Confirmed fault with Australian shipped Charge cost screens

[gwatpe]

Was wondering why the charge cost screens on my Australian shipped PHEV looked different to pics that others had posted. It turns out that if the electricity power cost is set at say $35 per kWh instead of $0.35 per kWh, then some bar graphs do appear to be recorded.

I do wonder how this sort of fault can get through the rigorous quality control systems prior to production release. "BUGS" excuses don't cut it in a refined technology with a significant price tag.

I expect recalls to rectify this will be on the cards.

 

[thegurio]

Was wondering why the charge cost screens on my Australian shipped PHEV looked different to pics that others had posted. It turns out that if the electricity power cost is set at say $35 per kWh instead of $0.35 per kWh, then some bar graphs do appear to be recorded.

I do wonder how this sort of fault can get through the rigorous quality control systems prior to production release. "BUGS" excuses don't cut it in a refined technology with a significant price tag.

I expect recalls to rectify this will be on the cards.

That explains a lot... I was wondering why it needed an $1800 ceiling on the daily charger and $3000 on the monthly! Hope to hear something about this soon.

 

[gwatpe]

Hi thegurio,

I expect this may be an Australia shipped cars only issue.

I have checked with charging twice today and the PHEV has logged $65 and $62 for charging approx 1.9kWh each time. I hope we don't have to wait for the price per unit to reach the $20-$30 to make use of the charge cost screens. Hopefully this will be just a software update for most cars. I believe my car has bigger issues, of which the cost screen faults is a minor one.

 

[thegurio]

Hi thegurio,

I expect this may be an Australia shipped cars only issue.

I have checked with charging twice today and the PHEV has logged $65 and $62 for charging approx 1.9kWh each time. I hope we don't have to wait for the price per unit to reach the $20-$30 to make use of the charge cost screens. Hopefully this will be just a software update for most cars. I believe my car has bigger issues, of which the cost screen faults is a minor one.

Well I changed the unit figure last night, so we'll see what happens when I get out there shortly regarding whether there is a readable bar or not. Like I said, my charge to charge is well under $2, yet the bar goes all the way to $1800... It never made any sense to me, and I can't find anywhere to change it, and I assume it doesn't 'size' automatically?

 

[gwatpe]

Hi thegurio,

I did have the scale change once when I reset the charge cost screen. Lost all the stored data, but I did have the daily charge cost change from $180, to $270 and the monthly scale changed from the $3600 to some other equally ridiculous number.

The data appears highly exaggerated, as the bar graphs for day charge costs were around $100. The car has recorded multiple charges per day on those days. Next week my car will be visited by Mitsubishi reps to see what is wrong. The list is getting pretty long now.

Hopefully I will get all sorted and have an opportunity to discuss what I consider some improvements to the user interface.

 

[gwatpe]

I have uploaded some pics for forum members to view.

I hope this works!!


This was a pic with kWh cost set as $0.35. The actual electricity cost

This was a pic with kWh cost set as $0.35. The actual electricity cost

This was a pic with kWh cost reset.

This was a pic with kWh cost reset.

This was a pic with kWh cost set as $35. This is 100x actual electricity cost

Looks all OK, and these show the problem.

Pics 1 & 2
Note the graph scales for the day, as $180 and for the month as $3600 from the factory and the lack of any useful graphed data

Pics 3 & 4
Note the graph scales for the day, as $270 and for the month as $5400 when reset was pressed.

Pic 5
Note the scale has reverted back to $180 for the day. The 100x cost has now allowed data to be seen, but not really in the spirit of what is seen by UK owners.

 

[Gabe]

I did something similar (used $15.00 instead of $0.15, actual off-peak being $0.1477/kW), and I managed to get a reasonable graph.

 

[thegurio]

I did something similar (used $15.00 instead of $0.15, actual off-peak being $0.1477/kW), and I managed to get a reasonable graph.

Hmmmm... Looks like I might have to change my cost screen then divide by 100 to get useful figures - it's such a shame really, it's almost like we are beta testers...

 

[gwatpe]

I suspect there are quite a lot more issues that drivers are seeing but are not sure of the why. I have read about drivers not using screens as the numbers are not believable. All screens should show meaningful data out of the box. I certainly did not intend on buying a car for BETA testing.

I now have a routine of resetting the average and manual mileage data when I refill the petrol tank. I also reset the trip2. I then have available the average L/100km for a known km. I also manually record the litres and km on my iPad for future reference. I use trip1 for the usual short journey distances only. The PHEV returns approx 400km for $40 of petrol with the mix of highway driving. PHEV is creeping up to the 3500km mark, in nearly 8 weeks.

 

[thegurio]

I suspect there are quite a lot more issues that drivers are seeing but are not sure of the why. I have read about drivers not using screens as the numbers are not believable. All screens should show meaningful data out of the box. I certainly did not intend on buying a car for BETA testing./quote]

Exactly, or if you are give us an incentive in the way of a reduced entry fee!

I now have a routine of resetting the average and manual mileage data when I refill the petrol tank. I also reset the trip2. I then have available the average L/100km for a known km. I also manually record the litres and km on my iPad for future reference. I use trip1 for the usual short journey distances only. The PHEV returns approx 400km for $40 of petrol with the mix of highway driving. PHEV is creeping up to the 3500km mark, in nearly 8 weeks.

I use Fuelly (www.fuelly.com) but they don't recognise plug-ins so it's a bit of a hamstrung affair, but I just put the charge cost in the notes. It gives great data and history and overall consumption figures which I find fascinating and a good grasp on how things are going.

As for 400k's for 40 litres, I'm generally running about 700 per tank - mind you, I've only just done a tank and will have to wait a while for meaningful data! I'm not counting the full highway running I did last week.

 

[gwatpe]

Hi thegurio,

I think you will find that I actually have quoted "400km on $40" petrol cost is about $1.55 per L.

Factoring in electricity for me is not as useful, as the cost is free for me. The charge screens are for me about kWh and not $. I will be waiting for the fix from Mitsubishi, so I can get meaningful graphs with a normalized fig of say $1.00 per kWh.

I have tried the Fuelly app and it did nothing for me. I think the data is stored on a server somewhere. I don't always have good phone service. If I went the app way I would want all the data there including electricity usage for viewing.

I have refuelled 5 times now in 3500km, usually around 30-35L, and topped up the battery about 40 times, 1-5kWh. My average drives have 80% highway km and the car averages around 7L/100km. The PHEV is around the same cost on petrol as my old car was running on LPG.

 

[Gabe]

I have kept a spreadsheet over the years for every fuel fill.
I have modified that spreadsheet to include calculated electric costs, and it is my intention to fill up the car with petrol on the 1st of every month so that I can enter the month's total cost of electric and petrol usage. Should I fill up with petrol midway of the month, I would add the amount & cost to the fillup of the 1st of the month. Hopefully that will tell me the approx combined fuel costs per month.

 

[gwatpe]

Hi Gabe,

I have had many vehicles over the years, and unfortunately many cars were pre spreadsheets. Normally add between 200000 and 450000 km before a new one is needed. I shudder to guess how many Litres I have processed into CO2 and H2O prior to the PHEV. I have had the honour of driving about 1500km in a solar car during the "World Solar Challenge". A solar car is a real electric car. Makes you realize the importance of wind resistance. Recharging my PHEV from Australian solar power is a close second. My PHEV is soon to be inspected to work out what is wrong.