Actually so far so good we have all been very pleased with the 3h (with leather) and thought it would be useful to share some initial thoughts and insight. Living with it is very simple as is the driving. It’s far from a conventional car, and that is a good thing too.
Charging is easy we initially used the 13A charger with an extension while waiting for the 16A wall mounted home unit to be installed. The benefit of the home unit is that no buttons need to be pressed just stick the connector into the car, and take it out when needed. It doesn’t matter if the car is part charged or full. Also it seems as the connector is removed, power is automatically shut off by the wall unit so the connector isn’t live when disconnected from the car.
No doubt its best and most efficient journeys are sub 50mile (which most of ours are) with home charging this is firmly in the 100mpg + territory. However the further you drive with the batteries depleted it will eventually manage around 50mpg - still not bad for a heavy 4x4. At this end of the endurance envelope just think of it as a comfortable 4x4 with lots of tax breaks.
The power mode switches ‘charge’, ‘save’ and ‘eco’ generally do what they say, however at the heart of the PHEV is a computer program which will override all these modes as it so wishes. So for example floor the accelerator at a junction and the engine will come on in ‘eco’ mode. Equally if you are in ‘save’ mode and floor the accelerator the battery will be used. I have also found it is useful to save a few miles in the drive battery as this means you will always have the combined power ( 200hp ish) of the engine and motors available if needed.
If you turn on the heated windows and or the wiper de icer the engine will start and run in series mode to save the battery. A bit confusing at first but both of these both draw large currents, so turning them off when not needed makes sense. Also setting the cabin temperature higher on the 3h may start the engine in eco mode, ( the 4h has an electric heater but as I understand using it also reduces EV range) I have found turning off the climate control system altogether makes it much easier to run in pure EV mode in ECO. All things being equal and for everyday use I’ll just leave the climate controls to do its thing but useful to know.
Regenerative braking is neat and I use it a lot. However it doesn’t work if the battery is fully charged. Of course this makes sense, no space for more electrons. However I live on a hill and until I understood this characteristic I had a few unexpectedly quick descents with B5 shown as selected. So add to the confusion the energy flow display also indicates the wheels are in regen mode and charging the drive battery, when actually they aren’t . If any Mitsubishi software engineers are reading this in Japan please modify the status display, arigatou gozaimasu.
The fastest way to deplete the drive battery is driving up a hill and worse still accelerating up a hill. As example I have used 3 miles EV range in less than 1 mile on road. Again this makes sense moving a 2 ton car up a hill is always going to use a lot of energy. So it seems to makes sense to put the car in ‘save’ mode on the ascent , and use the engine if you need to preserve EV range.
If you’re planning to have a flat auxiliary battery on a cold and rainy winter’s night, make sure you have read the manual beforehand and know where the jump leads go - it’s far from obvious. Also if you see another motorist with a flat battery give them a cheery wave and drive on by as seems you can’t jump start another car from the phev.
And finally the embarrassment of driving into a busy filling station after 6 weeks of almost exclusively EV driving ( most excellent !) I even remembered which side the fuel goes in – ( it’s the dusty flap on the left hand side ) I then realise I don’t actually know where the fuel filler cap release is. I poke around in the cabin for a while, I finally find the button that dims the dashboard, but no filler release. Finally manual out and scratch around on the left hand side floor of the driver’s seat and still no release. It turns out the picture in the manual is for a LHD car, and in the UK RHD version the release is on the right.
Of course all of the above are just my first impressions and experiences of the GX3h PHEV and I’m quite willing to be corrected if someone knows better. But I have to say so far very good, if you also have a child studying for CE or GCSE physics even better.!
Charging is easy we initially used the 13A charger with an extension while waiting for the 16A wall mounted home unit to be installed. The benefit of the home unit is that no buttons need to be pressed just stick the connector into the car, and take it out when needed. It doesn’t matter if the car is part charged or full. Also it seems as the connector is removed, power is automatically shut off by the wall unit so the connector isn’t live when disconnected from the car.
No doubt its best and most efficient journeys are sub 50mile (which most of ours are) with home charging this is firmly in the 100mpg + territory. However the further you drive with the batteries depleted it will eventually manage around 50mpg - still not bad for a heavy 4x4. At this end of the endurance envelope just think of it as a comfortable 4x4 with lots of tax breaks.
The power mode switches ‘charge’, ‘save’ and ‘eco’ generally do what they say, however at the heart of the PHEV is a computer program which will override all these modes as it so wishes. So for example floor the accelerator at a junction and the engine will come on in ‘eco’ mode. Equally if you are in ‘save’ mode and floor the accelerator the battery will be used. I have also found it is useful to save a few miles in the drive battery as this means you will always have the combined power ( 200hp ish) of the engine and motors available if needed.
If you turn on the heated windows and or the wiper de icer the engine will start and run in series mode to save the battery. A bit confusing at first but both of these both draw large currents, so turning them off when not needed makes sense. Also setting the cabin temperature higher on the 3h may start the engine in eco mode, ( the 4h has an electric heater but as I understand using it also reduces EV range) I have found turning off the climate control system altogether makes it much easier to run in pure EV mode in ECO. All things being equal and for everyday use I’ll just leave the climate controls to do its thing but useful to know.
Regenerative braking is neat and I use it a lot. However it doesn’t work if the battery is fully charged. Of course this makes sense, no space for more electrons. However I live on a hill and until I understood this characteristic I had a few unexpectedly quick descents with B5 shown as selected. So add to the confusion the energy flow display also indicates the wheels are in regen mode and charging the drive battery, when actually they aren’t . If any Mitsubishi software engineers are reading this in Japan please modify the status display, arigatou gozaimasu.
The fastest way to deplete the drive battery is driving up a hill and worse still accelerating up a hill. As example I have used 3 miles EV range in less than 1 mile on road. Again this makes sense moving a 2 ton car up a hill is always going to use a lot of energy. So it seems to makes sense to put the car in ‘save’ mode on the ascent , and use the engine if you need to preserve EV range.
If you’re planning to have a flat auxiliary battery on a cold and rainy winter’s night, make sure you have read the manual beforehand and know where the jump leads go - it’s far from obvious. Also if you see another motorist with a flat battery give them a cheery wave and drive on by as seems you can’t jump start another car from the phev.
And finally the embarrassment of driving into a busy filling station after 6 weeks of almost exclusively EV driving ( most excellent !) I even remembered which side the fuel goes in – ( it’s the dusty flap on the left hand side ) I then realise I don’t actually know where the fuel filler cap release is. I poke around in the cabin for a while, I finally find the button that dims the dashboard, but no filler release. Finally manual out and scratch around on the left hand side floor of the driver’s seat and still no release. It turns out the picture in the manual is for a LHD car, and in the UK RHD version the release is on the right.
Of course all of the above are just my first impressions and experiences of the GX3h PHEV and I’m quite willing to be corrected if someone knows better. But I have to say so far very good, if you also have a child studying for CE or GCSE physics even better.!
