Reduced electric range

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pbainbridge

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2015
Messages
3
I have a 6 month old GX4 and when I first got it I'd get 20-30 miles on a full charge obviously depending on conditions. The car computer always showed 30 miles range on the full charge. I now find after an overnight charge the car computer only displays 15 miles as the electric range and i'm only getting 10-15 miles range on electric.

Before I take it back to the dealers and stamp my feet has anyone else experienced the same?
 
Gwatpe certainly did have problems with the battery in his first PHEV - he eventually convinced Mitsubishi to replace the car. My EV range has dropped since I took delivery of the car, but that is down to a more cavalier driving style. For the first few months I was driving it gently, trying to minimise running costs, then I realised that if you put your foot down, it can move really quite well. These days I reckon I'm doing quite well to get 20 EV miles out of it, but I have experimented driving it like a milkfloat and it can still approach 30 miles.
 
Driving style I can understand but not having the computer telling me 15 mile range after an overnight charge
 
pbainbridge said:
Driving style I can understand but not having the computer telling me 15 mile range after an overnight charge

but the estimated range is based on your recent driving style. Drive it like a milkfloat for a week and the estimates will increase; race sports cars off the lights and the estimates drop through the floor. These days I tend to race sports cars (and, often, surprise them) - my estimated range is often less than 20 miles.
 
The problem as I see it is that you are getting used to the car and are indeed stamping your feet -with the accelerator and the brake under them.
 
I often get the same because these days I am bursting for a wee by the time I get near home and up the pace last few of miles. I am sure the PHEV thinks 'oh so that's how its going to be eh!' and calculates the range so next time.

Curiously I am finding a lot of underestimating by it generally, often on a longer trip I use Save as there is little point using battery on the faster motorway bits and 'release the lithium' with a few miles to go more than the indicated battery range. Then get caught out as arrive back still with some unused battery which is a waste. I am now letting it loose earlier and the MPG figure climbs nicely to a respectable value by the time I am home.
 
We have only owned our PHEV for a bit over 4 weeks now and we noticed similar things where the vehicle would indicate a 100% charge but then only indicate a 40-43Km of EV range, when it originally indicated approximately 52Km. As a consequence, and because of the experiences shown by Gwatpe, I took the vehicle in and had it analysed just this past Thursday. All indications are that the vehicle and battery are fine. However, and after we explained that my wife had just undertaken a long range trip to Queensland and back to the ACT, the Service Manager then explained that perhaps what we were experiencing is an algorithm that is still monitoring driving style and usage to develop EV range estimates. He has left the job card open and suggested that we drive the vehicle gingerly for the next week or so to see if the EV range comes back up.

I will let you know how we fair ....

Cheers

PeteInOz
Canberra
Australia

PS I have come into a whole lot of technical manuals that I would like to share on this forum. I would be grateful to know how I could upload and share them. Whilst I have not had a chance to read all of the information so far, what I have read is very interesting indeed and I am sure most would gain considerable benefit from them.
 
Umm...you didn't switch the airconditioning on by any chance?
43 km indication on the guessometer is pretty good btw. I rarely see it higher. It will often allow you to squeeze a few KM more.
 
Hi there,
I've seen ranges from 47km to 59km after a full load. I think it mainly depends on your driving style. If I am remembering it right, I've also seen the range go up by one km without using regenaration but sailing along.
Uwe
 
i always drive carefully, yet the battery range is a lotto. going the same route might give 30+some days but most close to 30 but had several days less than TEN the battery just empties out quick for no reason. heater not on driving the same.

one one occasion was late for an early morning ferry very hilly round here, anyway had to drive as fast as the bends and roads would let me. but instead of draining the battery it did well I presume the greater speeds down hills and heavier braking gave it a better charge.
 
duetto said:
i always drive carefully, yet the battery range is a lotto. going the same route might give 30+some days but most close to 30 but had several days less than TEN the battery just empties out quick for no reason. heater not on driving the same.

one one occasion was late for an early morning ferry very hilly round here, anyway had to drive as fast as the bends and roads would let me. but instead of draining the battery it did well I presume the greater speeds down hills and heavier braking gave it a better charge.

Are you sure you didn't do a lot of it on petrol? The engine is very quiet and if you don't keep a close eye on the energy flow, it is easy to not recognise when it is running. You don't have to push the car very hard for it to fire up the engine - I find that with my normal driving style in warm weather with a fully charged battery I tend to get about 90% EV. (That is not with Save mode engaged)
 
Ok guys, on Sunday night just gone, I charged the PHEV in the late evening and it was showing 36 miles range when fully charged. I had also been thinking about doing a long range test in ECO mode with the air fan in the off position; thought this was a good opportunity!

