New owner with some general questions

[SMB]

Hi,

I just recently took delivery of the GX4h and I am enjoying discovering all about it, although I have to say the lack of an old fashioned user manual is a bit frustrating. I have searched the forum and the MMCS and can’t find answers to the following. I hope you can help.

1. Going through the trip menu on the MMCS I can see my mpg for the current journey but this doesn’t seem to be able to read out any higher than 99.9 mpg. Is this correct? Also does it calculate as a new journey each time you turn the car on and off?
2. I can’t work out how to look at the total average mpg since I have had the car. Where is this information held?
3. Is there a guide anywhere on how best to drive this car in the most efficient way? For example.
4. Does it generate the same amount of regenerative charge using the same intensity of normal breaking as say B5?
5. When should you use the Charge button to replenish the battery and how much fuel does this use? Is it better to charge whilst travelling if the battery is empty or just run on the ICE until you can get to a charging station?
6. What is the point of the save button? Why would you want to save battery power for later on?

Sorry for all the questions but I’m struggling to find the info. Hope you can help.

Cheers
SMB

 

[MHS]

Hi welcome to the forum. I have answered you questions to the best of my knowledge.
1) the mpg read out only seems to display up to 99.9mpg. Daft, but it doesn't go higher. Resets after the car is switched off for over 4 hours.
2) don't think you can see an ongoing mpg. Again daft. Many of us use the fuelly.com website, making a note of fill ups when made.
3) use a gentle right foot keeping the needle in Eco. Use B0 if on A roads to allow the car to coast.
4) yes I think it uses the same amount of regeneration on the pedal. I use the paddles for long down hill sections
5) the charge button can be used when you are on a long journey, and want to have the battery full for a city driving period later on your trip. It takes around 40 minutes to get you to 80% charge.
6) similarly the save button keeps the existing battery available for the city session, when the batteries come into there own

I always aim to arrive home with 0 EV miles available.

 

[maddogsetc]

2) The car keeps 2 sets of mpg data - manual and auto. As MHS says, the auto data mode resets after 4 hours inactivity. The manual mode will record your mpg between resets. So if you've never reset it since new you should be able to see the long-run average by pressing the button at the bottom LHS of the trip screen (indicator at the top RHS of the screen will show what mode you are actually in). But if your long run average is over 99.9mpg you'll see either 0.0 or -.- you can fix this (but only temporarily) by going to system settings/units changing to anything else (eg. L/100km), go back a screen then back into units again and then change back to UK mpg. This will enable you to see 3 digit mpg ONLY on the first tab of the trip screen in the centre of the green mpg circle. It won't work for the third tab of the trip screen or in the speedo pod. And it only works whilst the car remains powered up - it goes back to 'normal' on the next restart.

6) Most people use Save when doing a journey that is outside pure EV range, to make sure that petrol is used in the most efficient way. The general assumption being that this is when the car is travelling at over 45mph and can therefore run in parallel hybrid mode (ie. the ICE drives the wheels directly). So if you can do this and avoid it running in parallel mode for lower speed sections at the end of the journey theoretically you should use less fuel.

HTH

 

[greendwarf]

Before jaapv jumps in the car also benefits from being able to use both the ICE and EV at the same time when extra power is needed - e.g. in mountains or for overtaking. So if you run the charge down and are just on petrol you will have less power available when you need it.

If you know you will need to do steep climbs e.g. living in Scottish Highlands or on holiday in the Alps, then selecting Charge before you get there will give you that extra battery reserve but it does mean using more fuel. It has also been suggested that selecting charge when cruising just before overtaking will fire up the ICE to give you the equivalent of a "kick down" on a normal auto.

BTW are you suggesting you didn't get an owners manual - because I and most of the others here did If not, complain to the dealer.

 

[SMB]

Thanks for the advice and feedback. A few more questions if you don't mind.

2. It seems crazy that the car is advertised as being able to do 148mpg but can't actually show it on the trip computer! Clever marketing perhaps?
3. Is there any difference between driving on B0 or D? When I paddle down to B0 I then put the selector back into D but is this necessary?
4. If braking with the same intensity as using say B5 generates the same amount of charge then why have the paddles at all? I would have thaought these generate more charge than simply braking.

The manauls I received were the MMCS guide which is quite thick and an Operating guide which is only about 10 pages. Are there any other guides? I thought there may be a user manual that shows you how to change headlight bulbs etc.

Cheers

 

[Ozukus]

Re point 2 think we all agree with that.

Re point 3 if you are in Drive this is the equivalent of B2, you need to stay in B mode to be able to adapt your regen breaking using your paddles.

Re point 4 see above, and using paddles depends on where you are coasting on 0 can be good and down to 5 when going down a steep hill, though all in all i don't see any real benefit besides the fun of paddling.

Re the manual there is a 388 page PHEV Owners Manual so I would contact your dealer regarding that.

 

[maby]

I don't think there is anything sinister in the inability of the instrumentation to show more than 99mpg - it's more down to the fact that it is only the UK and US markets that measure fuel economy in this way - and the car is still not on sale in the US. The rest of the world all seems to measure in litres per 100km - in other words good fuel economy translates to a small number, not a large one. I think the programmers simply didn't take this into consideration and the screen layout is not correctly implemented.

