How would you drive these 2 different commutes?

[HughF]

Hi folks, I've been researching and researching and researching some more over the last month and I think that an outlander phev could be the right vehicle for me.

I'd be really interested to hear how current owners would drive the following commutes:

1. A round trip commute of 31 miles home-work-home over country B roads and a short section of A road. The caveat being that I can only charge at work. We are off grid at home and don't have enough inverter/solar/battery power to run an overnight charge of the phev. Would you run on ICE set to save mode for the first 5 miles to heat the cabin (if required) and reserve the remaining charge so arriving at work with a flat battery ready for the days charge? Repeat on the journey home at the end of the day.

2. Depart from my weekend residence to begin a 49 mile drive to the office on a Monday morning, having had a full overnight charge (mains electric at the weekend residence). This commute is mostly single carriageway A roads that are hilly, with the last few miles being country lanes. Would you again bang in 25 miles on save mode and then use the battery to depletion ending the journey ready for a plugin at work?

I 'think' that this driving pattern would suit a PHEV (it would certainly suit an ampera, but they are too low to the ground to be practical in the countryside and can't tow on the odd occasion that I need to) but if anyone thinks otherwise and thinks I'm mad, please let me know.

Cheers, Hugh

 

[HHL]

I think the best advice is to just get in and drive it. Charge it when you can.............

 

[Austen]

Hi Hugh

I am a new owner of nearly 3 weeks and 250 miles and only had to use the ICE for probably > 10 miles and my cost to charge results in an equivalent mpg of 133. That's the good news.


Depending on how secure you think your job is I might be reluctant to buy this car if I couldn't charge at home.

I believe that the ICE will only run in save mode once the battery has dropped to 80%. (I tend to use it on steepish hills)

Based just on what you have described it would work for you but there must be other times you would want to use the car?

The ground clearance is not great, around 170mm (a low exhaust pipe)

However bear in mind I am a new user so probably wait for some sage advice from others who have had the vehicle longer.


Chris

 

[geoffshep69]

I think the best advice is to just get in and drive it. Charge it when you can.............

I agree. On short commutes like these, you are only ever going to achieve very marginal gains in efficiency through the use of Save/Charge buttons or the paddles for regenerative braking.

The car is intelligent enough to run itself pretty efficiently, so I wouldn’t spend too much time over analysing it. Just get in, drive the car, charge when you can and use the heater when you need it.

Obviously it’s a different story on longer journeys where, for example, it might make sense to use Save on the motorway and retain your battery charge for any required town or city driving at the end, but for short commutes I wouldn’t worry about it.

Your pattern of usage sounds like a PHEV will work nicely for you so go ahead and enjoy it !

 

[HughF]

Thanks for the input folks... A bit of background, I currently drive a 10yr old Transit van as my daily drive, various reasons for this that I won't go into. It's high up, well specc'd and fast - but is getting a bit tired now with 200k'miles on the clock - to be honest I'm tired of constantly fixing it (yes I do all my own spannering, I'm an engineer/technician/mechanic/machinist/software engineer by trade)...

I can live without the load carrying capacity of the transit (I think) and want something that is nicer to do my driving in (more comfort etc). I also want to move away from a diesel and get back into an automatic, both of these for the comfort reason.

I'm sold on a hybrid - so I've been looking at both Lexus RX400h/450h, which would be perfect if I didn't have the plug-in-at-work-or-at-the-weekend option. I also hear ford will release a plug-in hybrid transit but not for another 2 years. Then there's the Toyota Alphard hybrid which might be a good option with strong residuals after 2 years. I won't buy new, it will be a used purchase.

However, given I can charge at work, I'm confident I won't loose my job and I don't do hardly any other driving during the week aside from home-work-home, I think the plug-in option wins. At the weekend when I stay with my wife, we have mains electric and only do short trips into the local town for shopping etc. I think the odd long distance we do (south wales, Stevenage, The Netherlands) will be acceptable in series/parallel hybrid mode. We are in the south-west.

 

[jdsx]

I think you'll enjoy it! Don't forget that in scenario 1, you can pre-heat the car whilst it's still plugged in at work* (unless it's a 3h), so you won't need to have the engine come on to warm it up. I'd try to press 'save' when on the A road section, assuming you can do over about 45mph here, but it's pretty marginal - as others have said, you can just drive it most of the time and not worry too much....

*you will actually run down the battery very slightly, but that's getting a bit pedantic

 

[HughF]

It is the Gx4H I have been looking at, specifically for the pre-heat option.