New to the forum and PHEV, just after general advice.

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Madmax2014

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2019
Messages
11
Hi all, I've had my 2015 phev for just over a week now, and I'm loving it, by far the best car I've owned, so far I have only used in full EV mode as I generally do short journeys, (the most miles I do in a day is 15) I was just wondering is it best to let the battery fully drain before charging? Or to charge the battery every night once it gets to about 25 to 50%?
Second question:
I've got a long trip coming up (400 mile on the motorway) what will be the best mode to drive in? I will be setting off with full charge and can charge at my destination. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.
 
I just plug it in every night. But i usually charge at work during the day as well, so I use very little petrol as it's mostly just commuting. I would say if you're sure you can reach your next chargepoint without using the ICE, then leave it; but otherwise I think it's better to keep it reasonably topped up (but don't charge it if it's already on 75%...)
Regarding the motorway trip, there's probably not much difference apart from going slower..... If you can, try to use the EV when you're travelling less than 45mph. Some here recommend pressing charge on the motorway when you've run out of EV (to go back up to c50% max) and then use EV at the end. I would say that's good advice but the difference in mpg is likely to be minimal...! (Obviously you want to reach your destination having used all the battery..!)
 
High battery drain is generally believed to be bad for battery degradation, so running at higher speeds in EV may well be bad for the battery longer term. As soon as the battery level has dropped a bit so that charging is more efficient, I tend to use Save on the motorway in an attempt to minimise the high drain. If I slow down, I will turn off Save and let it run in EV till I speed up again. For best fuel economy, you should try to arrive at your next charge with an empty battery whatever your journey.

In Save mode, or when the battery shows empty, the car goers into what is in effect Charge mode to charge the battery for a while. It then goes into EV for a bit, and cycles round that loop until you tell it to do something different. So using Charge for longer on a motorway when the engine is running in Parallel mode, and using EV when the car would be in Series mode might be more efficient, though I've yet to see any figures on the savings.

I must admit I'm trialling running Charge mode while going downhill on the motorway - as the ICE has to run at road speed but is using less or no power, more (or all) of the ICE output goes to charging the battery. I then switch back to Save when the gradient changes back. I find I can get miles much more quickly than simply leaving it in Charge for a while, though it is a lot more faff for a (so far) unmeasured gain.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

One thing I noticed this morning was on my app it showed the battery full, but it said 3 hours 15 minutes to fully charged, is there a reason for this? Does it slow the last bit of charge down to a trickle?
On my last charge I managed just short of 19 miles on full EV, eco mode, B5 and no heating at all, I do have two 1/4 mile stretches on the motorway at 50-60 mph so that probably reduces the EV range a bit, but I now find myself thinking what I can do to get more miles, ie turn the radio off, don't use the motorway for the 1/4 mile drive (there is a road adjacent that doesn't add any distance) 19 mile range is enough for me to charge every other night so not a problem, but I'd like to see what is achievable.
 
Unless you drive it like a milk float, you won't get a great deal more out of a 4 year old battery at this time of year. I'm getting about 20 miles just pootling about town streets in my 2014 car, so a bit of hard acceleration would put me in the high teens, I suppose.
 
Madmax2014 said:
One thing I noticed this morning was on my app it showed the battery full, but it said 3 hours 15 minutes to fully charged, is there a reason for this? Does it slow the last bit of charge down to a trickle?

Yes it does slow down markedly towards the end; but normally the app (at least my app) never shows below 'one hour to fully charged' for some reason, even when it's showing 15 out of 16 bars. Were you pre-heating via the app at the time? Once you start the pre-heating, it confuses things and the app can't work out the remaining time at all....
 
jdsx said:
Madmax2014 said:
One thing I noticed this morning was on my app it showed the battery full, but it said 3 hours 15 minutes to fully charged, is there a reason for this? Does it slow the last bit of charge down to a trickle?

Yes it does slow down markedly towards the end; but normally the app (at least my app) never shows below 'one hour to fully charged' for some reason, even when it's showing 15 out of 16 bars. Were you pre-heating via the app at the time? Once you start the pre-heating, it confuses things and the app can't work out the remaining time at all....

I had just used the pre heat for 10 mins, as yesterday my windscreen was iced up when I got up in the morning. This is probably it then. Cheers.
 
Looks like I've got the common problem with the charger cable and loose wire, I phoned my local dealer and they said it's still covered under warranty, I just need to call in for them to look at it and claim for a new one, hopefully it doesn't take too long to get a new one.
 
Just a quick update, I got a new charger cable under warranty, it took just 1 week to receive the new cable, which I am very pleased about, it's also the new type with the bigger gland nut.
I have also got back from my trip away clocking just over 800 miles, I averaged 40mpg, and that's with using the charge button. To be honest I'm pleased with that as my old car (Vauxhall insignia) I was averaging 26 mpg. Back to full EV driving from now on, I've got around 1/4 of a tank of fuel left so that should last me quite a while.
 
ThudnBlundr said:
Good that they did it without quibble. Some people haven't been so lucky. Which dealer was that, if you don't mind me asking?

It was Hepworth Mitsubishi in Halifax.
 
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