New Owner 2015 PHEV - 19 kms of range

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stevil

New member
Joined
Oct 11, 2021
Messages
2
Hi everyone,

This is quite the forum! So much info that I wish I had trawled before jumping into bed with my used 2015 PHEV Aspire. I love the car but it's only coming up with 19kms of EV range with 110,000kms on the clock which is significantly lower than I would have expected (potentially 30kms I would have been fine with). I've scheduled in for a warranty check on the battery with the 8 year warranty that has been mentioned multiple times here. The guy who I spoke to said people bring these in all the time and never get passed so he wouldn't bother but screw that I'm going in.

Anyone have any advice for a new starter with only the smallest bit of range going on? Hoping I haven't made a big mistake here...

Cheers!
 
What are exacly conditions about this 8years warranty ? I belive also odo trip less then 160 000 km ? Region ?
And finally battery capacitance less then 60% ?
 
You mention that you've been looking on these forums, so the following may be redundant, but, just in case...

The main determinants of guessometer's estimated battery range are:

1. Temperature (range decreases as temperature goes down, winter range is less than summer).
2. Load (range decreases as load increases, that's why the car doesn't have a spare wheel).
(a) towing decreases range.
(b) luggage boxes decreases range.
(c) driving uphill decreases range.
(d) use of appliances (heating/cooling decreases range)
(e) driving with windows open decreases range
3. Driving style
(a) Driving aggressively (racing starts etc.) decreases range
(b) Increased speed decreases range, especially speed over 100 km/h
4. Mechanical issues
(a) stuck brakes reduce range
(b) driving with the parking brake on reduces range
(c) driving with flat tyres reduces range (Note. I run mine at 42 psi, this is at the recommendation of the place that sold me a new set of tyres, they said that Mitsubishi's recommendation was too low based on the weight of the vehicle, all my tyres showed signs of damage due to under inflation)
5. Battery condition.


The guessometer provides an estimate of how far you can go based on everything that is going on this instant, plus some kind of average for what has happened recently.

Mine has varied in its estimates from 5 km (the day after I towed a heavy load up hill) to 85 km, the day after I performed a long descent from the hills to the sea...

As they say on the American TV commercials...

"Your milage may vary"
 
So about 70k miles in 6 years with only 12miles range whereas my 2014 car has done 50k miles and still gives 20+miles per charge. On the face of it yours looks worse, but:-

1. How long have you had car? The guessometer needs to learn your journey to give a realistic estimate. However, this only applies to a regular pattern, so if you still "playing" with the car driving different trips to get used to it, then you will get varying figures but the last journey greatly influences the range.

2. Are you just looking at the forecast range? Because what is important is how far you can actually travel on a charge, due to the variables above.

3. If you have an Aspire, I assume you are in Australia which has quite a range of operating environments, even at this time of year. Are you using the aircon? That will reduce your range estimate (because it is over pessimistic!) significantly - for me between 5 & 7 miles. :eek:

A final point is that in Australia the original advertising promised unrealistic capacity performance from the battery when it was launched - this has apparently enabled owners to successfully get replacements unavailable to the rest of us. I don't know when they changed this but a 2015 model might qualify. You will need to do some local digging on that.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone :) I am based in Brisbane, Australia so fairly warm to temperate conditions year round. I've had the car since the 8th of October and the range mainly sits in that 15-19kms after driving EV mode around nice and softly without any major hills. The battery charge only takes around 1-1.5 hours until it says full from empty. I am using air con (can't avoid it with a baby in the car) but hoping that the eco mode softens it a little bit.
I'm definitely exploring the warranty options that were provided in 2015 because it's a bit rubbish of Mitsu to leave a car with such minimal charge to EV around in after only 110k kms.

Forgive me for not replying individually to you all, I'm still getting the hang of this old school forum platform.

Is it worth investing in the PHEV watchdog/OBD2 to get a battery health check or should I just keep testing the range an noting estimates vs reality?
 
Just thought I would post this.
Purchased a 2015 PHEV last November with 40,000 miles on the clock for around £14000.
Asked for a battery health check when we had to have a replacement brake caliper done earlier this year but wasn't done.
Getting around 20 miles of range on a full charge though can get 25 if driven smoothly.
Had it serviced today and requested the health check again.
Report was done and came back:
"Sent battery data to technocal. Current battery level is 77.1%. Would benefit from "DBCAM" procedure.

DBCAM is an overnight procedure and costs £108 and can apparently improve the health by up to 10%.

Just so it's known.
 
This is probably a bit late for the OP ...

I too live in Brisbane, Australia. I had an Outlander PHEV from 2014 to 2017 under an operating lease. I declined the option to purchase the car at the end of the lease and I returned it back to the leasing company.

In the three years I had the car, the battery capacity dropped from 10kWh (when new) to 8kWh at the end of the lease. This is around 30km range on battery. I tried a number of times to engage with Mitsubishi about the declining battery capacity, and they refused to acknowledge any problem with the car.

In general, the car had an easy life, trundling 40km through peak hour traffic to and from work each weekday. Occasionally, it had longer runs in the country.

