Petrol only mpg

[Carnut]

I know some peeps say they get HUGE MPG ( my vet claimed over 900mpg going across the Alps).
But let's be fair, in everyday driving unless you can keep it charged up, the MPG is what you would expect from a petrol engined 2 ton brick!
Your only bonus Stickfly, is no congestion charge and no RFL.
But living in Poole if all I got was low 20's the car would have gone within a month.(I am retired, very low mileage and recharge every night currently showing average MPG of 80. But on a recent 450 mile check overall and converting cost of E to gallons I achieved an overall of 53.6mpg)
Personally I think Mitsubishi's claims on the TV ad are misleading. I know they are based on official tests, but following the Vdub debacle we all know what a load of cr@p they are! They rely purely on the phrase "it CAN achieve...." to stop them being sued by every PHEV buyer!

 

[ChrisMiller]

Personally I think Mitsubishi's claims on the TV ad are misleading. I know they are based on official tests, but following the Vdub debacle we all know what a load of cr@p they are!

I think that's a little unfair - VW were intentionally cheating by dropping into a special 'test' mode, but there's no suggestion that other manufacturers are doing the same. Everyone (including manufacturers) recognises that the tests don't reflect actual mpg figures likely to be seen in the real world (they produce an mpg figure that's typically 20-25% better than 'real life'), but they at least provide a 'level playing field' for comparison purposes, so (absent cheating) if model A uses twice as much fuel as model B in the tests, it will probably do that in your hands, too.

The problem is with hybrids, particularly PHEVs. The tests are conducted over a very short distance (less than 7 miles in total) simulating four sets of start-stop 'urban driving plus an 'extra-urban' section at speeds up to 75 mph. My guess is that the Outlander will run purely electric almost all the way, except for the very short high-speed section, resulting in an 'unbelievable' fuel economy number. WikiP says that work is under way on a new and better standard:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_European_Driving_Cycle

 

[jaapv]

Not only that, but they face hefty fines if they deviate from the official test procedure.

 

[jaapv]

Our company bought 3 of these PHEV's on the grounds that they don't need charging points because they have onboard generators.
No 1 has a 12 mile run into London.
No 2 has a 28 mile run into London.
No 3 has a 25 mile run into London.
All 3 are then used to run around London for the day and we expected to be able to use the runs into town to do the battery charging but, of course, that's a waste of time.
The average mileages for the cars are :
1 = 22 mpg
2 = 26 mpg
3 = 28 mpg.
I notice that Mitsubishi are still advertising the 150 mpg on the TV :shock: :shock: Obviously if you could charge them night and day they could say the mpg was infinite !
If you can't have charging points installed then it's really a waste of time getting the PHEV's.

Regards ....... G.

That is silly; it is a PLUG-IN hybrid vehicle. Using petrol to charge it is the least economical way to run it. The regen and recharge systems are there to balance the system, not to act as the sole generator. Your company should use the car as intended and install charge points - both at the office and at the homes of its employees.
A bit of research before purchase would have shown that these cars are not suitable for this use.

 

[greendwarf]

Our company bought 3 of these PHEV's on the grounds that they don't need charging points because they have onboard generators.
No 1 has a 12 mile run into London.
No 2 has a 28 mile run into London.
No 3 has a 25 mile run into London.
All 3 are then used to run around London for the day and we expected to be able to use the runs into town to do the battery charging but, of course, that's a waste of time.
The average mileages for the cars are :
1 = 22 mpg
2 = 26 mpg
3 = 28 mpg.
I notice that Mitsubishi are still advertising the 150 mpg on the TV :shock: :shock: Obviously if you could charge them night and day they could say the mpg was infinite !
If you can't have charging points installed then it's really a waste of time getting the PHEV's.

Regards ....... G.

That is silly; it is a PLUG-IN hybrid vehicle. Using petrol to charge it is the least economical way to run it. The regen and recharge systems are there to balance the system, not to act as the sole generator. Your company should use the car as intended and install charge points - both at the office and at the homes of its employees.
A bit of research before purchase would have shown that these cars are not suitable for this use.

