Eco Button

[MHS]

Day 3 of ownership, and loving it. 2 quick questions re the Eco button, which I'm sure many of you will have worked out.

Firstly which systems on the car does it effect? I had assumed it was just the climate control, but think it may do more.

Secondly is it possible to select it as a default setting, so I won't need to select it at the start of each journey?

Many thanks

Mike

 

[Lyra252]

Hi

The Eco button reduces the efficiency, hence the power usage of the climate control. It also reduces slightly the power draw on the motors, think of it as a velvet right foot.

Unfortunately you cannot set it to stay selected, along with most of the other settings it defaults when the "ignition" is turned off.

You can reselect regen using the l/h paddle instead of the gear lever if you find that easier.

Don't even get me started on the manual MPG settings!!

Cheers

Chris

 

[maby]

best to forget about MPG - you've bought the car, you are not going to stop using it, so chill out and drive it. Obviously, you can get better or worse fuel consumption depending on how you drive it, but to a large extent common sense applies - drive gently (light right foot, break early and coast to a halt) and you'll get good figures, drive aggressively (heavy right foot, break late) and you can make it as uneconomical as a large petrol gas guzzler. You can fiddle with the "charge" and "save" buttons and flip the paddles like the Pinball Wizard and you may make a small overall improvement in fuel economy, but nothing major.

It's really two almost distinct cars in one body shell - the 25 to 30 miles on electric are much more economical than the remainder of your journey on petrol. But it's not bad on petrol for the size and style of vehicle - drive it and enjoy.

 

[BeerHunter]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

 

[maby]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

That explains a lot - I have been using Eco more in the last week and have noticed the power flow display showing front wheel drive.

 

[MHS]

best to forget about MPG - you've bought the car, you are not going to stop using it, so chill out and drive it. Obviously, you can get better or worse fuel consumption depending on how you drive it, but to a large extent common sense applies - drive gently (light right foot, break early and coast to a halt) and you'll get good figures, drive aggressively (heavy right foot, break late) and you can make it as uneconomical as a large petrol gas guzzler. You can fiddle with the "charge" and "save" buttons and flip the paddles like the Pinball Wizard and you may make a small overall improvement in fuel economy, but nothing major.

It's really two almost distinct cars in one body shell - the 25 to 30 miles on electric are much more economical than the remainder of your journey on petrol. But it's not bad on petrol for the size and style of vehicle - drive it and enjoy.

A slightly odd reply to a question of what a button does. I am thoroughly enjoying the car thank you.

Why would I want to forget mpg? That was the whole reason for buying the phev.

Shogun 3.2 LWB doing 23 mpg with a gentle right foot on my commute to work 32 mile round trip (approx £8 per day)
Phev on ev only charged at both ends (approx £2.00 estimated)

 

[maddogsetc]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

Didn't know that - thanks for enlightening me. Will be sure not to use ECO when conditions are icy...

 

[maby]

best to forget about MPG - you've bought the car, you are not going to stop using it, so chill out and drive it. Obviously, you can get better or worse fuel consumption depending on how you drive it, but to a large extent common sense applies - drive gently (light right foot, break early and coast to a halt) and you'll get good figures, drive aggressively (heavy right foot, break late) and you can make it as uneconomical as a large petrol gas guzzler. You can fiddle with the "charge" and "save" buttons and flip the paddles like the Pinball Wizard and you may make a small overall improvement in fuel economy, but nothing major.

It's really two almost distinct cars in one body shell - the 25 to 30 miles on electric are much more economical than the remainder of your journey on petrol. But it's not bad on petrol for the size and style of vehicle - drive it and enjoy.

A slightly odd reply to a question of what a button does. I am thoroughly enjoying the car thank you.

Why would I want to forget mpg? That was the whole reason for buying the phev.

Shogun 3.2 LWB doing 23 mpg with a gentle right foot on my commute to work 32 mile round trip (approx £8 per day)
Phev on ev only charged at both ends (approx £2.00 estimated)

Sorry, perhaps I didn't make myself clear - actually, I was reacting to Lycra252's comment on the "manual mpg" which is presumably referring to the relatively meaningless MPG display. My point is that, after over 1000 miles of mixed mode driving, I've come to the conclusion that the fuel economy is determined far more by the journey than it is by the way you drive that journey. Up to around 25 miles, it will run pure electric and will be very efficient, after you've run the battery flat, it becomes a pretty much standard petrol large estate car and will be a lot less efficient. There a few things you can do that may move the EV range by a few miles, but in the grand scheme of things, the impact on your fuel economy over a full year will be very small.

