Return to EV mode after gas engine starts

[Sandman68]

Hello everyone,

Took delivery of my 2024 PHEV last week. Love it so far.

My salesman told me that if I want to start my vehicle in EV priority mode, I need to push the start button, without pressing the brake pedal, then push the EV button and then, push the start button again, with the foot on the brake... Which works fine. However, returning from work today, I passed another vehicle after accelerating a bit hard, which made the gas engine start to give it more power, which is fine but, after that, it put itself in Charge mode and, I couldn't return it to EV mode. Anytime I would press the EV button to put it back in EV mode, it would automatically return to Charge mode.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help.

 

[kpetrov]

What you call "Charge mode" it can't be unless you press that button.
The vehicle will cancel the EV mode for variety of reasons... low battery charge for example.

 

[AndyInOz]

Another thing to watch out for. Periodically, the vehicle switches into a running mode with the message:

"Engine running to maintain fuel system" (or such like).

That mode and message will continue to appear until 20l of fuel has been added to the fuel tank. (And yes, if the tank is full you will need to consume some fuel before you can do that.)

The newer models also run the engine longer after it has started running, for similar reasons.

 

[Lon12]

Hello everyone,

Took delivery of my 2024 PHEV last week. Love it so far.

My salesman told me that if I want to start my vehicle in EV priority mode, I need to push the start button, without pressing the brake pedal, then push the EV button and then, push the start button again, with the foot on the brake... Which works fine. However, returning from work today, I passed another vehicle after accelerating a bit hard, which made the gas engine start to give it more power, which is fine but, after that, it put itself in Charge mode and, I couldn't return it to EV mode. Anytime I would press the EV button to put it back in EV mode, it would automatically return to Charge mode.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help.

Once the engine has started it continues to run on a timer (approx 5 minutes). You cannot stop that unless you pull over and turn the car off.
The car probably still had the EV mode selected. The problem with the new (>=2023) cars is that the one button just cycles through the different options. If you pressed the EV button again hoping it would return to EV operation you could have accidentally moved down to Charge mode.

 

[BobK]

Once the engine has started it continues to run on a timer (approx 5 minutes). You cannot stop that unless you pull over and turn the car off.
The car probably still had the EV mode selected. The problem with the new (>=2023) cars is that the one button just cycles through the different options. If you pressed the EV button again hoping it would return to EV operation you could have accidentally moved down to Charge mode.

I find if the battery is cold, the ICE tends to kick in earlier at a lower amount of acceleration.

 

[Sandman68]

Once the engine has started it continues to run on a timer (approx 5 minutes). You cannot stop that unless you pull over and turn the car off.
The car probably still had the EV mode selected. The problem with the new (>=2023) cars is that the one button just cycles through the different options. If you pressed the EV button again hoping it would return to EV operation you could have accidentally moved down to Charge mode.

That might just be it. I will check this out next time. Thanks.

 

[Sandman68]

Another thing to watch out for. Periodically, the vehicle switches into a running mode with the message:

"Engine running to maintain fuel system" (or such like).

That mode and message will continue to appear until 20l of fuel has been added to the fuel tank. (And yes, if the tank is full you will need to consume some fuel before you can do that.)

The newer models also run the engine longer after it has started running, for similar reasons.

Didn't see that message since it's only been a week but I've read something regarding this somewhere. Thanks.

 

[Sandman68]

What you call "Charge mode" it can't be unless you press that button.
The vehicle will cancel the EV mode for variety of reasons... low battery charge for example.

Probably like what Lon12 mentioned. It just cycled through to the next mode when I pressed the EV button. It is kind of annoying as I'm trying to use it as a pure electric vehicle when I drive to work and back and, when I run errands around town. Frankly, it should just shut off right after accelerating... but hey, I'm saving a ton of gas so, can't really complain

 

[littlescrote]

Once the engine has started it continues to run on a timer (approx 5 minutes). You cannot stop that unless you pull over and turn the car off.
The car probably still had the EV mode selected. The problem with the new (>=2023) cars is that the one button just cycles through the different options. If you pressed the EV button again hoping it would return to EV operation you could have accidentally moved down to Charge mode.

I don't think it's a timer. It's until it gets up to temperature.

 

[Fancy McDancy]

I find if the battery is cold, the ICE tends to kick in earlier at a lower amount of acceleration.

ICE? In Car Entertainment? That's a new one!

