Charging While Driving

[Fragge]

Graham is wrong, the Otlander newer wastes energy. If there is power to spare it goes to the battery. If you use charge mode it simply uses more fuel and recharges the battery in an expensive way. If you don't have to recharge for some reason while driving leave the charging for when you plug it in.

 

[user 417]

I have tried driving at slightly higher speeds, steady with cruise control on. At 80mph and 90mph the display showed power going from the engine to the wheels and simultaneously to the batteries. Obviously I did not do this on a public road because that would have been against the law.

Thus I concur that Graham is wrong and that there is no need to push the charge button in these circumstances.

 

[gwatpe]

At 80mph and 90mph the display showed power going from the engine to the wheels and simultaneously to the batteries. Obviously I did not do this on a public road because that would have been against the law.

In Australia, there are still public roads where this is possible. Must try this next time I am driving on the Stuart HWY just north of Alice Springs.

 

[user 417]

In Australia, there are still public roads where this is possible. Must try this next time I am driving on the Stuart HWY just north of Alice Springs.

Yes I've driven up that road. At the time I was driving something that probably wasn't capable of those speeds. Then again it's not exactly a road that many people drive on a regular basis, unless you drive a road train or a Greyhound bus.

 

[FLYER34]

....If you use charge mode it simply uses more fuel and recharges the battery in an expensive way...

Agree.
One french owner reported using the "Save" mode when he knows he can't complete his trip in pure EV mode.
The idea is :
1) discharge the battery enough, (ie + 50 % ?) so that any regen charge will be accepted, before switching to "Save" mode ;
2) have enough juice for up-hills without having to use "Charge" mode ;
3) turn the "Save" mode OFF when remaining range equals remaining distance to go in order to reach the next charging point with battery empty.

Seems to make sense ???

 

[Fragge]

One french owner reported using the "Save" mode when he knows he can't complete his trip in pure EV mode.
The idea is :
1) discharge the battery enough, (ie + 50 %) so that any regen charge will be accepted, before switching to "Save" mode ;
2) have enough juice for up-hills without having to use "Charge" mode ;
3) turn the "Save" mode OFF when ramaining range equals remaining distance to go in order to reach the next charging point with battery empty.

Seems to make sense ???

Seem like a good strategy to me.

 

[jdsx]

One french owner reported using the "Save" mode when he knows he can't complete his trip in pure EV mode.
The idea is :
1) discharge the battery enough, (ie + 50 %) so that any regen charge will be accepted, before switching to "Save" mode ;
2) have enough juice for up-hills without having to use "Charge" mode ;
3) turn the "Save" mode OFF when ramaining range equals remaining distance to go in order to reach the next charging point with battery empty.

Seems to make sense ???

Seem like a good strategy to me.

Yes but this can be 'tweeked'. Yesterday I drove from Glasgow to Largs for my son's football match (they won :lol: ). Then from Largs to Kilmarnock to watch Partick Thistle (they lost ). Then home again. About 85 miles overall. I used EV mode when leaving and entering towns, and save mode when doing 50+ on motorway/A roads, arriving home empty, obviously. Unfortunately I forgot to look at the MMCS at the end because (for me) it usually provides meaningless numbers anyway, but pretty sure the consumption for the 55-ish petrol miles will have been not much more than 5 litres.... :mrgreen:

 

[Hypermiler]

Point 3 makes complete sense and is what I do on longer journeys - you soon get to know exactly how far you are from home when coming from any direction! Shame the satnav doesn't help with this - I would quite like a "distance from home" feature without having to listen to that awful woman's directions!

I don't think you have to use much battery to have capacity for regen - 1/2 would be too much I think.

Cheers
H

 

[user 258]

Shame the satnav doesn't help with this - I would quite like a "distance from home" feature without having to listen to that awful woman's directions!

I use the sat-nav as it does give a distance to home and I have the sound turned off so no voice prompts. It sounds like it will do exactly what you want it to.
Kind regards,
Mark

 

[gwatpe]

I don't think you have to use much battery to have capacity for regen - 1/2 would be too much I think.

I have just tested the REGEN effectiveness on my loaner PHEV on a downhill stretch in a reproductive and controlled manner starting at 100kph. with PHEV operating in SAVE mode, to make REGEN as difficult as possible, with ICE running and supplying some battery charging as well.

With 16 bars battery no effective REGEN
With 15 bars battery 20kW effective REGEN. B5 and brake combined
With 14 bars battery 30kW effective REGEN, B5 and brake combined
With 13 bars battery 40kW effective REGEN. B5 and brake combined
under 13 bars battery, 40kW effective REGEN on B5, and additional +5 with brakes also applied.

all data recorded from the trip info power screen dials numbers.

You don't need an empty battery for effective REGEN.

BTW running with an empty battery, places an exponential stress on the remaining working battery chemistry. the peak currents seen by the working part of the battery at empty [20%] are 5 times higher than with the full battery as all the work is concentrated on a small part of the battery chemistry. If you have REGEN and high power loading as part of your normal drive then it is better to keep battery capacity between 50% and 75% to keep the peak currents low in the working part of the battery.