It's a danger with cars that have very active fuel economy displays - you can take too much notice of them. We're away from home at the moment and unable to charge the car overnight. I took my wife to the station this morning at 6am - very dark, quite chilly and drizzling a bit - so I needed full headlights, heater, demister, wipers etc. etc. I looked at the fuel economy and was horrified to see that I was averaging 12mpg! Then I rationalised and realised that yes - I was getting 12mpg - but the station is about three miles away. On the return leg, it informed me that I had averaged a princely 22mpg - still pretty poor - but I had done about 6 miles. If this was representative of all my usage of the car, it would be terrible, but I know that I will also do a fair amount of EV giving me an effective fuel consumption of around 180mpg and this evening I'll drive back home on the motorway cruising about 70 miles with a flat battery and get about 40mpg.

Is there anything I could do to improve on this? Not very much - I can't drive at night without lights or wipers in the rain. I could turn off the heating, but I really am not prepared to sit shivering in three pullovers in my brand new £35k car. I do usually press the "Eco" button - and it does eek an extra couple of miles of EV range out of the battery and may give you another one or two mpg after the battery has gone flat - but the performance on the "Eco" setting corresponds to my natural driving style more or less. Should someone who likes a more performant car run on Eco and curse the vehicle for being sluggish? I would say not.

 

[jaapv]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

Where did you read that? It is the first time I've heard of it, as Mitsubishi claims it is 4WD all the time. Quite interesting.

Anyway, to my surprise I seem to get better fuel economy in "normal" than I do in "eco". :?:

 

[maby]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

Where did you read that? It is the first time I've heard of it, as Mitsubishi claims it is 4WD all the time.

Anyway, to my surprise I seem to get better fuel economy in "normal" than I do in "eco". :?:

My energy flow display certainly shows prolonged periods cruising in a sort of "half-parallel-hybrid" mode with drive from the petrol engine and charging, but no drive from the battery - if that accurately reflects what is happening, then it is 2WD because there is no physical connection from the petrol engine to the rear wheels. I don't pay much attention to the larger energy flow display, so cannot comment on whether or not there is ever a 2WD electric mode.

 

[jaapv]

Yes, that has been reported before. It is said to be a bug in the display software. The engine can not drive the wheels under 30 MpH as the revs would be too low.

 

[Lyra252]

Hi

Yes I was refering to the fact that the manual MPG setting defaults back to auto each time you "restart", most annoying!

There may be times when under load the engine will drive the front wheels and not send power to the battery and wheels, this does appear to be 2wd??

Don't think the eco button has any effect on the rear motor though. The 4 wheel lock button does, I believe it syncronises the front and rear motors. I think there's a Degree in driving the PHEV!

Cheers

Chris

 

[maby]

Yes, that has been reported before. It is said to be a bug in the display software. The engine can not drive the wheels under 30 MpH as the revs would be too low.

I'm talking about speeds between about 50mph and 60mph with relatively flat battery - the display shows the petrol engine driving the front wheels and charging the battery, but no electric drive. Mine does this for long periods cruising around 50. Under these circumstances, my reported EV range increases slowly till it reaches four or five miles, then it switches to EV mode for a while and shuts the petrol engine down. It is rather reminiscent of the behaviour of a Prius at mid speed cruising. It does seem to produce pretty good fuel consumption figures - I can cruise with a flat battery and average around 44mpg.

 

[maby]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

Where did you read that? It is the first time I've heard of it, as Mitsubishi claims it is 4WD all the time. Quite interesting.

Anyway, to my surprise I seem to get better fuel economy in "normal" than I do in "eco". :?:

ok - I did a lot of experiments on my way home this evening and I believe that it spends quite a lot of its time in 2WD. I was running with a flat battery, cruising round the M25 at between 50 and 60 mph and keeping an eye on the MMCS energy flow display. Most of the time, this just showed the engine driving the front wheels and charging the battery but no drive to the rear wheels. The battery would charge up till the EV range showed one mile, then it would run EV till it was flat again. If I hit the accelerator hard, it would kick in drive from the battery to the rear wheels. If I pressed the 4WD lock button, then it showed continual drive to the rear wheels. The ECO button did not seem to influence this behaviour.

 

[MHS]

As per my original question, there is virtually no information from Mitsubishi as to what the Eco button does. The manual has numerous pages on how to lock / unlock the car or open the boot, but glosses over the Eco button.

