Poor battery performance

[sandy]

Ha Ha, must admit he can put his foot down a bit more. Cause he's not got a faulty car. Jaapav you sound like my Mitsubishi dealer. Good idea! Il see how it goes when he drives mine. :lol:

 

[PHEVsincejune]

Sandy
I have had a similar experience as well, with battery charge range never getting above 24-26 miles and an actual range of 15-18.
Before jaapv makes some helpful comment regarding driving style...Dealers PHEV specialist been out to examine my driving style and standard daily journey and also thinks there should be better range as I was driving it better than any others he had seen!.
Really interesting and helpful what gwatpe is saying that it is possible that battery quality/capacity can vary, but suspect dealers may not be aware of this as when they have checked they cannot find a battery problem.
I am getting the dealers demo for a week so will see what difference this makes.
gwatpe - when checking full recharge level, will I need to start a charge from empty to get the kWh reading, or if recharged from 30% capacity will I still get the reading?

 

[sandy]

PHEVsincejune
Thanks for the helpful comment, appreciate your input. Will be able use this. Mine is now doing 17-18 actual miles. Still awaiting dealer who says is liaising with Mitsubishi. Incidentally I have found that I can get up to 19.5 miles real distance, if I drive the car when charging has just completed . Mine does loose some battery range if left standing overnight after a charge. Will post when they get back to me regarding my next action.

 

[ian4x4]

USA seems to be worried about lack of battery monitoring see link below

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/22/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-longer-delays-report/

The relevant paragraph is

CA authorities want all plug-in hybrids to be fitted with a monitor for the lithium-ion batteries that will be on the lookout for degradation, the concern being that diminished batteries could change the vehicle's emissions. Getting the technology fitted and tested means something like a 16- to 22-month delay.

Having reread the article again and watched this subject with interest, I should have said the relevant paragraph of the autoblog.com article was

Tom Saxton, the chief science officer at Plug In America, told us that it does. "As an EV owner and someone interested in better understanding battery pack longevity, I think all plug-in vehicles should have clear instrumentation showing the driver the battery pack's current usable capacity either in kilowatt-hours or equivalent (preferred) or amp-hours (acceptable)," he told Autoblog. "This is different from the state-of-charge, which is the energy currently stored in the pack."


If this 'usable capacity' instrumentation was available then everyone could see what was going on.

 

[jaapv]

Your dealer should be able to tell you within minutes.

 

[user 258]

Hi,
Couldn't that just be the difference between driving with a warm battery pack (having just finished charging) as against a cold battery pack? A cold battery is expected to give less range than a warm one.
Kind regards,
Mark

 

[Ozukus]

As it was reasonably mild when I got in Angus (my Black GX3h) this morning (11C), I didn't need to demist/defrost and I was rugged up rather warm, I decided to trial a pure EV run on my cross London commute. Basically this is from Sidcup, down the A20, left onto the A202, round the Oval, over the Vauxhall Bridge, along embankment following this till left onto the A4 towards Heathrow.

I was in eco mode for the entire journey, had lights on with occasional wiper use and would also say I'm a fairly economical driver in general.

The end result was the car lasted until about halfway between junction 3 and 4, basically where the Harlington Bridge crosses the M4. That works out to be just over 26 miles on Pure EV mode. When I got in the car it originally said I had 37 miles, not sure where that comes from with a vehicle having a reported range of 32.

I leave home fairly early so that was around 55-60 minutes.

Based on above I expect my vehicle will get close to the reported 32 mile range under more ideal conditions, so expect that my battery is fine.

 

[sandy]

Ozukus
Thanks for this, it gives me bullets to fire. The more helpful info I get can get is the better .I only ever got 26 once, that was the first week I had it. Its dropped every week since then. Yours is ok, what I would have excepted from mine. Or is my right foot/driving is getting worse? Sandy .

 

[PHEVsincejune]

Sandy

I think there is some mileage on seeing what capacity the battery can take when fully charged, and it may be that the battery packs are not consistent from car to car.
Definitely worth more investigation.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Temperature (and of course driving speed/style) makes a huge difference, as many have pointed out before. For the past week I've consistently been getting 16 miles on my commute to work, with the temp being 6-8C (preheated, lights on, no extra heating). This increases to 18 if I have the heating set to 20C for the journey (and uses a little fuel for the first couple of miles). However, today the weather was mild, outside temp 11C, and I got 25 miles (preheated, lights on, no extra heating). The traffic conditions, route, and my driving style were essentially the same for all these trips, and it's mostly 70 mph so never the most econominal figures.