 

[ufo]

It doesn't need higher revs to charge. First of all it doesn't always charge when you hit charge button. It charges whenever it can at a given point in time at given driving conditions (throttle position, drive rpm, drive load, power requirement.....) Generally when all power produced by ICE is needed and/or used by PHEV it doesn't charge but as soon as conditions change (such as load/power req. goes down, change in throttle position) it starts charging. This is also the answer to your question in the second paragraph.

That's interesting and, having never used Charge myself, goes some way towards answering my question. However, I still can't understand, if there are times when the ICE has spare capacity to run Charge mode, why would Mitsubishi have not made this the default option, unless of course it does use more petrol? Perhaps it does use more but the penalty is just not as great as most of us had assumed (which is great news if true).

Look forward to hearing the results of your tests Maby

Hats off to Mitsubishi, the more that you think about it, there's lots of clever engineering gone into this car. Just a shame the MMCS is such a weak link.

Well they don't have to make charging default option because any time ICE runs doesn't matter what mode the PHEV is in (except pure EV than ICE is not running anyway), it will charge the battery automatically if it has any excess energy. Such as;

Driving with no EV range left in Series mode, ICE starts and charges the battery and stops when battery recovers the amount of energy that is specified by the software (There are different claims and numbers regarding this but looks like nobody knows for sure.) and then starts charging again when battery goes below a preset level (Again many claims about this level but not known what exactly it is)

Driving in Parallel mode, the ICE is running by default and will charge battery if it has any extra juice at any given time depending on the factors I listed previously.

It doesn't charge when you floor it running in EV or in fact in any mode, because it doesn't have any extra juice, all power avaliable is being directed to the wheels. As soon as you ease on throttle, it will stop ICE if runnig in EV mode or will divert extra juice to charging if you are in parallel mode; or will stop ICE or divert extra juice to battery depending on conditions if you are in series mode.

 

[ufo]

Graham is wrong, the Otlander newer wastes energy. If there is power to spare it goes to the battery. If you use charge mode it simply uses more fuel and recharges the battery in an expensive way. If you don't have to recharge for some reason while driving leave the charging for when you plug it in.

+1

 

[gwatpe]

If you use charge mode it simply uses more fuel and recharges the battery in an expensive way.

This is a bit simplistic.

If I did not have free power from my solar setup, and had to rely only on the GRID, recharging with the price my utility charges for grid power is actually more expensive for me than using CHARGE mode ....

Needless to say I recharge from my SOLAR whenever possible and I don't use CHARGE when stopped.

 

[Hypermiler]

Shame the satnav doesn't help with this - I would quite like a "distance from home" feature without having to listen to that awful woman's directions!

I use the sat-nav as it does give a distance to home and I have the sound turned off so no voice prompts. It sounds like it will do exactly what you want it to.
Kind regards,
Mark

OK, I suppose its not too difficult to "go home" and set volume to zero. I do like to compare my estimated remaining range with the distance to home and try to make sure they go down roughly in tandem.
Thanks for that
H

 

[maby]

If you use charge mode it simply uses more fuel and recharges the battery in an expensive way.

This is a bit simplistic.

If I did not have free power from my solar setup, and had to rely only on the GRID, recharging with the price my utility charges for grid power is actually more expensive for me than using CHARGE mode ....

Needless to say I recharge from my SOLAR whenever possible and I don't use CHARGE when stopped.

You are either being ripped off for electricity, or petrol is very cheap where you live! Even on a standard tariff round here, a full charge costs about the same as a litre of petrol - can you charge the battery pack from the ICE on a litre?

 

[gwatpe]

Hi Maby,

I think you have the ripped off for electricity right on the money.

BTW a full recharge would cost me about $5.50, if I used my grid provider power, due to utilities pricing structure., penalties for using more power and reduced tariff not an option.

I did a full recharge from ICE after completing my fuel tank empty experiment as the PHEV started this process, so I let it finish. Took about an hour, and OBD had the fuel consumption at 2.4L/hour, so this worked out at about $3.50.

 

[ufo]

Hi Maby,

I think you have the ripped off for electricity right on the money.

BTW a full recharge would cost me about $5.50, if I used my grid provider power, due to utilities pricing structure., penalties for using more power and reduced tariff not an option.

I did a full recharge from ICE after completing my fuel tank empty experiment as the PHEV started this process, so I let it finish. Took about an hour, and OBD had the fuel consumption at 2.4L/hour, so this worked out at about $3.50.

Assuming PHEV takes 10 KW for a full charge, r u paying $ 0.55 per kw? I thought we were being ripped of in Sydney paying $ 0.30.

 

[greendwarf]

You are either being ripped off for electricity, or petrol is very cheap where you live! Even on a standard tariff round here, a full charge costs about the same as a litre of petrol - can you charge the battery pack from the ICE on a litre?

Although not specifically stated by our friends down under, petrol is significantly cheaper in Australia -as I was delighted to find when touring there in a hire car . I assume it is like the US where the large distances between places means the high tax level in the UK would not be politically acceptable.