can someone explain the save button please

[duetto]

withh the charge button thats clear it quickly charges the battery when on the motorway.

but tried the save button does not seem to me to make any difference if on or not, the battery charge does not build up and the engine still runs from the battery on off as it does if not pressed. I must be missing the point but cannot see it.

 

[Neverfuel]

The save button will make the car run as a series or parallel hybrid, depending on your speed. It will alternate between running on battery and running using the engine (but charging the battery a little bit to conserve the level when you set the save button). This is useful for motorway driving, where EV is consumed quickly at speed and you want to get better mileage at the end of your journey, once you come off the motorway. The charge button increases the power of the engine to not only drive the car but also to top up the battery to 80%. This will increase the fuel consumption, but I think the jury is still out on whether using save only or a combination of charge then pure EV, charge again then pure EV etc gives better consumption. As with every topic on the forum - it also is down to your driving style / speed / weather conditions etc.

Personally I tend to use the charge then EV method on slow stretches of motorway, below 50 mph letting the car get down to about 4 miles then let it charge up to 12 or so before I switch the charge button off then repeat once the range comes down to 4 again. To get 8 miles of charge usually takes me anywhere between 12 - 14 miles, depending on the traffic and use of regen braking. I also make sure that I do not arrive at my next charge with any EV range left. I will use save at normal motorway speeds as the engine has more work to do to keep the battery topped up for series parallel.

 

[jaapv]

In technical discussions:

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1278


The top graph explains exactly:
The Save button attempts to keep the state of charge at the same level. When you hit Charge the car attempts to run the state of charge up to 80% and keep it there. If you do nothing the car runs the state of charge down to approx. 30% (AKA "empty") and then goes into Save mode to keep the state of charge stable at that level. If you run it down to approx. 20% the car will go into power reduced mode (Turtle mode) and run the charge up again.

 

[duetto]

thank you for the replies, a bit easier to understand, I was hitting the save when the battery was depleted.

 

[gwatpe]

In technical discussions:

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1278


The top graph explains exactly:
The Save button attempts to keep the state of charge at the same level. When you hit Charge the car attempts to run the state of charge up to 80% and keep it there. If you do nothing the car runs the state of charge down to approx. 30% (AKA "empty") and then goes into Save mode to keep the state of charge stable at that level. If you run it down to approx. 20% the car will go into power reduced mode (Turtle mode) and run the charge up again.

My experience with an Australian shipped PHEV in "CHRGE" mode, is the battery fills to 100%. All 16bars. At the 100% level, the car reverts to EV even at 110kph. If the SAVE mode is selected at battery 100%, then the car will maintain this level. The level will drop initially, but after time at highway speeds on relatively flat terrain, the 100% will be maintained.

I suspect that the 80% numbers that are quoted, are just premature measurements before the car has finished attempting to reach a drivers command setting.

I have tested the ChARGE mode from a fully depleted battery and the battery was fully recharged to 100% after 150km on 2 separate tests at 100kph and 110kph. In the tests SAVE mode was selected once the battery was full and EV mode took over, and the battery was preserved at the 100% for hundreds of km. The battery was only depleted prior to testing as part of the PHEV ritual of fully depleting the battery to get use of the remaining petrol when the gauge has shown empty.

 

[jaapv]

The graph is the (official Mitsubishi) European one for the 2013/2014 model. And indeed my 2013 car does not go beyond 80% There may be a market and/or model year difference.

 

[gwatpe]

I suspect the differences may be associated with the additional fast recharge plug that is supplied on the EU supplied PHEV. We don't get that option in AUS.

With global region differences, the questions will still arise with options that seem to affect seemingly basic operations.

We may see more differences year to year unless Mitsi provide decent upgrades to firmware to keep all the cars up to date with the latest versions.

 

[Neverfuel]

Just had a look at the Australian manual and it confirms that the charge button will charge to "near full" but it will take longer as it approaches complete. If I remember correctly, Gwatpe did a test from empty whilst stationary and it went to full after 3.2 litres. I must admit I thought our version only went to 80%, but that may have been down to something I read. I will try charging it when I have 90% or so in the battery and see if it still charges or just maintains the existing charge as the save button would do.

 

[Neverfuel]

In technical discussions:

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1278


The top graph explains exactly:
The Save button attempts to keep the state of charge at the same level. When you hit Charge the car attempts to run the state of charge up to 80% and keep it there. If you do nothing the car runs the state of charge down to approx. 30% (AKA "empty") and then goes into Save mode to keep the state of charge stable at that level. If you run it down to approx. 20% the car will go into power reduced mode (Turtle mode) and run the charge up again.

My experience with an Australian shipped PHEV in "CHRGE" mode, is the battery fills to 100%. All 16bars. At the 100% level, the car reverts to EV even at 110kph. If the SAVE mode is selected at battery 100%, then the car will maintain this level. The level will drop initially, but after time at highway speeds on relatively flat terrain, the 100% will be maintained.

I suspect that the 80% numbers that are quoted, are just premature measurements before the car has finished attempting to reach a drivers command setting.

I have tested the ChARGE mode from a fully depleted battery and the battery was fully recharged to 100% after 150km on 2 separate tests at 100kph and 110kph. In the tests SAVE mode was selected once the battery was full and EV mode took over, and the battery was preserved at the 100% for hundreds of km. The battery was only depleted prior to testing as part of the PHEV ritual of fully depleting the battery to get use of the remaining petrol when the gauge has shown empty.

