Had been following the Outlander PHEV forum for a while after ordering one as a company lease car. I took delivery around three weeks back and am generally pleased with the car. However, I would like to make anyone considering ordering aware of a few points.
I have a commute of 25 miles to work so anticipated being able to get there, charge up during the day and drive home again all on EV power without having to use any petrol until the weekend. Happy days, should save me about £50 a week on fuel after driving my Kia Sportage for the last three years.
However, I have the Gx3h model and being the base model does not have an electric heater. The result of this is that to run any heat in the car the petrol engine needs to start. I thought this odd a first but didn't think this would be such a big deal (after all it was only using a bit of petrol surely)
Now despite having driven as economically as possible whilst getting use to the various readings and options, I have had to fill up three times (£45 each time) and only on a few occasions have I had call to use the petrol engine to actually drive the wheels.
I decided to test how far I could get on pure EV by not putting the heater one one morning (as ridiculous as that might seem) and only managed 22 miles on a full charge (but without the engine kicking in and boosting the EV range in series mode)
Now, don't get me wrong, I really do like the car and I think over time I will come to terms with the fact that this is a great 4x4 with a pretty good mpg overall. The BIK for company car driver is also a massive incentive (not sure how much this equates to in my pay packet yet)
I just think its important that people know that its unlikely you will drive this particular model as a pure EV over the advertised 30 miles range. Would it not of made sense to put an electric heater in all models?
I have a commute of 25 miles to work so anticipated being able to get there, charge up during the day and drive home again all on EV power without having to use any petrol until the weekend. Happy days, should save me about £50 a week on fuel after driving my Kia Sportage for the last three years.
However, I have the Gx3h model and being the base model does not have an electric heater. The result of this is that to run any heat in the car the petrol engine needs to start. I thought this odd a first but didn't think this would be such a big deal (after all it was only using a bit of petrol surely)
Now despite having driven as economically as possible whilst getting use to the various readings and options, I have had to fill up three times (£45 each time) and only on a few occasions have I had call to use the petrol engine to actually drive the wheels.
I decided to test how far I could get on pure EV by not putting the heater one one morning (as ridiculous as that might seem) and only managed 22 miles on a full charge (but without the engine kicking in and boosting the EV range in series mode)
Now, don't get me wrong, I really do like the car and I think over time I will come to terms with the fact that this is a great 4x4 with a pretty good mpg overall. The BIK for company car driver is also a massive incentive (not sure how much this equates to in my pay packet yet)
I just think its important that people know that its unlikely you will drive this particular model as a pure EV over the advertised 30 miles range. Would it not of made sense to put an electric heater in all models?