Sticky SAVE and CHARGE

[maby]

That must be a pretty aggressive style of driving. The only time I ever saw the limited power mode announced on the dash in nearly 40.000 Km was driving a loooong Autobahn incline with an empty battery, car fully loaded and skibox on top at a sustained 100 MpH....

I've never got mine into turtle mode, but I have had it show the battery absolutely flat (it normally bottoms out with one bar showing) and the engine running at moderate revs even when stationary just with a bit of hill climbing and accelerating off the lights reasonably hard. For me, the problem is suburban driving rather than high speed motorway cruising - it tries to accelerate from stationary on battery alone and it doesn't take that many starts from zero to pull that battery down.

 

[user 816]

That must be a pretty aggressive style of driving. The only time I ever saw the limited power mode announced on the dash in nearly 40.000 Km was driving a loooong Autobahn incline with an empty battery, car fully loaded and skibox on top at a sustained 100 MpH....

Not really, One time was just a 10 mile dual carriage way that has some easy downhill and some climb. Arrived with an empty battery, accelerated hard to get out onto roundabout then onto this road and accelerated to about 80mph then some pressing on around that speed.

Another time again 'empty' and on a dual carriageway at speed and several fast accelerations to get past other cars when they moved over. Not over a very long distance.

Another time on a country road after just a few overtakes. And these were in only 4000 miles.

I simply don't trust it to manage the reserve any more, it doesn't keep enough for me to feel safe. I just don't let it get to --.- miles any more I always keep at least a 2 miles range or more and use charge if needed.

 

[gwatpe]

My PHEV has another 1100km on the clock now with the mod installed. .....

I am also an electronics engineer so I understand the effort you have gone to.

To be honest at first I thought it a lot of trouble for doing this, I just press 'save' as I do my seatbelt up.

But I am beginning to see more of an attraction in what you have done . Many of us have taken the PHEV on lease due to the UK tax advantage. Yet our employers are not willing to pay for electricity but are happy to pay for all the petrol we need.

I find I am increasingly driving in save mode to reduce charging at my personal cost when the miles I am doing are for work. It is a nicer car to drive in save mode anyway with plenty of reserve power and yet it still runs in EV mode when it can.

I have had it happen to me 3 times now that I let the car run down and do 'its own thing' on fast trips and its gone into limited power mode when I needed more power not less as its software has not kept enough reserve for persistent fast driving with lots of overtaking. Its not nice to be overtaking and have the power suddenly taken away!!!!

It may be for many people like me a persistent save mode would be useful after all.

BTW I am not an electronics engineer. I just dabble a bit. Actually am a retired Chemical Analyst.

I have now had a PHEV for almost a year, and the "EMPTY the BATTERY on START UP" mode was getting a bit tedius. I was not looking forward to this happening for the entire life of the car. The hardware for the modification for a limited production would be a finite cost. I could be prepared to make an install kit available, with a wiring loom and shrink-wrapped cct that a user would need to have installed.

There will always be PHEV owners who are able to manage the buttons or do not care if the battery is emptied by mistake, or have driving needs that do not require changes to PHEV startup operations. I just wish the PHEV came from the factory with software that allowed the driver the option to make a choice to have the PHEV memorize a particular startup preference mode or not. This would be for "ALL" the buttons that did not have a particular mandatory safety aspect.

That must be a pretty aggressive style of driving. The only time I ever saw the limited power mode announced on the dash in nearly 40.000 Km was driving a loooong Autobahn incline with an empty battery, car fully loaded and skibox on top at a sustained 100 MpH....

I do believe that the issue is not always about aggressive styles of driving, or limited power mode. In many places in the world, driving at sustained 100MpH is not feasible or allowed. Race track excluded.
I have had the opportunity to drive a 250km stretch of public road in 1h10m. Not in a PHEV though. Now too old for that degree of concentration on a public single lane road. PHEV is not designed for sustained high power and continued use will impact on componentry life.

I will have the opportunity to drive at unlimited speed soon on a public road, so I will possibly have some personal experience with how my PHEV handles it. This really has nothing to do with this thread though.

 

[greendwarf]

That must be a pretty aggressive style of driving. The only time I ever saw the limited power mode announced on the dash in nearly 40.000 Km was driving a loooong Autobahn incline with an empty battery, car fully loaded and skibox on top at a sustained 100 MpH....

