Electric range

[paulglad]

The first couple of time I charged my car it was stating a range of 35 miles, now it shows a range when fully charged of 26-27 miles. this is with the ac off. How are other people find in the range when fully charged?

Paul

 

[maby]

As has been stated many times here, the estimated range displayed on the console is exactly that - an estimate - and apparently not very reliable. It purports to learn from your driving style - it sounds like you have not had the car for very long, so perhaps it still has some learning to do!

 

[paulglad]

thanks, if it learns from my driving style that's probably the reason, I am not the most economical driver.

Paul

 

[PHEVclub]

You quickly realise that the estimated EV range is not very accurate, best keep an eye on the actual battery levels for a far better guide.

 

[aitchjaybee]

and there is a certain amount of battery conditioning early on - end of week one I had one post charge estimate of 40 miles, and one of 24 miles. It settles down and 28 - 31 is now "normal"

 

[gwatpe]

If you use the battery SAVE button and there happens to be some opportunity with REGEN, the PHEV computer thinks you are achieving really good use of the battery, and will reward you with an estimated battery range of up to 85km the next time you recharge from a power point. Trouble is this is a fictional range. The computer seems to really only know what is going on when the PHEV is run in EV mode and charged when the battery is empty. This is a hybrid car, but the computer is unable to make any sense of the part that petrol plays in the day to day operation in hybrid modes to work out a battery range. Trouble is that the battery range is also part of the total range, so this compounds things. This is a rather tricky calculation in a hybrid vehicle like the PHEV, so probably better to have a real time E/100km and a L/100km on a dash screen, with a fuel gauge of remaining. I live in hope for some more meaningful screens in an update.

 

[ufo]

I've been observing reduction in the range too and am bit concerned. I am the only driver and always drive in same style (for max efficiency). Started with range displays of always 52 km or above, PHEV has done 3000 km and throughout this time range after charge is down to 48-49. One can say that it is still learning and calibrating but I have been improving my energy usage in pure EV mode such as my daily round trip to work is 24 kms and initially I was losing around 30 km of from my pure EV range whereas now I am only losing 22-24 km of pure EV range so I did improve my efficiency and one would expect the EV range to go up instead of down after full charge. PHEV is mostly run in pure EV mode in urban driving and used app. 55 litres of petrol after 3000 kms due to 4 high way runs. Anybody observing similar trend? I mean decrease in EV range after full charge even though EV driving efficiency is being increased. I wouldn’t question it if EV driving efficiency was decreasing.

 

[gwatpe]

Hi ufo,

are you quoting actual distances driven, or the PHEV estimated battery range ?

The last 10-15 minutes of driving affects the PHEV range calcs. This is an ECU and not MMCS feature. I happen to have a long steep downhill stretch on my way home and this plays havoc with the fiction of numbers called estimated battery range on my PHEV.

 

[ufo]

I am quoting actual distance travelled. I can easily declare that physical kms I travel almost matches the declared kms by PHEV. As I stated, 5 days a week I travel 24 km round trip which knocks off 22-24 km EV range from PHEV. I recharge every day so most of the time it is top up from app. half full battery. I've have probably done 4-5 charges from the empty (relatively empty) battery after the longer highway runs.

 

[gwatpe]

The PHEV I am driving presently has over 10000km now and I have confirmed the battery has allowed the PHEV to be driven 45km on only battery in a closed loop real world test. The battery required 10.5kWh to be recharged for the 45km driven, so the E range is 23.3kWh/100km. This is a lot more energy than the advertised kWh/100km.

As an aside, the estimated range with a full charge has now been recorded by the car at 88km.

 

[ufo]

The PHEV I am driving presently has over 10000km now and I have confirmed the battery has allowed the PHEV to be driven 45km on only battery in a closed loop real world test. The battery required 10.5kWh to be recharged for the 45km driven, so the E range is 23.3kWh/100km. This is a lot more energy than the advertised kWh/100km.

As an aside, the estimated range with a full charge has now been recorded by the car at 88km.

Well, that's still very good (at least for me) 23.3 KWh/100 km. means $7.0/100 km. for me which is much much better than $25.00/100 km. with my previous ICE vehicle. I have to admit the previous ICE was a large vehicle with 4.0 litre engine which would consume 15 lts of premium fuel for 100 km even with very very conservative eco driving. But I had a 1.4 lt small vehicle for two weeks and best I could manage out of it was 9 lt/100 km. This equates to app. $ 12-13 with regular fuel. Still PHEV is much more economical. All above figures are quoted for pure urban driving.

 

[gwatpe]

Hi Ufo,

the advertising has the PHEV consuming 134Wh/km. This is 13.4kWh/100km.

The car has an advertised range of 52km, and I have measured recharging with at least 10.5kWh,

The published values do not correlate, as 52km relates to approx 6.8kWh. The 10.5kWh should give about 80km of range. I have achieved 45km.

Lots of holes here. We have been given the 1.9L/100km petrol explanation, but maybe the electrics are measured a special way as well. Maybe some petrol is allowed to be used to work out the electric economy, in the same way as electricity is allowed to be used to work out the petrol economy.

 

[ufo]

I know the advertised values.
What I am trying to say is that even we get worse milage (even 100% worse) cost of fuel (electricity) is much less compared to any conventional ICE vehicle even light ones with small ICEs.

 

[maby]

I know the advertised values.
What I am trying to say is that even we get worse milage (even 100% worse) cost of fuel (electricity) is much less compared to any conventional ICE vehicle even light ones with small ICEs.

And Mitsubishi advertising does usually make clear that these very high headline fuel economy figures are difficult to reproduce in normal use.

 

[maby]

Hi Ufo,

the advertising has the PHEV consuming 134Wh/km. This is 13.4kWh/100km.

The car has an advertised range of 52km, and I have measured recharging with at least 10.5kWh,

The published values do not correlate, as 52km relates to approx 6.8kWh. The 10.5kWh should give about 80km of range. I have achieved 45km.

Lots of holes here. We have been given the 1.9L/100km petrol explanation, but maybe the electrics are measured a special way as well. Maybe some petrol is allowed to be used to work out the electric economy, in the same way as electricity is allowed to be used to work out the petrol economy.

Losses in the charger and battery will push the power consumption at the meter up a bit - not sure if they are enough to explain the discrepancy you calculate above, but 6.8 out for 10.5 in is about 65% efficiency. Modern lead-acid batteries in high current applications only achieve around 85% efficiency - add in losses in the charger and you could easily be getting down close to that 65%. I know that the Outlander uses lithium batteries and these are likely to be more efficient, but there will still be losses.