This sort of use must be negating the benefits from no Congesting Charge or RFL - Doh! :roll:

 

[maby]

Our company bought 3 of these PHEV's on the grounds that they don't need charging points because they have onboard generators.
No 1 has a 12 mile run into London.
No 2 has a 28 mile run into London.
No 3 has a 25 mile run into London.
All 3 are then used to run around London for the day and we expected to be able to use the runs into town to do the battery charging but, of course, that's a waste of time.
The average mileages for the cars are :
1 = 22 mpg
2 = 26 mpg
3 = 28 mpg.
I notice that Mitsubishi are still advertising the 150 mpg on the TV :shock: :shock: Obviously if you could charge them night and day they could say the mpg was infinite !
If you can't have charging points installed then it's really a waste of time getting the PHEV's.

Regards ....... G.

That is silly; it is a PLUG-IN hybrid vehicle. Using petrol to charge it is the least economical way to run it. The regen and recharge systems are there to balance the system, not to act as the sole generator. Your company should use the car as intended and install charge points - both at the office and at the homes of its employees.
A bit of research before purchase would have shown that these cars are not suitable for this use.

Those figures seem improbably low - my car is run primarily as a petrol vehicle, but still averages better than 40mpg.

 

[jaapv]

I find them believable, if one does a 25 mile run on charge into town, buzzes around town for a few miles on EV and runs home on charge again. Especially if used Audi-style.
Basically it should be an ideal situation: Charge at home, do the commute on electricity, charge up at work, a few miles around town, and home again on electricity. It should better 150 Mpg.

 

[maby]

I find them believable, if one does a 25 mile run on charge into town, buzzes around town for a few miles on EV and runs home on charge again. Especially if used Audi-style.
Basically it should be an ideal situation: Charge at home, do the commute on electricity, charge up at work, a few miles around town, and home again on electricity. It should better 150 Mpg.

Really? 22mpg? OK - the first few miles on petrol are pretty thirsty, but it soon gets up to 30mpg or better - remember, this is the way my car runs a lot of the time! It may well be that they would be better off not running on Charge all the time...

 

[jaapv]

OK - Superglue under the accelerator as well...

 

[greendwarf]

I find them believable, if one does a 25 mile run on charge into town, buzzes around town for a few miles on EV and runs home on charge again. Especially if used Audi-style.
Basically it should be an ideal situation: Charge at home, do the commute on electricity, charge up at work, a few miles around town, and home again on electricity. It should better 150 Mpg.

Commuting into London in Charge mode will involve a lot of sitting stationary with the engine running i.e. infinite petrol consumption, which will skew the average.

 

[stickfly]

The mpg figures I gave are real figures worked out by the milage covered and petrol actually put in the tank. We no longer use the onboard charging mode, the 3 cars are used purely as petrol vehicles as we cannot fit charge points at home or work.
we spoke to a service manager at a mitsubishi dealer and he said to forget the mitsubishi claims .... if we were to charge the cars every night we still would not get even 50 mpg let alone the adverts 150 mpg.
Mitsubishi advert lies.
Regards ... G

 

[jaapv]

Well, to prove the point, Mitsubishi drove a car from Basel to Amsterdam on one tank of fuel, no recharge, motorways and all. That is 900 km, and works out to 56 Mpg.

I still think it is quite silly to buy a plug-in hybrid without the option of plugging in and then to blame the maker for using the car outside its envisaged use. Either admit that it was only for the BIK advantage and enjoy the gain, or admit that it was the wrong choice for the use intended, sell it and buy a conventional vehicle.

If I were a Mitsubishi service manager I would say the same that he told you - and offer you a trade-in on a more suitable car.

