First road trip

[GolfjunkyC60]

Hi Guys and Girls, Next week i take delivery of the new car and soon after i will be doing the below journey. my q is how should i drive the route with the cars modes. should i drive the 7m from my house to the M25 on electric then hit the save button, or electric to M25 then hit the charge button or just let the car do its thing? ? I do not think i will be able to charge the car at either the theme park or the hotel, we are staying for one night then back to the park then home.
We are driving straight from home to the theme park (may be able to stop at fleet services but not sure for how long and dont know if they have charging points (i have an ecotricity card) ) then theme park to hotel and then the same journey reversed the next day.




thanks in advance

 

[Ollycat]

Do like I do and drive it like it's stolen.

More seriously, do round town pootling on battery, and do motorway on "Save". That way you use gasolene on the motorway, and keep battery for the other end of the journey. And you shouldn't have to bother with recharging at motorway services where the money you save on petrol you spend in M&S Foodstore...

When on the M25 and in M3 roadworks, use cruise control, which lets car do it's own thing - right down to very slow using the car in front as a reference point, and stops you getting speeding tickets. Expect to gas it on the outward and homeward journeys...

Lots of Best Westerns have charging points which are free

Let us know how it goes?

 

[GolfjunkyC60]

So you dont recommend using the 'charge' button then ?

 

[ChrisMiller]

'Charge' burns petrol in your tank to run the generator to charge the battery, which you can later use to move the car. It's very unlikely to be more efficient (cheaper) than using the electricity direct from the generator, or (even better) the direct drive from the engine. The only times you might want to use 'Charge' are if you're going to be running in a genuine zero-emissions zone (I don't think there are any such in the UK, and anyway it's very tricky to prevent the car from starting the engine occasionally) or you're anticipating a lengthy stretch of start/stop crawling traffic ahead.

 

[GolfjunkyC60]

Thanks.

 

[user 816]

Just drive it normally, over that journey I am predicting about 34.5 mpg with charge stops making little difference.

 

[GolfjunkyC60]

is that just petrol mpg ? my Qashqu would of been about 48mpg overall.

 

[ChrisMiller]

If you cruise at just over 70, 35 mpg (petrol only, but on a long trip with no recharging the electric contribution is not that huge) is about right. The Outlander is a size bigger than your Qashqai (nice car, silly name), so that represents decent performance - friends with diesel SUVs tell me that 35 mpg is their expectation for m'way cruising.

If you're prepared to run slightly slower (60-65 mph), you can probably get over 40 mpg, as you're both reducing air resistance and can more easily maintain a constant speed. Cruise control (where available) is your friend

 

[user 816]

If you cruise at just over 70, 35 mpg (petrol only, but on a long trip with no recharging the electric contribution is not that huge) is about right. The Outlander is a size bigger than your Qashqai (nice car, silly name), so that represents decent performance - friends with diesel SUVs tell me that 35 mpg is their expectation for m'way cruising.

If you're prepared to run slightly slower (60-65 mph), you can probably get over 40 mpg, as you're both reducing air resistance and can more easily maintain a constant speed. Cruise control (where available) is your friend

yup as Chris says. You have bought a 2 ton petrol powered SUV, sorry to say there is nothing magical about the car that will make do other than what you would expect from such, my estimate was assuming you will be fairly loaded up too and won't be used to playing around with the cars settings, paddles etc.

But, as Chris said, if your willing to get into an 'easy' pace it would be a little higher. As you get used to it you will do better if you want, using up your charge on slower roads out of town, running on petrol on faster motorway, doing a 20 minute rapid charge stop, but saving it and letting it loose again on slower roads, make sure you arrive back home with a flat battery... soon be higher.

 

[greendwarf]

Depends on your view on atmospheric pollution in urban areas, as well. If so, my strategy is to try and only burn petrol in the countryside. So start with EV and then go to Save when you hit the motorway/fast A roads. It is useful to have some in reserve in case you hit slow moving traffic, as you don't want to be breathing in your own pollutants when crawling.

It will also be nice to have some for the Theme Park & Hotel (again, no doubt slow moving). So, if you find you have used up all your EV and anticipate lower speed driving (especially when arriving home) then running in Charge at 70 mph will give you back some battery but the rate will depend on what other electric demands there are e.g. lights, heating, Aircon etc.

 

[maby]

Over that sort of distance and with so much motorway driving, no strategy is going to make more than 5 or 6% difference to fuel consumption - you will be driving a petrol car. It is a route I do almost every week - well almost the same route. I leave the house with a fully charged battery and hit Save immediately. I then drive on Save until I'm about 20 miles from home and then use up the charge in Normal mode - my overall fuel consumption for the entire journey is generally around 43mpg - that is not a bad figure from a car of that size and weight.

P.S. I run on cruise control at around 65mph...

 

[user 816]

Over that sort of distance and with so much motorway driving, no strategy is going to make more than 5 or 6% difference to fuel consumption - you will be driving a petrol car. It is a route I do almost every week - well almost the same route. I leave the house with a fully charged battery and hit Save immediately. I then drive on Save until I'm about 20 miles from home and then use up the charge in Normal mode - my overall fuel consumption for the entire journey is generally around 43mpg - that is not a bad figure from a car of that size and weight.

