I’m a newbie to PHEV ownership and we just got a 2018 Outlander with about 18,000 miles on it. It drives great and is in great condition. Our first few weeks of driving it has been in the cold snowy winter weather of Minnesota (US). When we researched and bought the car, we were lead to believe the battery would take us through our daily driving, using zero gas at all as we were told the electric capacity would be around 20 miles. My commute is 2 miles and most of my errands are within a few miles from home. We were disappointed to find that the car was, in fact going through gas at least as quickly as our non-hybrid car! What surprises me is that the battery is showing charge, but the car is using gas, even when we are driving less than 20 miles per day.
As I said, we are newbies, and have been overwhelmed and under-informed about the many modes, settings and buttons to choose from. After reading through this forum, I’m starting to understand more about it all, but would love someone to just give me a total beginner’s tutorial on this car, relevant to our climate and daily driving routine. It’s freezing cold all winter, and driving can be tough with snow and ice. Heat blasting, seat heaters on high, 4wd, etc. The summer is hot and humid so we’ll run the AC. I get that all those factors take more power. It’s relatively flat terrain, and my daily routine is stop and go driving at 20-30 mph most of the time.
What buttons should I push when I start the car each morning? How can we use the least gas possible? That’s totally why we bought this car!!! EV mode? Eco mode? Don’t press anything and let the car decide??? Thanks for any basic tips you have for using less gas!!!
As I said, we are newbies, and have been overwhelmed and under-informed about the many modes, settings and buttons to choose from. After reading through this forum, I’m starting to understand more about it all, but would love someone to just give me a total beginner’s tutorial on this car, relevant to our climate and daily driving routine. It’s freezing cold all winter, and driving can be tough with snow and ice. Heat blasting, seat heaters on high, 4wd, etc. The summer is hot and humid so we’ll run the AC. I get that all those factors take more power. It’s relatively flat terrain, and my daily routine is stop and go driving at 20-30 mph most of the time.
What buttons should I push when I start the car each morning? How can we use the least gas possible? That’s totally why we bought this car!!! EV mode? Eco mode? Don’t press anything and let the car decide??? Thanks for any basic tips you have for using less gas!!!