How can I get best mileage?

[thegurio]

Ok, so I'm about to take a PHEV Aspire home for evaluation next weekend and I'm wondering how best to get near to the 1.9l they claim it does (I guess first of all - can it be done?). I live about 35 k's out of the city in fairly flat terrain. It's a mix between about 20% 60k an hour, 20% 80k an hour, and the rest 100k an hour. What is my best course of action? Preferably step by step as I'm struggling with the concept of the 'charge' and 'save' buttons.

If I leave with a full battery in theory I'll get home without using an ounce of fuel? Then of course come home, charge for a few more hours and I'll be right to set off again? Of course that's assuming I drive sanely etc. I do tend to like to sprint off the line, and while I realise that it isn't the best way for hypermiling, the boy racer in me can't help it... I'll try and keep it to a minimum on this drive, but I may struggle lol

I really want this to work, because it's either this or a camry hybrid. I don't mind either way, but at least the PHEV will tow the caravan, fit more into our 'lifestyle' and have space for the dog... Although having said that it is more expensive, but the fuel economy, if it's half of the Camry, will make it cheaper overall.

 

[jaapv]

After those 35 Kms the battery will be next to flat. So you will need a recharging point at home and one in the city. Those points can be normal household plugs rated @ 15 A.

 

[thegurio]

Luckily I've got a charging point at home and in the city I can use, so that makes it easier, but is it more economical for me to use a certain type of drive, like charge, or save, or just drive in EV as long as possible, then use charge? Or use save in the city and charge in the faster 80/100 sections?

I wouldn't be asking so many questions, but I can't find the handbook online so I can't read it...

 

[jaapv]

In my experience it is best to let the vehicle do its own thing. Just drive like you would do any car for economy, plus use the regenerating paddles for slowing down.
The only exceptions are on long drives on the motorway, where it is best to use save and mountain use where you should have the car permanently on charge.

And of course if you have to get into an emission restricted zone, you must charge the car up beforehand.

For the rest there are 231 miniature Japanese engineers living under your bonnet to regulate the car, and they know their job.... :lol:

 

[FLYER34]

For the rest there are 231 miniature Japanese engineers living under your bonnet to regulate the car, and they know their job....

OK, but none of these engineers know, for sure, where you intend to travel with your car.
Suppose you know you will be short of EV range by, say 5 or 10 km.
What is the best solution :
- let the "engineers" completely deplete the battery and start the ICE for the last 5 or 10 km ?
- use the "save" mode for 5/8 km when a stable cruising speed has been reached on, say, a motorway ?

 

[jaapv]

Depends on the type of driving in those last kms.

 

[thegurio]

For my 'engineers', I start out with about 2k of 60 km/h, then about 3 or 4 70, then about 5 of 80, then about 10 of 100, then 5 of 80, then back up again to 100 for about another 12, then 80 for 4, then 60 for 2. That's pretty much my regular commute, then reverse for the way home..

I just assumed for everything above 80 you'd hit charge as the motor is running anyway?

Or would save be the better option?

 

[jaapv]

Not really. I only use save when cruising on the motorway and know I want to use the electricity later on. Charge I never use in flat country. Even at higher speed pressing the save button wil increase consumption, as will the charge button.
In my experience those buttons must only be used if there i s a reason, otherwise the system itself will do better.

In the scenario you describe, if these are constant speeds, you should be able to just make on electricity alone. If there are traffic lights, stop-start traffic or in winter you might need to use the save button for a few Kms of highway driving.

You will have to charge up at work.

Even if the engine is running anyway (which is above 120 by default, it will only run below that speed if you use more power than the electrical system can supply, and in series or parallel according to the speed and circumsstances) it will still need to increase power and thus consumption when you force it to drive the generator as well.

I just take care to keep the car charged up from the mains as much as possible and I rarely see the inside of a petrol station that way.

 

[thegurio]

Ok, so the theory is it will look after itself? I just drive and the car will sort itself out? Or shoukd I be playing with the buttons? (I do enjoy that side of things, but won't be disappointed if I don't have to....)


Speaking of that, if I just keep driving till there's no ev range left, what will happen? Will the car start charging it self as preservation, or will it just die without any hope of resuscitation?

 

[rjcarte]

I don't know what the 'charge' and 'save' buttons do. Going just by their names do you use them in a scenario where you are doing a stretch of motorway driving and you know that you are coming into a city or town in the next 20-30mins, you push the charge button to start topping up the battery pack and then 'save' if you are still a few miles out but the battery is 80% re-charged? Then, when you hit the city with the inevitable bumper-to-bumper business you can tootle through in EV mode????