 

[themaiz]

I've had some of these experiences and not others. 2023 Nov PHEV. We live at the bottom of a steep hill that extends about 200m directly in front of our garage... so pretty much the first thing that happens to the car is a steep climb.

If I'm very careful on the accelerator, the car will do the climb without starting the ICE. If the ICE does start, then it runs for some amount of time that the car understands but I do not.

However anecdotally it seems that if I stop the car for a while (that might be 15 seconds or so?) the ICE will shut down and then I can move off without the ICE starting. If I don't stop, then the ICE continues to idle/pickup to support the motors, even if I'm only gently feathering the accelerator. Eventually (if I'm not heavy on the pedal, or the car isn't constantly going up steep hills) the ICE shuts down and I'm back on battery-only.

All that without changing the battery setting from default.

Definitely the ICE will start and run if I floor the pedal. That's as expected.

 

[themaiz]

ICE? In Car Entertainment? That's a new one!

"Internal Combustion Engine", but in this case: it can be pretty entertaining.

 

[BobK]

ICE? In Car Entertainment? That's a new one!

If it gets cold enough, the Internal Combustion Engine' s coolant might turn to ICE, which could be a source of In Car Entertainment as the passengers try to get warm.

 

[kpetrov]

If I'm very careful on the accelerator, the car will do the climb without starting the ICE. If the ICE does start, then it runs for some amount of time that the car understands but I do not.

Once the engine starts it is better to run until it reaches optimal operating temperature. That's why it keeps running.

 

[Lon12]

I don't think it's a timer. It's until it gets up to temperature.

I guess someone needs to do a test to confirm this. I say it is a timer because it has always been the same amount of time for me regardless of how hot or cold the car is. If it were temperature based you would think there would be some variation in how long the engine runs for?

 

[littlescrote]

Could be a minimum of a time and temperature and the temperature is usually reached within the time limit, so the time limit applies.

 

[Sandman68]

Allright, did a test today (haven't really left the house in more than a week as I work from home 95% of the time).

As a reference, it's about 6 degrees Celsius outside today. In EV mode, I accelerated hard enough to have the engine turn on, checked the time, then drove for a while as I would normally do. 5 mins later, the gas engine turned off. Really seems like a timer as the car must have been warm quicker than that.

Thanks for all the info everyone.

 

[Stevepl11]

Regarding the fuel being used until topping up. My 2018 will run the ICE after 3 months when it thinks I have not put 15 litres into it in one top up. It will not go into parallel hybrid mode in this situation and reports "using old fuel". I don't think 3 months is necessarily the right period but that's what it does. It can be reset easily if that seems like a good idea. Shutdown, open the main fuse box, pull out the Ignition Off Draw (IOD) fuse for a few seconds and put it back in. The computer will lose it's memory of the fuel age. On mine it's a 30Amp (green) fuse with a yellow carrier/puller fitted so it's pretty obvious.

 

[motco]

Once the engine has started it continues to run on a timer (approx 5 minutes). You cannot stop that unless you pull over and turn the car off.
The car probably still had the EV mode selected. The problem with the new (>=2023) cars is that the one button just cycles through the different options. If you pressed the EV button again hoping it would return to EV operation you could have accidentally moved down to Charge mode.

I'm not sure that five minutes is long enough to allow the engine to reach a steady state temperature and to drive off any water vapour in the oil or the exhaust system. Corrosion causing failure of the exhaust downstream of the catalytic converter seems to be a regular occurrence here in UK and one probable reason is the system hardly ever drying out unlike a purely ICE type. I have made a habit of never running my petrol or diesel engined cars for short periods for this reason, and I have a twenty two year old car here still on its original exhaust system. Admittedly it has not much more than 50k miles on it, but would have expected a failure before now if short journeys has always been its duty cycle.

 

[Fjpod]

Hello everyone,

Took delivery of my 2024 PHEV last week. Love it so far.

My salesman told me that if I want to start my vehicle in EV priority mode, I need to push the start button, without pressing the brake pedal, then push the EV button and then, push the start button again, with the foot on the brake... Which works fine. However, returning from work today, I passed another vehicle after accelerating a bit hard, which made the gas engine start to give it more power, which is fine but, after that, it put itself in Charge mode and, I couldn't return it to EV mode. Anytime I would press the EV button to put it back in EV mode, it would automatically return to Charge mode.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help.

This does not work on my US 2020.