I'm back to Harratts in the next two days for a new boot liner, as the supplied one is bent. I will ask them what the Eco button does, and report back.

 

[Bap]

best to forget about MPG - you've bought the car, you are not going to stop using it, so chill out and drive it. Obviously, you can get better or worse fuel consumption depending on how you drive it, but to a large extent common sense applies - drive gently (light right foot, break early and coast to a halt) and you'll get good figures, drive aggressively (heavy right foot, break late) and you can make it as uneconomical as a large petrol gas guzzler. You can fiddle with the "charge" and "save" buttons and flip the paddles like the Pinball Wizard and you may make a small overall improvement in fuel economy, but nothing major.

It's really two almost distinct cars in one body shell - the 25 to 30 miles on electric are much more economical than the remainder of your journey on petrol. But it's not bad on petrol for the size and style of vehicle - drive it and enjoy.

Excellent! I was almost getting scared of driving mine when it arrives. A sensible approach. Thanks.

 

[jaapv]

The ECO button can also turn the rear motor off, therefore making the car 2WD, in some low power requirement situations.

Kev.

Where did you read that? It is the first time I've heard of it, as Mitsubishi claims it is 4WD all the time. Quite interesting.

Anyway, to my surprise I seem to get better fuel economy in "normal" than I do in "eco". :?:

ok - I did a lot of experiments on my way home this evening and I believe that it spends quite a lot of its time in 2WD. I was running with a flat battery, cruising round the M25 at between 50 and 60 mph and keeping an eye on the MMCS energy flow display. Most of the time, this just showed the engine driving the front wheels and charging the battery but no drive to the rear wheels. The battery would charge up till the EV range showed one mile, then it would run EV till it was flat again. If I hit the accelerator hard, it would kick in drive from the battery to the rear wheels. If I pressed the 4WD lock button, then it showed continual drive to the rear wheels. The ECO button did not seem to influence this behaviour.

Sorry, that is contrary to the official PDF by Mitsubishi. It is a software bug that it does not show the rear wheels driving the car.
It is always in four wheel drive, regardless of the ICE.
http://www.mitsubishi-outlander-phev.com/Documents/EN/01.Outlander%20PHEV_E.pdf

Scroll to page 5.

 

[maby]

...

Sorry, that is opposed to the official PDF by Mitsubishi. It is a software bug that it does not show the rear wheels driving the car.

http://www.mitsubishi-outlander-phev.com/Documents/EN/01.Outlander%20PHEV_E.pdf

Scroll to page 5.

true - I don't see any independent way of checking - unless someone here has access to a rolling road. That document also is the one which says that Parallel Hybrid only applies above 120kph - which is demonstrably untrue. As I said above, the display does show 4WD, but only under high throttle opening or with 4WD lock engaged - try it!

 

[jaapv]

Driving to my work I have been trying it and figuring it out. The display behaves the same way in "normal" mode btw.
The explanation is simple. The simulation on your screen is not an indication of drive mode. It is an energy flow indicator.
The car has its power management, and additionally stabilisation software that regulates the power distribution to the wheels. What you are seeing is that the car is in 4WD but the stabilisation has the rear wheels coasting, i.e. in the powerless limbo between drive and regen.

This situation can be countered by pushing the 4WD Lock button, which distributes equal power to all 4 wheels (up to 50 KpH approx)

Regarding the 120 KpH remark. It is true, but only approximately. It is for a car on a dry flat road with average rolling resistance in windless conditions driven at a constant speed.
As soon as conditions change like up- or downhill, wind, etc., the speed will differ.

 

[maby]

Driving to my work I have been trying it and figuring it out. The display behaves the same way in "normal" mode btw.
The explanation is simple. The simulation on your screen is not an indication of drive mode. It is an energy flow indicator.
The car has its power management, and additionally stabilisation software that regulates the power distribution to the wheels. What you are seeing is that the car is in 4WD but the stabilisation has the rear wheels coasting, i.e. in the powerless limbo between drive and regen.

This situation can be countered by pushing the 4WD Lock button, which distributes equal power to all 4 wheels (up to 50 KpH approx)

Regarding the 120 KpH remark. It is true, but only approximatey. It is for a car on a dry flat road with average rolling resistance in windless conditions.

Hmmm, ok, but on a car of this design, the only distinction between 2WD and 4WD is energy flow. I have owned early models of Landrover that didn't have a centre differential and hence could not be left in permanent 4WD - that had a transfer box that physically connected or disconnected the drive to the rear axle. On the Outlander there is no physical connection, only the control of current to the rear motor.