Cold Weather Performance - North American 2023

[PJmacgee]

For *any* planned longer trips with highway or rural road cruising, you'll want to drive in Normal until the battery charge drops to about 2/3, then switch to Save for the rest of the drive. When you arrive you can sneak around in EV (or Normal) mode in your destination area, and still hopefully have a nice 1/4 - 1/2 charge (for the return trip, if there's no charging overnight, like you said).

Anyway, that's how I'd do it. Main thing is Save is the best setting for long highway drives, and you don't want to leave the battery dead (always nice to have a little charge for in-town driving).

 

[littlescrote]

Main thing is Save is the best setting for long highway drives,

Save and Charge are the same, it's just the difference in battery levels. Save will use a bit, charge a bit. With Charge you can use a lot, charge a lot. If you're doing constant highway speed, there's no real difference in efficiency etc, just driver engagement.

 

[kpetrov]

It's wishful thinking that the battery will warm itself to normal state by using it - charging it at -20F (-30C).
The heat pump wont make a dent to preheating the vehicle as well.
Last winter I have read some stories regarding those new PHEVs without battery heaters that can't be even started cause the battery is too cold and refusing to turn the engine.

 

[nrayanov]

It's wishful thinking that the battery will warm itself to normal state by using it - charging it at -20F (-30C).
The heat pump wont make a dent to preheating the vehicle as well.
Last winter I have read some stories regarding those new PHEVs without battery heaters that can't be even started cause the battery is too cold and refusing to turn the engine.

I've read those, too. A couple of people stated the new one cannot be started when it's under -15C, which is quite common for the Canadian winter unless it's like Vancouver.

 

[Lon12]

Cold air is coming for much of North America this week. I still have not heard anything from Mitsubishi about fixing the heat pump -15ºC cutoff issue. Just yesterday the heat pump shut off without any warnings. So the cabin getting cold is the only indication and by then its too late to turn off the HVAC to try and stay warm.

 

[kpetrov]

Cold air is coming for much of North America this week. I still have not heard anything from Mitsubishi about fixing the heat pump -15ºC cutoff issue. Just yesterday the heat pump shut off without any warnings. So the cabin getting cold is the only indication and by then its too late to turn off the HVAC to try and stay warm.

What do you mean it will be too late to turn OFF the HVAC and try to stay warm!?
Probably you meant to tun it ON but it should be already ON if you were using the heat-pump.
BTW if one set the temperature to anything warm the engine should have been ruining at those -15ºC

 

[Lon12]

What do you mean it will be too late to turn OFF the HVAC and try to stay warm!?
Probably you meant to tun it ON but it should be already ON if you were using the heat-pump.
BTW if one set the temperature to anything warm the engine should have been ruining at those -15ºC

The car is nice and warm in the garage. EV mode lets you drive with the heat pump on just fine up to -15º. Then without warning when it hits -15º the heat pump turns off and the HVAC starts pumping cold air into the cabin. So yes, I want to turn off the HVAC before it cools the cabin off. But there are no warning messages to let me know. I just have to keep feeling the temperature of the vent air. On a quick 5 minute drive to the store I don't want to run the engine to preheat the block enough to heat the cabin. Lucky I have an EV to drive when it gets below -15ºC..... never thought I'd be saying that.

 

[kpetrov]

The car is nice and warm in the garage. EV mode lets you drive with the heat pump on just fine up to -15º. Then without warning when it hits -15º the heat pump turns off and the HVAC starts pumping cold air into the cabin. So yes, I want to turn off the HVAC before it cools the cabin off. But there are no warning messages to let me know. I just have to keep feeling the temperature of the vent air. On a quick 5 minute drive to the store I don't want to run the engine to preheat the block enough to heat the cabin. Lucky I have an EV to drive when it gets below -15ºC..... never thought I'd be saying that.

Well it is so simple then, once you don't like the air flow temperature you shut it off. It is like a half second action.
What kind of a warning you are looking for? There is ambient temp on the dash and you should be killing the pump even earlier cause it's just wasting energy and not producing any.
But then it comes the humidity and frost inside the vehicle next morning, so there are decisions and compromises to be made.

 

[BobK]

I was driving my 2023 in EV mode as the temperature was dropping and at about -7C and got a message that I needed to turn EV mode off if I wanted to maintain heat. Apparently the heat pump had hit its limit and the car needed the ICE to maintain heat. The car was warm and I didn't have far to go, so I left it in EV mode.

Still learning about the best cold weather practices. At the moment, in below freezing temps I start the car with my foot on the brake then switch to EV mode and set the chrome knob to ECO (if the roads allow, sometimes use Snow or even the Mud setting instead - which is fantastic in deep snow). This way the car starts the ICE immediately then goes about 4km (at 60km/h) before switching to EV for the rest of the trip. If I have it set the chrome knob to Normal instead of ECO, it still switches to EV, but occasionally turns the ICE on - i.e. when I accelerate . It takes fewer km for the ICE to turn off if I let the car warm up first. Will see how it goes as it gets colder.
My dealer says that they were told the the battery uses current heating in cold weather - so I'm giving the Mitsubishi engineers the benefit of the doubt and figure the car must be heating up and controlling the draw from the battery to create heat to the point that the battery can be safely used 100%. I always leave the car plugged in whatever the temp. Will be interesting to compare my battery life with others down the road.

 

[Lon12]

Well it is so simple then, once you don't like the air flow temperature you shut it off. It is like a half second action.
What kind of a warning you are looking for? There is ambient temp on the dash and you should be killing the pump even earlier cause it's just wasting energy and not producing any.
But then it comes the humidity and frost inside the vehicle next morning, so there are decisions and compromises to be made.

I would really like the car to either tell me it has shut off the heat pump or start the engine automatically when that happens. The temperature display on the dash does not show the instantaneous outside air temperature. It can show my garage temperature for the whole drive. The heat pump uses a different reading. The message that displays that you should cancel EV mode for more heat has nothing to do with the heat pump shutting off. That message seems very random.
It’s not a half second action. It takes time for the heating core to cool off enough for me to notice. Typically I’m running the windshield & foot heat. Not the facing vents.

 

[BobK]

I would really like the car to either tell me it has shut off the heat pump or start the engine automatically when that happens. The temperature display on the dash does not show the instantaneous outside air temperature. It can show my garage temperature for the whole drive. The heat pump uses a different reading. The message that displays that you should cancel EV mode for more heat has nothing to do with the heat pump shutting off. That message seems very random.
It’s not a half second action. It takes time for the heating core to cool off enough for me to notice. Typically I’m running the windshield & foot heat. Not the facing vents.

Does the heat pump actually shut off or is it just gradually becoming less efficient? My understanding is that the heat pump heats the engine coolant that then goes through the heater core to heat the cabin. So what I think you want is a monitor on the engine coolant temperature that would kick in the ICE at a preset low temperature where the heat pump becomes less effective.
Sometimes, in Normal mode, I find the car seems to behave as if this were already the case, but it doesn't seem to be consistent.

 

[Lon12]

Does the heat pump actually shut off or is it just gradually becoming less efficient? My understanding is that the heat pump heats the engine coolant that then goes through the heater core to heat the cabin. So what I think you want is a monitor on the engine coolant temperature that would kick in the ICE at a preset low temperature where the heat pump becomes less effective.
Sometimes, in Normal mode, I find the car seems to behave as if this were already the case, but it doesn't seem to be consistent.

The heat pump just shuts off. It is -30ºC here today. I could make an another video if you like. When I pull it out of the garage (which is above zero) it only takes about two minutes for it to shut off. In that example the engine coolant would not have time to cool off much below what it was sitting at in the garage.