Only really started using the ECO mode the other day and also switched the air fan to "OFF", as it is usually showing 15 degrees, with one bar for the fan.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I set off at about 11.30 p.m. from the West Midlands heading to the East Midlands in ECO Mode, together with the Mrs and the chihuahua; headlights on, radio on and all that jazz and managed to get a range of 39 miles before the engine had to fire up! I thought that was impressive.

Right! Now to the subject of battery care!

1. I never ever re-charge PHEV straight after returning from a long road journey or having been on the motorway, as the batteries may still be hot; I always try and re-charge batteries from a cool state.
2. Sometimes I leave PHEV batteries fully depleted overnight to give them a rest and charge the next day, or if PHEV not needed for a full day or so.

Following the above principles, I recently got a range showing 38 miles after a full charge the other day, which I captured with my phone camera!

Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Happy PHEVing!
 
LEONIDIS said:
I recently got a range showing 38 miles after a full charge the other day, which I captured with my phone camera!

The guestimated range has been discussed a lot on the forum. I personally rarely use it now.

I have seen up to 90km guestimated after fully recharging, and have recently seen 20km with 4bars battery displayed.

The driven range is all that really counts and there are so many driving variables that this may range from 20-30km if you have a heavy foot or only use motorways, to over 50km with mooching around the suburbs.

I only recharge if the battery is below 50% on the gauge. The PHEV takes 5 hours to fully recharge an empty battery, so it will cool. It is really difficult to recharge the battery if it is really cold.
 
LEONIDIS said:
1. I never ever re-charge PHEV straight after returning from a long road journey or having been on the motorway, as the batteries may still be hot; I always try and re-charge batteries from a cool state.
2. Sometimes I leave PHEV batteries fully depleted overnight to give them a rest and charge the next day, or if PHEV not needed for a full day or so.

Surely the dedicated battery AC system is meant to stop this being necessary?
 
As others have said, I find the range is very much dependant on how you have been driving recently.
If I do a lot of town driving then 15-20 is the norm.

However, went of a steady run on Monday (out of town) :
When i set off (full charge) the range was showing 17.
After 5 miles it was showing 15!
After 20 miles it was showing 5........ :lol:

All the above with Aircon on and my normal driving style...the only difference being the route...

Next morning range showing 24 after a charge (aircon on again!)...
 
LEONIDIS said:
Ok guys, on Sunday night just gone, I charged the PHEV in the late evening and it was showing 36 miles range when fully charged. I had also been thinking about doing a long range test in ECO mode with the air fan in the off position; thought this was a good opportunity!

Only really started using the ECO mode the other day and also switched the air fan to "OFF", as it is usually showing 15 degrees, with one bar for the fan.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I set off at about 11.30 p.m. from the West Midlands heading to the East Midlands in ECO Mode, together with the Mrs and the chihuahua; headlights on, radio on and all that jazz and managed to get a range of 39 miles before the engine had to fire up! I thought that was impressive.

Right! Now to the subject of battery care!

1. I never ever re-charge PHEV straight after returning from a long road journey or having been on the motorway, as the batteries may still be hot; I always try and re-charge batteries from a cool state.
2. Sometimes I leave PHEV batteries fully depleted overnight to give them a rest and charge the next day, or if PHEV not needed for a full day or so.

Following the above principles, I recently got a range showing 38 miles after a full charge the other day, which I captured with my phone camera!

Hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Happy PHEVing!
Just two points:

The batteries will never (well, nearly never) be depleted under 27%

Li-Ion batteries in general benefit from part charging, full discharge-recharge cycles will shorten their life. However, I would not advise to worry about this, just use as needed.
Deep discharge/recharge is only for batteries that show a memory effect, like Ni-Cad, Li-Ion batteries do not need this. (and as per above will wear sooner by the practice)
 
jaapv said:
...Just two points:

The batteries will never (well, nearly never) be depleted under 27%

Li-Ion batteries in general benefit from part charging, full discharge-recharge cycles will shorten their life. However, I would not advise to worry about this, just use as needed.
Deep discharge/recharge is only for batteries that show a memory effect, like Ni-Cad, Li-Ion batteries do not need this. (and as per above will wear sooner by the practice)

In that case it will be interesting to see how well mine lasts - these days it gets charged twice a week. It gets a full charge on Thursday morning and is then driven on Save, keeping the level up to more than 50% till Sunday evening. It then gets another charge on Monday morning which lasts round to Thursday morning.
 
That sounds quite battery-friendly. Mine gets a full or 3/4 charge twice a day on Monday through Thursday (one 16 Amps, one 10) and a daily half to full 16 A charge on the weekends. I only use the save button on long motorway runs and the charge button on holidays in the mountains. No couch-potato PHEVs in my house..:D .
But then, I use very little petrol.
 
jaapv said:
...
No couch-potato PHEVs in my house..:D .
...

Mine is certainly no couch-potato - it'd doing around 1000 miles per month - it's just the case that we move around a lot and don't have the opportunity to charge very often.
 
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