Strictly speaking, any figure over 44mpg is meaningless anyway - that is the best the car can do on petrol alone. When you see figures of 148mpg and higher, you are burning electricity too - and the display does not take that into account. If it says "--.-" on the display, just feel smug and know that you are saving money.

 

[SMB]

Thanks for the replies, I have seen --.- quite a few times so that's good to know.

Also it appears I didn't get the user manual with the car so that would probably have helped me with some of my questions.

 

[RichM]

Hi

I have a PDF version of the manual (all 388 pages of it!). You should be able to access it from the link to my Dropbox below

Regards

Richard

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sf9wht4ft2tzkbv/Outlander%20%20PHEV%20-%20Owners%20Manual%202014MY%20-%209290F852.pdf?dl=0

 

[MHS]

Just seen my average mpg for the first time on Manual Eco info.

After 1600 miles it's the first time it's dropped below 100, so I've only been looking at --:-

My average has been around 102, but after a trip to Nantwich and back it's dropped to 99.6. It's going to be my aim to get it back and keep it showing --:-

 

[SMB]

Does anyone know how much additional fuel is used to charge the PHEV from a flat battery to full while on a long motorway journey?

 

[Regulo]

Does anyone know how much additional fuel is used to charge the PHEV from a flat battery to full while on a long motorway journey?

That's a difficult one! Reminds me of the old school questions, "If tap A fills the bath in 5 minutes, and tap B fills the bath in 3 minutes, how long is a piece of string joining apples and pears?" or something like that!
On a long motorway run the engine will be running to drive the wheels directly, as well as periodically charging the battery, to maintain a minimum charge. If you use the charge button, the engine will now run continuously in an effort to recharge the battery to a full charge. How that could be calculated, I haven't a clue. Maybe by doing the same journey with the Charge button selected or not, and working out the difference? My brain hurts!!

 

[user 422]

I tested this recently, I have a journey that I regularly repeat and it has a20 mile section of flat motorway with little inclines- the difference in mpg on this section between Normal mode and charge mode is about -4 mpg.
This was at a constant throttle setting not cruise and around 65 mph.

 

[Ozukus]

dg,

What was the increase in battery capacity though, rough estimate.

 

[SMB]

I tested this recently, I have a journey that I regularly repeat and it has a20 mile section of flat motorway with little inclines- the difference in mpg on this section between Normal mode and charge mode is about -4 mpg.
This was at a constant throttle setting not cruise and around 65 mph.

So if that gives you an 80% battery charge you will get about 24 miles of EV driving on a mild day. For only an extra 4mpg? I think I need to use charge more often on my longer journeys. I assumed (clearly wrongly) that while in charge mode I would be using about 50% more fuel than normal driving.

 

[maby]

I tested this recently, I have a journey that I regularly repeat and it has a20 mile section of flat motorway with little inclines- the difference in mpg on this section between Normal mode and charge mode is about -4 mpg.
This was at a constant throttle setting not cruise and around 65 mph.

So if that gives you an 80% battery charge you will get about 24 miles of EV driving on a mild day. For only an extra 4mpg? I think I need to use charge more often on my longer journeys. I assumed (clearly wrongly) that while in charge mode I would be using about 50% more fuel than normal driving.

At 65mph, charging is going to be very slow and probably will have little impact on fuel consumption - the petrol engine output is going to be mostly consumed moving the car.

 

[SMB]

I tested this recently, I have a journey that I regularly repeat and it has a20 mile section of flat motorway with little inclines- the difference in mpg on this section between Normal mode and charge mode is about -4 mpg.
This was at a constant throttle setting not cruise and around 65 mph.

So if that gives you an 80% battery charge you will get about 24 miles of EV driving on a mild day. For only an extra 4mpg? I think I need to use charge more often on my longer journeys. I assumed (clearly wrongly) that while in charge mode I would be using about 50% more fuel than normal driving.

At 65mph, charging is going to be very slow and probably will have little impact on fuel consumption - the petrol engine output is going to be mostly consumed moving the car.

So is it best to always activate charge once the battery is flat? I am currently commuting a 60 mile round trip with no chance to charge during the day. I manage the first 20 miles on EV and ICE (I am running air con because its -1) before the battery goes flat, should I then select charge for the next say 20 miles to hopefully do the last 20 miles on EV?

 

[jaapv]

Activating charge will cost you 20% in fuel efficiency.... Just activate save on the motorway bits.
Using charge only makes sense in hilly conditions. (And when you have an emission-controlled zone ahead)

 

[anko]

Activating charge will cost you 20% in fuel efficiency....

In another thread, avensys wrote:

Mitsubishi themselves actually state that using charge mode, then EV mode, rather than just running in save mode will use about 20% more fuel.

I've seen this statement on the Australian PHEV Q&A. But to be honest, I do not understand why manually switching between Charge and EV would cost 20% more than when the car automatically switches between Charge and EV mode (as this is what HV mod is). Anybody?

 

[SMB]

Activating charge will cost you 20% in fuel efficiency.... Just activate save on the motorway bits.
Using charge only makes sense in hilly conditions. (And when you have an emission-controlled zone ahead)

Why hilly conditions jaapv?