maddogsetc
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 22, 2014
- Messages
- 506
Having had the car almost half a year now I have to admit I've not really paid too much attention to EV range, mpg etc. lately, other than to note that it does seem to have fallen off somewhat. Have been very much putting this down to the colder weather, but I thought it would be a good idea to do some checks just quantify things in case my PHEV (one of the very first ones into the country) happens to be one of those with a questionable battery.
First the good news, took the car on a 250 mile round trip earlier this week so I used the opportunity to reset the trip data to monitor fuel consumption (switched back to mpg for this purpose), and how it varies with speed. Knowing that most of the journey would be on petrol I switched to Save mode early on then reset the trip so that the manual data would (initially) be 'petrol only'. As I was on a deadline I was up around the 70mph mark most of the first stage and was recording around 31 mpg. Turned Save off when I got off the dual carriageway (ie. about 70-80 miles in) and by the time I parked up at the end of the outbound leg (c. 120 miles) battery had been fully depleted for probably 20 plus miles and mpg was reading about 39.5.
No opportunity to recharge so the second leg was all petrol and as I was in no particular hurry I took it a bit easier. No significant change in the first (single carriageway) part but stuck to around 60mph for the dual carriageway (all but the last 20 miles). The interesting (and good) thing being that the fuel consumption was bobbling around the 39.5 mark all the way, increasing a bit on uphill, fast stretches, but dropping back as soon as I got to flat stretches, even at 60mph. The end figure was 39.9mpg. So, having started the return leg with 39.5 and ended at 39.9 I conclude that the 'petrol only' consumption over that leg must have been around the 40mpg mark.
Having watched the energy flow graphics for much of the trip I have a theory for how this works. It seems to me that at 60mph ICE has sufficient spare capacity to charge the battery enough to run in pure EV mode fairly often - and at 60mph pure EV is still possible. At 70mph and above ICE has very little spare capacity for charging and in any event the electric motors can only drive directly up to I think about 75mph. So the better mpg at 60mph is largely accounted for by these intermittent 'pure EV' phases.
Now the bad news (and no theory this time) - I have on a number of occasions over the last week or so, monitored the actual EV range and the results have been a little disappointing, even accounting for the colder weather. On the last occasion the temperature on leaving was 12°C, so no need for ICE heating. I had the heating set to 20°C, one click fan. Eco mode on, no seat heaters, radio on and I guess headlights on (not strictly necessary at 3:00PM but on auto mode they rarely seem to be off). The journey was all lowish speed with only a very short stretch at around 60mph, most of the rest 30-40mph. It's pretty flat so low load and the road was dry, no wind to speak of or rain. Yet, I struggled to exceed 15 miles before the battery was low enough for ICE to cut in. And before you say it, I have a very light right foot.
The car is due to go back to the dealer soon as I've just discovered that they supplied the RSE with 1 x DVD and 1 x iPod dock, instead of the 2 x DVD I ordered. Think I will ask them to check the battery at the same time.
First the good news, took the car on a 250 mile round trip earlier this week so I used the opportunity to reset the trip data to monitor fuel consumption (switched back to mpg for this purpose), and how it varies with speed. Knowing that most of the journey would be on petrol I switched to Save mode early on then reset the trip so that the manual data would (initially) be 'petrol only'. As I was on a deadline I was up around the 70mph mark most of the first stage and was recording around 31 mpg. Turned Save off when I got off the dual carriageway (ie. about 70-80 miles in) and by the time I parked up at the end of the outbound leg (c. 120 miles) battery had been fully depleted for probably 20 plus miles and mpg was reading about 39.5.
No opportunity to recharge so the second leg was all petrol and as I was in no particular hurry I took it a bit easier. No significant change in the first (single carriageway) part but stuck to around 60mph for the dual carriageway (all but the last 20 miles). The interesting (and good) thing being that the fuel consumption was bobbling around the 39.5 mark all the way, increasing a bit on uphill, fast stretches, but dropping back as soon as I got to flat stretches, even at 60mph. The end figure was 39.9mpg. So, having started the return leg with 39.5 and ended at 39.9 I conclude that the 'petrol only' consumption over that leg must have been around the 40mpg mark.
Having watched the energy flow graphics for much of the trip I have a theory for how this works. It seems to me that at 60mph ICE has sufficient spare capacity to charge the battery enough to run in pure EV mode fairly often - and at 60mph pure EV is still possible. At 70mph and above ICE has very little spare capacity for charging and in any event the electric motors can only drive directly up to I think about 75mph. So the better mpg at 60mph is largely accounted for by these intermittent 'pure EV' phases.
Now the bad news (and no theory this time) - I have on a number of occasions over the last week or so, monitored the actual EV range and the results have been a little disappointing, even accounting for the colder weather. On the last occasion the temperature on leaving was 12°C, so no need for ICE heating. I had the heating set to 20°C, one click fan. Eco mode on, no seat heaters, radio on and I guess headlights on (not strictly necessary at 3:00PM but on auto mode they rarely seem to be off). The journey was all lowish speed with only a very short stretch at around 60mph, most of the rest 30-40mph. It's pretty flat so low load and the road was dry, no wind to speak of or rain. Yet, I struggled to exceed 15 miles before the battery was low enough for ICE to cut in. And before you say it, I have a very light right foot.
The car is due to go back to the dealer soon as I've just discovered that they supplied the RSE with 1 x DVD and 1 x iPod dock, instead of the 2 x DVD I ordered. Think I will ask them to check the battery at the same time.