I agree with you that one really needs air conditioning in vehicles in Brisbane in summer (which is effectively late October through to early April). It is not only the heat, but the humidity that is oppressive in January and February. Even when it is raining, the humidity is so high that one needs the AC on, just to dehumidify the cabin so that the windscreen doesn't fog up.

From my perspective, the battery capacity in my PHEV started to decline after the heatwave in 2015 and again in 2016 (when we had a week of temperatures regularly over 40C and approaching 44C at times). Perhaps the same degradation happened to yours as well.

In terms of next steps, I think you are going to have an uphill battle. Base on my experience with Mitsubishi, they will be very unresponsive and uncooperative. I suspect getting any battery repairs done will involve lots of complaints to various government ombudsman and consumer affairs organisations. There might be some benefit in getting legal advice in launching a small claims action against Mitsubishi.

Two other bits of advice that might help. First, carefully read the traction battery warrantee in the owner's manual. Mitsubishi Australia's warrantee back in 2015 was not as good as what Mitsubishi's offered in other countries (e.g. UK). Second, I would try to dig up any old Mitsubishi publicity material from 2015 to see if there was any "implied" statements about the expected battery life.

The other options include trading the car in (good news in the current car market is that vehicle prices have held up extremely well) and absorbing any financial loss. While technically possible to replace the battery, I don't think this makes financial sense. Or, finally, just living with it as there are still fuel savings to be had.

Best of luck with getting some warrantee work on the battery.
 
If the battery goes down more than one would expect, the trouble is normally that just one or two cells have lost capacity. If you have had battery-driven cars (like the Toyota Prius) in your country for a number of years, chances are that there are battery repair services that can change only the sub-standard cells at a far lower cost than replacing the whole battery by Mitsubishi.
 
If the battery goes down more than one would expect, the trouble is normally that just one or two cells have lost capacity.

From what I can gather reading the numerous complains on various forums, the reduction in battery capacity seems uniform across the traction battery pack.

If you have had battery-driven cars (like the Toyota Prius) in your country for a number of years, chances are that there are battery repair services that can change only the sub-standard cells at a far lower cost than replacing the whole battery by Mitsubishi.

The majority of the taxi's these days in Australia are Toyota Prius, Hybrid Corolla, or Hybrid Camry. In chatting to the drivers, they routinely get +300,000km out of the battery pack and Toyota offers a traction battery replacement service for a reasonable cost. Toyota Australia provides the type of reliability and after sales service one expects as a consumer. I have met one taxi driver who was on his second battery pack with nearly 700,000km on the odometer. He was very happy with the hybrid Corolla.

In theory, a 2015 build is still under Mitsubishi's warrantee period for the battery pack. If the battery is modified / repaired, then the owner will probably loose all recourse to having Mitsubishi fix the problem. Regardless, the cost of battery pack refurbishment is significant and would certainly buy a lot of fuel.

There are some long and detailed threads on the Australian EV forums that various owners have had getting Mitsubishi acknowledge and fix traction battery pack issues. After months (and in one case years) of arguing, some owners have received entirely new traction battery packs. So, it is possible that with some persistence the original post will have their problem rectified.

From what I have read, it is interesting that the reduction in battery pack life seems to be more prevalent in Australia. My personal view is that it is an issue (design and/or quality control) related to thermal management inside the battery pack that fails to take into account the Australian climatic conditions.

It is a shame really. The Outland PHEV seems an ideal car for Australia. Pure EV mode for the city runs, plus 600km of range running on petrol/gasoline when out in rural areas.
 
whynot said:
If the battery goes down more than one would expect, the trouble is normally that just one or two cells have lost capacity.

From what I can gather reading the numerous complains on various forums, the reduction in battery capacity seems uniform across the traction battery pack.
That is easily measured.
 
A bit unfair comparing the experience of taxi drivers with their teeny tiny batteries incapable of any real EV driving to the PHEV, which can be used by many users most of the time as a BEV. The stresses on the batteries are very different irrespective of the size.(and relative cost) :?
 
Back to the original point of this tread ... "my car only gets 19 km...". I think we need to be very clear on the difference between GETTING 19 km of range and the guess-o-meter saying the you will get 19 km.
 
A bit unfair comparing the experience of taxi drivers with their teeny tiny batteries incapable of any real EV driving to the PHEV, which can be used by many users most of the time as a BEV. The stresses on the batteries are very different irrespective of the size.(and relative cost)

The point was more about how an alternate manufacture treats their customer in relation to battery life and replacement.
 
Just on your point about ECO mode and A/C - there is an option in the settings for ECO mode to either put the A/C into ECO, or leave it at maximum cooling. If you really want to minimise consumption in ECO mode, make sure the former is selected.
 
whynot said:
A bit unfair comparing the experience of taxi drivers with their teeny tiny batteries incapable of any real EV driving to the PHEV, which can be used by many users most of the time as a BEV. The stresses on the batteries are very different irrespective of the size.(and relative cost)

The point was more about how an alternate manufacture treats their customer in relation to battery life and replacement.

Except that, as they are so very different products, you would expect a different approach. The others are a much smaller part of the cost of the car and so cheaper to replace - also Toyota have much deeper pockets.
 
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