Heater on GX3 model

[Nigel]

Just traded my Landrover D3 for the GX3h Outlander - should be picking it up in two weeks or so. I am aware it the basic spec model (although well equipped as standard) and the brochure says no heater, I understand this is to provide heat electrically rather than conventionally from the engine. My question is then: do you have to have the engine running constantly to provide heat in the colder months? if that is the case then fuel efficiency will suffer. This is not a deal breaker for me but I wondered how others manage with the same specced model. I am really impressed with the vehicle so far. although not even had a test drive yet! I am pleased there is a forum and hope to contribute eventually. I am a member of the Disco3.co.uk forum which has been a massive help.
Sorry for the long winded post and thanks in advance for any help with my question.
Nigel

 

[Hunda67]

Hi,

For what it's worth I have a GX3h and live in Shetland (although temperature up here seldom drops below freezing it is rarely out of single figures) and I have had the car since beginning of December and here is my opinion so far (1500 miles on the clock):

I use the car for a lot of short journeys (approx. 5 miles) and it takes about 2 miles for the car to heat up using the auto button on heater control and for most of these 2 miles the ICE is running therefore not that fuel efficient for the first 2 miles. However, if using regenerative braking in those two wiles the ICE will cut out at these points. To me it seems no worse than a normal car in the time it takes to heat up the interior. But yes it is not as fuel efficient as it could be on very short journeys.

On longer journeys on cold days the ICE will cut in occaisionally (especially if windscreen demister is in use) at various points along the journey but it doesn't seem to be anymore often that on the GX4h demonstrator I borrowed for a weekend before deciding to buy the GX3h.

All in all I went for the GX3h because the GX4h did not justify the price difference (heater aside the annoying sat nav, sunroof, reversing camera, swoopy graphics display and digital radio (no digital radio stations up here!) were just not worth an extra 4-5k for me). The price difference buys a lot of petrol.

I also get the impression that even on the short journeys the ICE is basically just idling to heat up the interior - the batteries are doing most of the work - maybe somebody else here knows for sure if this impression is correct or not.

Hope that helps.

 

[anko]

I also get the impression that even on the short journeys the ICE is basically just idling to heat up the interior - the batteries are doing most of the work - maybe somebody else here knows for sure if this impression is correct or not.

When standing still (e.g. while waiting or a triffic light) then engine produces less kW when it is running for heating purposes then it does when running in charge mode. It seems to idle then.

When driving less than 65 km/h, the kW output of the engine changes with your speed, so I think the e-motors get their energy from the generator and not the battery.

When driving faster than 65 km/h but less than 125 km/h the car will not engage in parallel mode when the engine is running for heating purposes.

So, I don't think the engine is idleing all the time, but at the same time I don't think the battery is being charged.

 

[Paule23]

I've got a GX3h and although I love the car, I must admit I'm very surprised by the amount of fuel I'm using at the moment just to run the heater. All of my recent journeys have been short enough and slow enough to have been done purely on battery, but as it's been cold and wet I've used the heater/demister a lot. In 375 miles I've used around 2/3 of a tank of fuel (assuming the gauge is accurate).

Now I know this will improve with the weather, but it seems an awfully expensive way to provide some heat. I agree with the op though, the price differential at least means I can afford the extra petrol.

 

[greendwarf]

My experience is similar to hunda67 - when running around South London yesterday with passengers (I didn't want them to feel cold :lol: ) I had the heat set at 22.5, fan on minimum with heat directed to screen & floor and no aircon all in ECO mode. I also had Regen set at B0 to allow for maximum coasting and although this means no regen benefit unless braking it meant no power drain on battery or need for ICE for a lot of the journeys. We were all comfortable with outside temp about 6c.

Apart from initial start up, the ICE only cut in intermittently and I used about 3/4 of the battery to do 20 miles.

 

[Nigel]

Thank you very much for all the replies and great information, I have similar usage to Hunda67 (just what I wanted to hear)and this has reassured me a lot. The fuel consumption increase is not that much of a problem as my Discovery3 gave 25mpg according to the display but probably ony 18!
Thanks, Nigel.

 

[Ozukus]

I have a GX3h as well (Angus as he's known) and from my experience I can provide the following.

I always turn off the climate control (if it is running) prior to turning off the car, that way I can elect when I restart the car whether I want ICE to run or not.

On short journeys of less than say 3-4 miles I don't bother with the heating as anything less than 2 miles the cabin hasn't reached any degree of worth, so I assume if I've done it for the first half may as well do it for the second half.

For my trip to the office, 34 miles cross London, I can do a high proportion on pure EV that gives me just over 100mpg, however if running heating (18C) and in ECO mode I get around 75-80MPG with an outside temp of around 10-12C, but this drops to around 65-70MPG on days like today when the temp was 1C, as rolling resistance etc aside, it takes longer to go from 1-18 than from 10-18 plus to maintain it.

The other thing to consider is that you've purchased the car at probably the worst time of your to own a vehicle that has any form of electric power, so you have to look at the long term picture with regard to MPG. That heating that your using today will be off for a high proportion of time or the ambient temp difference to get it from say 16-21 and maintain it will take a lot less effort, plus in the summer months petrol use should be negligible for all sub 30 mile journeys.

All in all I'm very pleased with the car and expect that I will get my estimated 90mpg on average over the 12 month period, so I'm not stressing it at the moment when it's somewhere between 50-60mpg, as it will get evened out over the summer.

 

[Hunda67]

The other peoples answers seem to fit with my experience. Anko's reply makes sense to me - I have not done any detailed calculations on how much fuel I'm really using - it was only an impression I got from listening to the note of the engine.

My wife uses the car more than me - we used to have a 1.4l Diesel Fiesta and an L200 pickup. Normally she would use the Fiesta and I would use the pickup. However, we very seldom needed to use both cars at the same time so we decided on one car to share between us. It's only been 6 weeks but I would say our petrol costs are no more and probably less than what we used to put in the Fiesta and if you take the L200 into account then overall they are much less.

The one thing I did do to reduce the ICE on short journeys was to disable the AirCon unless we specifically switch it on. We always have the heater control set to Auto with the cabin temp. set to 20°C. By default Auto puts the AirCon on but this can be changed so that the AirCon is off by default. Once the AirCon is off then the ICE use is noticably less.