Many newish people to this forum got their PHEV in the Autumn as temperatures are gradually dropping, so we all see slowly decreasing EV range. Wait 'til March/April.......all the new members taking delivery in the spring will be on here asking why their EV range is increasing week on week!

 

[sandy]

DrSlackBladder
Thanks for your input. I can understand that speeds such as 70 mph will lower the actual distance and some will say you've done very well. I'm taking about driving with no heater no lights not over 45mph and mid afternoon semi rural average terrain and still only getting 17.2 actual miles. I didn't even get 25 when temp was 13c. Still thinks something's wrong. Do you preheat the car when plugged in? Never tried this yet. Regs Sandy.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Sandy, yes I preheat via the MMCS timer (I haven't bothered with the app) while still plugged in. I have set two timers; one for 10 mins before my journey to work, one for the return trip (my travel times are mostly predictable and consistent every day), and each journey I just toggle between the two to set preheat for my next trip. Members of this forum have said that the preheat power comes from the battery though, not directly from the mains, which appears to be true, so this takes a few extra miles off the EV range.

 

[RazMan]

Members of this forum have said that the preheat power comes from the battery though, not directly from the mains, which appears to be true, so this takes a few extra miles off the EV range.

How about having a second charge timer to coincide with the preheat to compensate and recover the 'missing' miles?

 

[maby]

Members of this forum have said that the preheat power comes from the battery though, not directly from the mains, which appears to be true, so this takes a few extra miles off the EV range.

How about having a second charge timer to coincide with the preheat to compensate and recover the 'missing' miles?

I don't think that is possible, is it? I assume that all those using charge timers are on Economy 7? I did the sums and Eco7 didn't seem to add up for me, so I just plug up when I get home and leave it on all night.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Members of this forum have said that the preheat power comes from the battery though, not directly from the mains, which appears to be true, so this takes a few extra miles off the EV range.

How about having a second charge timer to coincide with the preheat to compensate and recover the 'missing' miles?

I don't have the charge timers on nowadays; I just plug in and it charges, whether at home or work. I guess either it won't charge unless the battery charge drops below a certain level which is not triggered by the preheat, or more likely it takes longer than the ten minutes that the preheat is running to top up the charge used by preheat.

 

[maby]

As I understand it, there are two issues relating to charging and pre-heating. If you do not have charge timers set, then the pre-heat is drawn from the battery, but this is effectively float-charged so that the power for pre-heating comes from the mains. There is a bug, apparently acknowledged by Mitsubishi, which means that if a timer has been set and you pre-heat outside the configured charge time, then the power for pre-heating is drawn from the battery which is not topped up.

The other point to note is that the heater is listed as being 4kW. A 13A socket can only drive up to 3.25kW and, hence, if you pre-heat with the car plugged up to a domestic socket via the cable that ships with it, you will reduce your EV range a bit even if you don't have a charge timer set.

 

[RazMan]

In which case we might get better EV range if, like me; you are not on a night tariff and don't use the timers at all - just plug in whenever you are able, effectively topping up the batteries when preheating. The charging will simply stop when the batteries are full so no extra cost involved

 

[sandy]

The charger is hard wired and I use my phev when it pleases me, No set times.Morning or afternoon but its useful to know this could also affect the battery if I use it. Like the idea from Phevsincejune. Will ask a rep from the dealer to sit in while I drive a typical journey. Then maybe ask to use their demo for a few days for comparison. Anyway bit warmer this afternoon might get as far as 18.5miles before battery is drained. Thanks all for the advise.

 

[Hypermiler]

I did 20 miles today and the ev range showed 7 miles when I got back. No heating, stereo on, side lights on half the trip. Similar terrain to yours, no hills and max of 50mph but mainly 40 ish and below. Using b0 Eco and paddles / gliding. It was 12 degrees though... Think that makes a big difference.
Cheers
H

 

[sandy]

Hypermiler
Sounds like you've got a good one. Regs Sandy.