jaapv said:
In technical discussions:
http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1278
The top graph explains exactly:
The Save button attempts to keep the state of charge at the same level. When you hit Charge the car attempts to run the state of charge up to 80% and keep it there. If you do nothing the car runs the state of charge down to approx. 30% (AKA "empty") and then goes into Save mode to keep the state of charge stable at that level. If you run it down to approx. 20% the car will go into power reduced mode (Turtle mode) and run the charge up again.
My experience with an Australian shipped PHEV in "CHRGE" mode, is the battery fills to 100%. All 16bars. At the 100% level, the car reverts to EV even at 110kph. If the SAVE mode is selected at battery 100%, then the car will maintain this level. The level will drop initially, but after time at highway speeds on relatively flat terrain, the 100% will be maintained.
I suspect that the 80% numbers that are quoted, are just premature measurements before the car has finished attempting to reach a drivers command setting.
I have tested the ChARGE mode from a fully depleted battery and the battery was fully recharged to 100% after 150km on 2 separate tests at 100kph and 110kph. In the tests SAVE mode was selected once the battery was full and EV mode took over, and the battery was preserved at the 100% for hundreds of km. The battery was only depleted prior to testing as part of the PHEV ritual of fully depleting the battery to get use of the remaining petrol when the gauge has shown empty.