 

[maddogsetc]

I don't know what the 'charge' and 'save' buttons do. Going just by their names do you use them in a scenario where you are doing a stretch of motorway driving and you know that you are coming into a city or town in the next 20-30mins, you push the charge button to start topping up the battery pack and then 'save' if you are still a few miles out but the battery is 80% re-charged? Then, when you hit the city with the inevitable bumper-to-bumper business you can tootle through in EV mode????

I'm not really sure I see the point of them either. In your scenario, even if the battery is depleted the ICE will run to provide the charge for the car to operate in parallel mode. So what's the benefit of using 'charge' before you get there? Either way you are charging from petrol :?

Likewise, if you use save it simply means you'll run the ICE earlier in order to run on EV mode later. Whether you burn petrol now or later I can't see the difference :?:

 

[jaapv]

Save makes sense if you have an electricity intensive drive ahead, for instance in town and you are driving at constant higher speed where electric drive has no great advantageanyway. The car will keep the level as it is when you push the button, or at least try to.

Charge is meant for situations where you will need maximum electric power. For instance in
the mountains. Or if you have low battery level and an environment zone ahead where you are not allowed to drive combustion vehicles.

 

[jaapv]

Ok, so the theory is it will look after itself? I just drive and the car will sort itself out? Or shoukd I be playing with the buttons? (I do enjoy that side of things, but won't be disappointed if I don't have to....)


Speaking of that, if I just keep driving till there's no ev range left, what will happen? Will the car start charging it self as preservation, or will it just die without any hope of resuscitation?

As the battery reaches 20% which is the lowest level it will drive on normally and go into save mode around zero. At this point it stlll has a reserve of 7% for acceleration etc so there will be normal power. It will switch between series hybrid and parallel hybrid.

Should you manage to deplete the battery down to 13% it will go into emergency mode. It will display a turtle on the dashboard and limit top speed to about 80% and acceleration to tortoise and switch to charge to get the battery up to 20 % again.


On the Dutch forum there is one case history of this. The guy overloaded the car with five passengers, a large amount of luggage and a roof box full. He then proceeded to drive a hilly motorway on an empty battery with the cruise control set to 130 Kph and was p****d off that he got overtaken by a Fiat Panda.....

 

[thegurio]

At say 0 kilometres to go, and if I'm not going to be at a charging spot very shortly, would I need to hit the charge button? Or just keep driving and the car will keep itself relatively topped up (or as topped up as it needs to be...)?

The main reason I'm asking is because when SWMBO will be driving the car, I want to make it clear and concise exactly what she must do when certain things happen. If not, it will cause that many arguments it won't be worth any fuel saving lol

 

[jaapv]

No you don't have to do anything, just drive on. The car regulates itself. Pretty good at it too.
Basically the only things required of the driver are plugging it in between drives and taking care not to run out of both petrol and electricity. :mrgreen:
And don't use Vim on the paint.... :ugeek:

Actually the car is very untechnically-minded person friendly. It has been designed to drive as much as a "normal" car as possible.
All the controls are really meant for finetuning.

 

[thegurio]

You have no idea how happy that makes me jaapv! :mrgreen: As well as being surprising, it does make it better... Then SWMBO can just get in and drive and doesn't have to think about anything else... Which makes me a lot less stressed about the whole thing lol

 

[jaapv]

One of the first drives we took was to the hospital, where I had to have something done to my knee. My wife, who despises anything technical, just got in and drove this big thing through the rush hour in Amsterdam with ease, something she would not have liked to do before. It is that easy to drive.

 

[Goldie]

You have no idea how happy that makes me jaapv! :mrgreen: As well as being surprising, it does make it better... Then SWMBO can just get in and drive and doesn't have to think about anything else... Which makes me a lot less stressed about the whole thing lol

As others have said just drive and it works just fine.
I used the save button yesterday for the 1st time. It was in a 100k zone and the battery was about 50%. I put the screen monitor into the car display mode under TRIP which shows where power is coming from and going to. It looked good. With the save 'on' the orange area for the engine displayed and was giving power just to the front wheels. And sometimes it added a bit more to the battery. Then the battery gave a bit of power to the front wheels, then stopped and the orange would start again giving power to the front wheels again. Sometime the car would travel along for a small bit as if coasting with no power going to the wheels. It did seen the battery did not drop below the set level.
From this I think I will only use 'save' in high speed driving and wanting to use EV mode in town driving. But I would never use it if I was to be home soon and could put the Outlander on the charger. I will never use petrol in place of electrons.

 

[dukeinlondon]

I think the 'Save' and 'Charge' button are in anticipation to possible future 'zero emission' zones in towns. I am not aware of any such zones currently in operation but that might something soon happening in some places during pollution peaks for example.

 

[jaapv]

Yes, but Charge is also the mountain setting and Save the long drive Motorway one.