Trex
Well-known member
Hi,
As a follow on to my thread "Do not be scared of using that charge button" see http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3430 I was asked a few times about using the technique I brought up of using the Charge Button to avoid series mode later in town or cities. I wish to discuss this here.
Now I will say this right now, I cannot come up with a strict set of rules for everyone's trips in the PHEV. But I can give you some guidelines that work for me. I hope they work for you too IF you want to try them.
Now I will first bring in another graph or as I call them "pretty pictures" :lol:
Now please read the 4th paragraph where it starts "When the drive battery SOC (State Of Charge).................
Here it actually tells us about what we were talking about in the charge button thread of having a lightly loaded petrol motor and charging up the drive battery.
It also talks about that blue oval area of the graph being the most efficient area of fuel consumption for driving the PHEV. ie 65 to 120kph. This is also a speed where the PHEV will MOSTLY travel in Parallel mode and also WHEN the petrol motor stops the PHEV goes into EV mode.
Now knowing everything that Mitsubishi have shown with their graphs and what they say above we should IMO avoid series mode by being in EV mode below 65kph as much as possible and my own fuel consumption figures back that up.
But that is not all I do. I totally avoid driving around with a full drive battery.
This is from a thread I wrote some years ago:
Now as can be seen from above, fuel savings can be made by not driving around with a full battery and because I live close to the freeway on ramp I actually drop some of the drive battery charge on the freeway at speed to get down to at least 11 bars (out of 16) on the MMCS display to get the biggest drop in fuel consumption (and the highest regen as seen above) and will charge it back up before getting to the next town to avoid series mode.
The figure I always remember is at 100-110kph it takes my PHEV a 1/2 hour to charge the drive battery back up to 1/2 a charge ie 50%. That tells me when I need to push the charge button before getting to the next town.
I hope I explained it well enough.
Whether you can use these tips on your trips away from the grid I will leave up to you.
Ask those questions if you do not understand and I will try to explain it better.
Regards Trex.
As a follow on to my thread "Do not be scared of using that charge button" see http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3430 I was asked a few times about using the technique I brought up of using the Charge Button to avoid series mode later in town or cities. I wish to discuss this here.
Now I will say this right now, I cannot come up with a strict set of rules for everyone's trips in the PHEV. But I can give you some guidelines that work for me. I hope they work for you too IF you want to try them.
Now I will first bring in another graph or as I call them "pretty pictures" :lol:
Now please read the 4th paragraph where it starts "When the drive battery SOC (State Of Charge).................
Here it actually tells us about what we were talking about in the charge button thread of having a lightly loaded petrol motor and charging up the drive battery.
It also talks about that blue oval area of the graph being the most efficient area of fuel consumption for driving the PHEV. ie 65 to 120kph. This is also a speed where the PHEV will MOSTLY travel in Parallel mode and also WHEN the petrol motor stops the PHEV goes into EV mode.
Now knowing everything that Mitsubishi have shown with their graphs and what they say above we should IMO avoid series mode by being in EV mode below 65kph as much as possible and my own fuel consumption figures back that up.
But that is not all I do. I totally avoid driving around with a full drive battery.
This is from a thread I wrote some years ago:
Trex said:Hi folks,
This will be the last test I will do for awhile. I hope it helps everyone.
I picked the flattest area around here ( and it is very flat across the river valley here) on the dual lane freeway (in each direction) that runs past our small city. It is made up of approx. 12kms of 100kph zone and 10km of 110kph zone. I picked that stretch for its easy turn around at each end as well as being flat.
So the test consisted of driving in one direction then the other followed by a quick turnaround at each end. Traffic was light. I sat on 105kph . I used cruise control the whole time except at each end when I was turning around.
Now this is the same as I did the other night but more scientifically ie I ran both directions fully before taking measurements to allow for any wind or elevation changes. I have not, I repeat not done that before.
Here are the results.
Press save button straight at start with full battery. 15 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.8L/100k Petrol motor never stopped. B5 15kw
Press Save at 13 bars. 14 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.8L/100k Petrol motor never stopped. B5 25kw
Press Save at 11 bars. 12 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.4L/100k Petrol motor stopped a couple of times B5 37kw
Press Save at 8 bars. 9 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.4L/100k Petrol motor stopped a couple of times. B5 37kw
Press Save at 7 bars. 8 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.4L/100k Petrol motor stopped a couple of times. B5 37kw
Press Save at 6 bars. 7 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.4L/100k Petrol motor stopped a couple of times. B5 37kw
Press Save at 4 bars. 5 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.2L/100k Petrol motor stopped like a proper hybrid. B5 37kw
At 1 bars (normal mode). 1 bars showing (out 16 ) on MMCS when finished test. 7.2L/100k Petrol motor stopped like a proper hybrid. B5 37kw
Note No AC or heater on.
Note The B5 amounts are Regen that I could get at the end of the runs with the paddles set to B5 when turning around.
Note Where I said the petrol motor never stopped it only stopped at each end of the run where I turned around.
Note Where the Petrol motor stopped I read it at the same point of the hybrid cycle.
Note I could not do this test more scientifically without putting it on a dyno.
Note I have just lost 6 hrs out of my life.
Note There are no more Notes. :lol:
Regards Trex.
Now as can be seen from above, fuel savings can be made by not driving around with a full battery and because I live close to the freeway on ramp I actually drop some of the drive battery charge on the freeway at speed to get down to at least 11 bars (out of 16) on the MMCS display to get the biggest drop in fuel consumption (and the highest regen as seen above) and will charge it back up before getting to the next town to avoid series mode.
The figure I always remember is at 100-110kph it takes my PHEV a 1/2 hour to charge the drive battery back up to 1/2 a charge ie 50%. That tells me when I need to push the charge button before getting to the next town.
I hope I explained it well enough.
Whether you can use these tips on your trips away from the grid I will leave up to you.
Ask those questions if you do not understand and I will try to explain it better.
Regards Trex.