 

[maby]

The mpg figures I gave are real figures worked out by the milage covered and petrol actually put in the tank. We no longer use the onboard charging mode, the 3 cars are used purely as petrol vehicles as we cannot fit charge points at home or work.
we spoke to a service manager at a mitsubishi dealer and he said to forget the mitsubishi claims .... if we were to charge the cars every night we still would not get even 50 mpg let alone the adverts 150 mpg.
Mitsubishi advert lies.
Regards ... G

My PHEV does something approaching 250 miles per week and gets charged twice in that period - it has a lifetime average of 44mpg. It is true that the headline claims are not relevant for many people, but there is something very strange about the driving style of the person getting 22mpg out of a PHEV under any circumstances.

 

[Carnut]

My overall average over 450 miles including converting cost of leccy to gallons was 53.6.mpg
I think I am going to let it go flat and drive it as a pure petrol/hybrid for a week and see what I get. Over 60miles in that mode I usually get 40.1mpg
If you are only doing short trips, say 2-3 miles, the 'guzzleometer' won't have the chance to get up past about 22-25mpg. it starts low and climbs as you drive. I prefer the Mercedes method where it starts high and drops to actual consumption, as it sorts itself out more quickly.

 

[maby]

Follow up... I had to make an unexpected trip this evening with a completely flat battery. Ten miles of urban driving (Watford, actually) at the back end of the rush hour. I drove with the car on "Normal" - no tricks or complicated strategies - averaged 38.5 mpg. So I maintain that there is something strange about the driving style of anyone that only gets 22mpg commuting into London.

 

[user 816]

A bit worried about mine, struggling to keep mpg up to usual level. nothing particularly changed in what I am doing, same drive style and routes, if anything its been a shade warmer so less heating power but it seems all too easy to slink to 32mpg early on and takes some careful cruising to get back to at least 38mpg at the end of the day. I used to get better than that consistently.

It just feels like even a gentle 60mph cruise which used to creep up the mpg nicely is having less effect, might as well go quicker as its hardly making it any worse!

 

[nellv]

I've finally managed to charge daily. For my daily commute, a round trip of 20 miles, in traffic, I'm doing this in the main on EV mode, and I'm really happy with the fact that my normal commute is costing very little.

However, on weekend trips, I've noticed that doing normal motorway speeds of between 75 - 80 mph, it's extremely thirsty, and the MPG drops to around 30mpg. It's a bit better if I'm willing to drive like an OAP, but who has the time for that Really wish that I'd done a bit more research on motorway MPG before leasing, may have gone for a diesel option.

 

[ChrisMiller]

If you drove a diesel Outlander (or similar SUV) at 80 down the motorway, you'd be doing well to get much more than 40 mpg. (Official combined fuel economy figure is 48.7 mpg.)

 

[user 816]

I did a bit better than usual today even though its cold, did a 90 mile round trip mostly motorway, started with some charge and also did a rapid at Strensham services on the way back as I needed to stop and eat packed lunch etc. Had to divert later on and went across country with lot of slow/speed/slow. Ended the day on 52mpg so not too bad.

By the way lovely charge bays at Strensham services, 2 posts, new style connectors, plenty of room and the best spot just down from the entrance. Even leaves you pointing directly at the exit route. Its not on my Tom Tom POI list so pulled in on a hunch.

 

[Carnut]

Got home from my fortnightly trip 40 miles up the road and back with no charge at the destination. So half the journey up on hybrid. ALL journey back on hybrid.
Coming back I used a mix of 0 regen and 2 regen. I drove harder than usual and kept up to max of all speed limits including up some pretty steep/long hills (longer up in total than down) in north Dorset and a stretch of A35 dual carrigeway.
result 36.7MPG.According to the 'guessometer'. About the same as my 1.2 petrol Yeti DSG, so the saving grace for the PHEV is 22 miles for a quid during the week on pure leccy and zero RFL. Total over recent 450 mile (mixed town {leccy}/ country {hybrid}) test 56.3mpg. According to actual gallons & electricity charges converted to gallons and using odometer figures.