P.S. I run on cruise control at around 65mph...

I think people that have the car a while develop a bit of an instinct for keeping it in the Green zone where possible by using just enough throttle. Hence avoiding excessive ICE starts, an improvement in mpg of course follows.

 

[GolfjunkyC60]

Well to say im disappointed is a bit of an understatement, i was expecting at least 150mpg...............................not LOL
thanks for all the comments. If i run at 70mph for an hour on 'charge' what could i expect to put back into the batteries?

 

[greendwarf]

Well to say im disappointed is a bit of an understatement, i was expecting at least 150mpg...............................not LOL
thanks for all the comments. If i run at 70mph for an hour on 'charge' what could i expect to put back into the batteries?

See my previous post referring to the weekend trip of 32 miles mainly @70mph - approx. double those results but with the caveats I mentioned.

 

[maby]

Well to say im disappointed is a bit of an understatement, i was expecting at least 150mpg...............................not LOL
thanks for all the comments. If i run at 70mph for an hour on 'charge' what could i expect to put back into the batteries?

If you are serious about this, then you are in for a disappointment, I'm afraid. Once the battery runs flat - which could be as little as 20 miles at motorway speeds - you are driving a rather unaerodynamic, 2 ton petrol SUV and will get the fuel economy that goes with that. The hybrid system does slightly improve on fuel consumption, but certainly not that much - you would not expect to get 150mpg out of a petrol Range Rover and the Outlander PHEV will not do much better! Running on Charge does not significantly improve overall fuel consumption - arguably it can make it worse. If you want battery charge for the latter parts of your journey, save it rather than letting it go flat and trying to recharge it.

 

[maby]

Over that sort of distance and with so much motorway driving, no strategy is going to make more than 5 or 6% difference to fuel consumption - you will be driving a petrol car. It is a route I do almost every week - well almost the same route. I leave the house with a fully charged battery and hit Save immediately. I then drive on Save until I'm about 20 miles from home and then use up the charge in Normal mode - my overall fuel consumption for the entire journey is generally around 43mpg - that is not a bad figure from a car of that size and weight.

P.S. I run on cruise control at around 65mph...

I think people that have the car a while develop a bit of an instinct for keeping it in the Green zone where possible by using just enough throttle. Hence avoiding excessive ICE starts, an improvement in mpg of course follows.

I certainly don't drive it gently and have a lifetime average of just over 43mpg. That has been achieved almost entirely driving the same route that the OP is talking about - St. Albans to Southampton and back...

 

[user 816]

Well to say im disappointed is a bit of an understatement, i was expecting at least 150mpg...............................not LOL
thanks for all the comments. If i run at 70mph for an hour on 'charge' what could i expect to put back into the batteries?

If you are serious about this, then you are in for a disappointment, I'm afraid. Once the battery runs flat - which could be as little as 20 miles at motorway speeds - you are driving a rather unaerodynamic, 2 ton petrol SUV and will get the fuel economy that goes with that. The hybrid system does slightly improve on fuel consumption, but certainly not that much - you would not expect to get 150mpg out of a petrol Range Rover and the Outlander PHEV will not do much better! Running on Charge does not significantly improve overall fuel consumption - arguably it can make it worse. If you want battery charge for the latter parts of your journey, save it rather than letting it go flat and trying to recharge it.

erm.. it seems pretty clear to me they were being tongue in cheek and are fully aware of the 150mpg being a mythical quirk of the system.

 

[user 816]

Over that sort of distance and with so much motorway driving, no strategy is going to make more than 5 or 6% difference to fuel consumption - you will be driving a petrol car. It is a route I do almost every week - well almost the same route. I leave the house with a fully charged battery and hit Save immediately. I then drive on Save until I'm about 20 miles from home and then use up the charge in Normal mode - my overall fuel consumption for the entire journey is generally around 43mpg - that is not a bad figure from a car of that size and weight.

P.S. I run on cruise control at around 65mph...

I think people that have the car a while develop a bit of an instinct for keeping it in the Green zone where possible by using just enough throttle. Hence avoiding excessive ICE starts, an improvement in mpg of course follows.

I certainly don't drive it gently and have a lifetime average of just over 43mpg. That has been achieved almost entirely driving the same route that the OP is talking about - St. Albans to Southampton and back...

I wasn't talking about driving gently, but more developing a subconscious feel for making the most of EV power and not starting the engine so much. In the same way you get used to when to change gear in a car without really thinking about it. I suspect that your percentage EV running will be higher than a newbie might get at first without you even trying to do it.

 

[maby]

...

erm.. it seems pretty clear to me they were being tongue in cheek and are fully aware of the 150mpg being a mythical quirk of the system.

I was not sure how to interpret the "... not LOL" - if the OP was expressing sarcasm, it really should have been "... not! LOL"

 

[GolfjunkyC60]

Sorry, i didnt know chief officer Piers Morgan of the grammar police was in town. glad most of you knew what i meant.
anyway, thanks for the replies. i will report back with the results. Cant wait until the car arrives on monday, i will post some pics.