Battery Charge/Save Buttons

[user 3575]

As I have previously stated I have kept detailed Excel spreadsheets over the last 11 months/5,000 miles, I had tried every different combination including towing a 1500 kg caravan, I cannot see any difference ?

It just goes to show how good a job Mitsubishi engineers have done

 

[Trex]

I did a test once around town early on a Sunday morning with no stop and go traffic in series mode between 40 and 60 kph (different speed zones but it is mostly 60 kph) and averaged 6.5lts/100kms. In parallel mode for the same fuel consumption I can do approx 90 kph. That tells me all I need to know about avoiding series mode. I should have believed Mitsubishi's graphs. :roll: :lol:

 

[user 3575]

Because we have the 2020 model with the 2.4 litre engine and it Atkinson/Otto cycle it cloud thing a little for me, it may be possible that the Atkinson cycle is quite efficient in series mode ?

It would be nice to have an Mitsubishi graph to explain

 

[greendwarf]

At the risk of firing up this debate again - we do have empirical evidence of how inefficient the engine is running in Charge mode at low urban speeds, as I am doing at present here in London because I need to burn off 15 litres of fuel from a full tank after 3 months of Lockdown :evil:

The problem is that engine speed is not dictated by throttle pressure (try revving the ICE in neutral :roll: ), so it runs with a much higher tick over than a conventional ICE . Therefore, with speeds of less than 20 mph, I am getting a matching mpg of below 20.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

I'm not sure why it matters what the mpg is as the car isn't being "inefficient". I'm afraid it is doing exactly what it was designed to do when not enough fuel has been used over 3 months (or 93-ish days). I'm also afraid that there is nothing you can do to change it except go for a longer drive at higher average speeds to burn off the fuel more quickly, which is also wasteful.

The low mpg is more likely due to the fact that the PHEV can't really charge a nearly-full battery very quickly, so much of the energy from the ICE can't be recovered into the battery until the charge level has dropped. But since the ICE is running all the time, the battery level won't drop, so you're stuck in a vicious circle till it's burnt off 15 litres.

 

[greendwarf]

Sorry ThudnBlndr - but my post referred to the inefficiency of the ICE not the car - which I understood was the point of the debate. It was said that with Charge activated there was a lack of evidence that at urban speeds consumption was higher than at high speed. I was merely pointing out some evidence to back up that claim. :ugeek: I quite agree that the car is performing as designed.

 

[user 5728]

May I remind that you guys have bought a PHEV. As such it is fairly normal considering fuel consumption here and there. In case you have difficulties to reach the case, why not changing cars to EV? EVs would be even cheaper in overall maintenance.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Thanks for that blinding glimpse of the obvious almost 4 moths after the previous post

 

[kpetrov]

May I remind that you guys have bought a PHEV. As such it is fairly normal considering fuel consumption here and there. In case you have difficulties to reach the case, why not changing cars to EV? EVs would be even cheaper in overall maintenance.

May I remind you that those buttons CHARGE & SAVE are placed there for a reason and in case you have difficulties to reach the case of efficient driving why bother joining the conversation?
Thanks for letting us know of EV existence.

 

[Fjpod]

So i have a question on this... If you are on a long highway trip, and you want to be prepared with some EV range for stop and go traffic at the end, and you cannot plug in except at the end, is it better to run the battery down and recharge with the Charge button? Or is it better to use Save to hold just enough charge for the last leg of the trip? Is one more efficient?

I've done some "unscientific" testing on this with a scanguage while on long trips... And have sort of reached a conclusion, which I will hold back until I hear from some of the experts.

 

[greendwarf]

As this involves so few miles the difference, even if you could accurately measure it, would be negligible and swamped by all the other variables of real world driving.

The only way Save could be more efficient is if you forget to come out of Charge at the right time and have "petrol" miles left you can't use :lol:

 

[kpetrov]

I completely agree with Greendwarf. Since CHARGE and SAVE are basically using the same method with the only difference of one being intermittent and the other constant the results in same conditions should be similar.
The small difference will be from the fact that usually SAVE is used with not empty battery and may be little bit more inefficient to maintain the charge instead of charging completely depleted battery.
I personally almost never use SAVE cause can't control the level of charge precisely (up or down charging in the moment I have to switch to EV) and don't want my ICE to come to life and off every couple of minutes.
On a long trip on flat roads were I know there isn't any congestion I run the battery flat and charge it back to 30%, rinse and repeat.

 

[user 5728]

On a long trip on flat roads were I know there isn't any congestion I run the battery flat and charge it back to 30%, rinse and repeat.

With your manual save mode tactic you could easily charge up to about 60% before rinsing the SOC back down. As I do it mostly on long trips this way. A higher battery level provide more range for slow speed areas like road buildings where it is nice not to hear the ICE.

 

[kpetrov]

On a long trip on flat roads were I know there isn't any congestion I run the battery flat and charge it back to 30%, rinse and repeat.

With your manual save mode tactic you could easily charge up to about 60% before rinsing the SOC back down. As I do it mostly on long trips this way. A higher battery level provide more range for slow speed areas like road buildings where it is nice not to hear the ICE.

I am doing that on my last leg of my trip in order to accumulate some charge for the city driving.
Yes I could charge up to 60% instead of 30% but by my understanding the battery is getting charged more efficiently in it's lower range of SOC.
Probably not even measurable but it doesn't hurt.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Yes I could charge up to 60% instead of 30% but by my understanding the battery is getting charged more efficiently in it's lower range of SOC.
Probably not even measurable but it doesn't hurt.

I can't find it now, but someone did some tests fairly recently charging the PHEV using the engine at idle. The rate was fairly constant up to 60% (actual), and it only started dropping off after that