Not really, One time was just a 10 mile dual carriage way that has some easy downhill and some climb. Arrived with an empty battery, accelerated hard to get out onto roundabout then onto this road and accelerated to about 80mph then some pressing on around that speed.

Another time again 'empty' and on a dual carriageway at speed and several fast accelerations to get past other cars when they moved over. Not over a very long distance.

Another time on a country road after just a few overtakes. And these were in only 4000 miles.

I simply don't trust it to manage the reserve any more, it doesn't keep enough for me to feel safe. I just don't let it get to --.- miles any more I always keep at least a 2 miles range or more and use charge if needed.

It has been suggested that you should initiate Charge mode before hard acceleration anyway

 

[user 816]

That must be a pretty aggressive style of driving. The only time I ever saw the limited power mode announced on the dash in nearly 40.000 Km was driving a loooong Autobahn incline with an empty battery, car fully loaded and skibox on top at a sustained 100 MpH....

Not really, One time was just a 10 mile dual carriage way that has some easy downhill and some climb. Arrived with an empty battery, accelerated hard to get out onto roundabout then onto this road and accelerated to about 80mph then some pressing on around that speed.

Another time again 'empty' and on a dual carriageway at speed and several fast accelerations to get past other cars when they moved over. Not over a very long distance.

Another time on a country road after just a few overtakes. And these were in only 4000 miles.

I simply don't trust it to manage the reserve any more, it doesn't keep enough for me to feel safe. I just don't let it get to --.- miles any more I always keep at least a 2 miles range or more and use charge if needed.

It has been suggested that you should initiate Charge mode before hard acceleration anyway

Yes but for reducing the delay before the ICE starts up and boosts the power so you the car starts speeding up sooner, but if the battery is all gone it won't help you make a fast overtake because you need generator and battery to get good speed from the PHEV.

 

[user 816]

[
BTW I am not an electronics engineer. I just dabble a bit. Actually am a retired Chemical Analyst.

I have now had a PHEV for almost a year, and the "EMPTY the BATTERY on START UP" mode was getting a bit tedius. I was not looking forward to this happening for the entire life of the car. The hardware for the modification for a limited production would be a finite cost. I could be prepared to make an install kit available, with a wiring loom and shrink-wrapped cct that a user would need to have installed.

Well you have done well to create your device, I know many engineers who would have no idea.

I am still hoping in time my employer will see the wisdom of paying for my charging electricity in which case I would be happy to let the PHEV use battery (but keeps some).

 

[gwatpe]

Hard acceleration usually is demanded at a time the driver is fully occupied. The Buttons for CHARGE and SAVE if actually really intended to be included in a drivers ready at hand controls would have been placed on the steering wheel, or at least say as a button on top of the joy stick. To expect a driver to be fumbling around for the Charge button is an accident in waiting.

Having the CHARGE mode engaged does not guarantee that the ICE will be operating at the time the driver requires power for hard acceleration.

I just have the PHEV start in "SAVE" mode all the time and I control the time the battery is allowed to be drawn down. Much more logical than the present "FLATTEN BATTERY FIRST" mode. In any trip I allow the PHEV to first use petrol as a preference, and then towards the end of a journey the battery is allowed to be depleted. Roughly the same amount of battery is used in a trip, but the PHEV has the bulk of the battery available during the trip.

If the trips are under 40km between available recharging then a driver might never need an option. I at least have an option and the PHEV has become my slave now. Any short trips I still make on the battery and recharge normally from the power cord when the battery is under half full. As I have said, trips longer than 40km between the recharges is where starting in SAVE mode makes the PHEV a better car to drive for me.

Just noticed new posts:

My typical longer drives still have approx the same amount of battery usage, The main difference is that the battery in my PHEV is only used in the most optimum parts of the journey. My PHEV spends little time driving the car at highway speeds on only the battery.

 

[generaltso]

I know I’m resurrecting an old thread, but I’m just wondering if anyone has done anything like this to make the EV button sticky?

 

[Phevy]

I'm also interested on the ECO, EV memory.
Noticed no pictures are showing anymore and no details as to what components have been used.
The 2018 PHEV still suffers from amnesia :-(