Well, it is on the compact side by European standards too - though less so than in the US.

maby said:

Well, it is on the compact side by European standards too - though less so than in the US.

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No sure about that, when looking at what they call SUVs these days ;-) But indeed, there are a few that are much bigger here as well. What are we thinking? :lol:

anko said:

maby said:

Well, it is on the compact side by European standards too - though less so than in the US.

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No sure about that, when looking at what they call SUVs these days ;-) But indeed, there are a few that are much bigger here as well. What are we thinking? :lol:

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Ah, I still miss my 3.5l V8 long wheelbase Landie - the only car I've ever had that could do a four wheel wheelspin off the lights...

maby said:

anko said:

maby said:

Well, it is on the compact side by European standards too - though less so than in the US.

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No sure about that, when looking at what they call SUVs these days ;-) But indeed, there are a few that are much bigger here as well. What are we thinking? :lol:

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Ah, I still miss my 3.5l V8 long wheelbase Landie - the only car I've ever had that could do a four wheel wheelspin off the lights...

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It's a "large" SUV because of marketing people trying to convince punters that a "fat" Mini or Fiat 500 is also an SUV :lol: But to go back to the OP - is he sure he CAN'T charge at work? I assume that in the US, the standard "brick" plugs into a domestic socket as on this side of the pond - so all he needs is a friendly janitor to let him plug it in during the day. No need for a fancy charger, just a socket :idea:

greendwarf said:

I assume that in the US, the standard "brick" plugs into a domestic socket as on this side of the pond

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It does, but standard plugs here are only 120v, so it charges VERY slowly. I haven’t even taken mine out of the trunk.

generaltso said:

greendwarf said:

I assume that in the US, the standard "brick" plugs into a domestic socket as on this side of the pond

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It does, but standard plugs here are only 120v, so it charges VERY slowly. I haven’t even taken mine out of the trunk.

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Isn't that not just a matter of installing a 240v plug and putting it in a 240v socket?
(note the question-mark )

The Chevy Bolt EV community in the US faces the same 'issue' and many owners have 'converted' their brick chargers. There is even a company that offers it as a service, but I believe it is rather expensive for what they do.

anko said:

generaltso said:

greendwarf said:

I assume that in the US, the standard "brick" plugs into a domestic socket as on this side of the pond

Click to expand...

It does, but standard plugs here are only 120v, so it charges VERY slowly. I haven’t even taken mine out of the trunk.

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Isn't that not just a matter of installing a 240v plug and putting it in a 240v socket?
(note the question-mark )
...

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I don't think so - the supply to the house will be 120v. If you want 240v, I guess you would need to get a special cable run in from the nearest sub-station - and that assumes that the gear there can provide it. Even if you were allowed to straddle two phases of the three phase distribution, I don't think that would deliver 240v because of the phase angle.

The powesupply to houses in USA is 2-phase 120 Volts to floating ground and 180 degrees between the phases. So wire a socket with the two phases and you get 240 Volts at 60 Hz. In fact when I lived in California one double socket in the kitchen actually had one phase each in the separate outlets. Crosswire and we could run our old Electrolux foodprocessor directly. The frequency difference between 50 and 60 Hz may be an issue but I never had a problem with it