Just a thought - wouldn't you be better selecting save at about 80 - 90% so that you can take advantage of regen braking on a long trip?

 

[Neverfuel]

Just had a look at the Australian manual and it confirms that the charge button will charge to "near full" but it will take longer as it approaches complete. If I remember correctly, Gwatpe did a test from empty whilst stationary and it went to full after 3.2 litres. I must admit I thought our version only went to 80%, but that may have been down to something I read. I will try charging it when I have 90% or so in the battery and see if it still charges or just maintains the existing charge as the save button would do.

UPDATE - I tried charge from when I had dropped to 15 bars. Nothing happened, until I had dropped to 13 - even with the air con on. Then it just showed series parallel mode, running the engine occasionally to maintain charge but not top the battery up by any discernible amount. It was a short journey though, so I will see if it is any different on a longer one. It seems that the UK model may be different to the Australian one.

 

[jazzenator]

As an experiment (with disappointing results) the other day I hit the charge button with 6 miles range remaining.
It continued to use the battery until it dropped to 4 miles then appeared to maintain it at that.
I then had to join a few fast roads so required strong acceleration, I found that despite the 'Save' mode selected the SOC depleted to no usable range and remained there. It did not go back upto 4 or even 6 miles, the charge level I had selected the 'Save' option.
Can anyone explain that?
Thanks

 

[maby]

My UK spec car - almost 12 months old now - will charge to 100% - but the last bar takes a long time.

 

[greendwarf]

As an experiment (with disappointing results) the other day I hit the charge button with 6 miles range remaining.
It continued to use the battery until it dropped to 4 miles then appeared to maintain it at that.
I then had to join a few fast roads so required strong acceleration, I found that despite the 'Save' mode selected the SOC depleted to no usable range and remained there. It did not go back upto 4 or even 6 miles, the charge level I had selected the 'Save' option.
Can anyone explain that?
Thanks

I'm not clear what you are describing here. Were you driving in normal mode when you hit "Charge" and at what speed? If you were in EV mode then the ICE should have started - did it? However, even if it did the ICE can only charge if there is "spare" capacity not required for driving the car. So depending on how heavy you right foot (and inclines?) was then the car might need to draw battery power as well - hence the drop. But I assume this is just predicted range rather than actual miles so the difference between a guesstimate of 4 & 6 is insignificant.

But you then talk about Save mode. AFAIK you can't have both Save & Charge on together. Although both will start the ICE, again SOC can only be maintained in Save if there is sufficient "spare" engine power. And if it does need to use EV under Save then, yes, it will then maintain the new lower level.

In my experience both Save & Charge only really work when the ICE is not under heavy load e.g. cruising on flattish motorway

 

[jaapv]

And below approx 120 KpH...

 

[greendwarf]

And below approx 120 KpH...

Of course, because anything more than 112 kph would be illegal in UK :lol:

 

[jazzenator]

As an experiment (with disappointing results) the other day I hit the charge button with 6 miles range remaining.
It continued to use the battery until it dropped to 4 miles then appeared to maintain it at that.
I then had to join a few fast roads so required strong acceleration, I found that despite the 'Save' mode selected the SOC depleted to no usable range and remained there. It did not go back upto 4 or even 6 miles, the charge level I had selected the 'Save' option.
Can anyone explain that?
Thanks

I'm not clear what you are describing here. Were you driving in normal mode when you hit "Charge" and at what speed? If you were in EV mode then the ICE should have started - did it? However, even if it did the ICE can only charge if there is "spare" capacity not required for driving the car. So depending on how heavy you right foot (and inclines?) was then the car might need to draw battery power as well - hence the drop. But I assume this is just predicted range rather than actual miles so the difference between a guesstimate of 4 & 6 is insignificant.

But you then talk about Save mode. AFAIK you can't have both Save & Charge on together. Although both will start the ICE, again SOC can only be maintained in Save if there is sufficient "spare" engine power. And if it does need to use EV under Save then, yes, it will then maintain the new lower level.

In my experience both Save & Charge only really work when the ICE is not under heavy load e.g. cruising on flattish motorway

Hi Many thanks
Just to clarify. The burst of acceleration was only to get upto road speeds. After that it was jsut crusing with energy flow needle being in the Eco Zone (Just above the 'O' in 'ECO' on the gauge. The thing was that the ICE was not running at all (apart from during the burst of acceleration).

 

[greendwarf]

Before I replied, I drove the car down our road trying to see if you could have both Charge & Save on at the same time. I admit I did notice that the ICE did not fire up all the time, so I was using battery despite having the buttons pressed. This certainly mirrors what I see in Save (haven't used Charge enough) that there will be periods of ICE alternating with battery power as the SOC level fluctuates up and down.

However, I do find it strange that with a depleted battery you say the ICE did not run unless accelerating hard. I can only assume that these bursts of energy were also providing small bursts of battery power - saved & then used - or there was Regen power available because you must have been getting motive power from somewhere.

 

[Neverfuel]

Just to clarify - you can use EITHER charge or save - each mode cancels the other one out.

 

[gwatpe]

just back in wifi range again.

Re the post above about SAVE and CHARGE. The only time my PHEV operates with the ICE only coming on in either save or charge under higher power is if the petrol tank is also shown as empty.