Cold Weather Performance - North American 2023

[kpetrov]

Do you know if a level 1 evse will turn the PTC heater elements on when needed?

There was some specific for cold charging but cant find it.

This is what I have found in the manual:

General information 2-11
On vehicles equipped with both MITSUBISHI Remote control and electric heater, if a low temperature is predicted and even if the drive battery is fully charged, connect EV charging cable beforehand. The drive battery is automatically warmed up.

Is this from your 2018 owners manual? We are trying to find out more about how the 2023 model works...

Yes, 2018 manual.

this is what is say for 2023

 

[Lon12]

I need to find out what the actual temperature values are for these warnings. If anyone knows please post them. Otherwise I will do some cold weather testing myself once the temperatures drop again.

 

[Lon12]

It is -23ºC here today. I preheated the car with the new App in the garage then started driving in EV Normal mode. After about five minutes I noticed the HVAC was putting out cold air. There were no messages and the engine did not start to add heat. I eventually had to start the engine to get heat.
After parking in the garage (0ºC) for a few minutes I started the car in again and could hear the heat pump starting up and delivering heat normally.
Drove it out of the garage with the window open so I could hear the heat pump running and just waited in the driveway to see what would happen. After only about three minutes I could hear the heat pump winding down and shortly thereafter the engine started.
So I guess the Mitsubishi Heat pump is not able to run at these temperatures.
The second time I ran the car it seemed to transition to engine heat on its own. Not sure why it didn't do that the first time without any warning messages.

Day Two:
Same temperature this morning. In the garage at 0ºC couldn't get the heat pump to turn on with the App. Just blew cold air. Tried accessory mode from inside car, no luck. Had to unplug and start the car before the heat pump would turn on. Parked in the driveway after 3 minutes heat pump turned off. Saw the message "To Warm Up Cabin More, Turn Off EV Mode". Engine started on its own in EV mode.
Drove the car for about 25 minutes. Started off in EV Mode. Eventually the Engine shut off and I got the same message again. Then the cabin air cooled quickly. So it looks like when driving you can prioritize not running the engine but the heat pump is not running. So you have to switch EV mode off and use the engine heat. Only takes a couple of minutes to get hot air from Engine and then you can get five or six minutes of good heat even in EV mode if you like. We have two 120V outlets in the car. Wonder if running 1,500W of electric heat would be enough to stay warm in these temperatures. I just read the manual and it says max is 1,500W combined and not to use appliances that produce heat....

My 2017 Leaf had a heat pump that would run at any temperature. Not sure why Mitsubishi has to turn the pump completely off. Why not just give us the heat that it is capable of at the lower temperatures?

 

[Lon12]

We finally get heated steering wheel all the way around:

 

[Lon12]

Seat Heater:

 

[mellobob]

I've not used the windshield wiper heater yet. And I assume the mirror and headlight come on "when it need it". But, the steering wheel and seats are just lovely! I found on my older one that the seats had a tendency to "cook", but on <1> these are just lovely. And that steering wheel!

 

[Lon12]

Windshield heater is on a very short timer. Have to keep hitting it when in heavy snow.
Side mirror heat comes on automatically with rear window defrost.

 

[Lon12]

Still struggling with the cold weather issues.
I let the car cold soak outside not plugged in all day at -20ºC. Tried to heat the cabin and heard the heat pump spool up. It did work for a while and was putting out warming air. When I drove away in EV mode the engine started on its own but the car stayed in EV mode. I'm assuming this is the engine warming feature cutting in like the old PHEV did in these conditions.
I'm a little concerned with the heat pump not working in these conditions. The preheat function of the App does not start the engine. Only starts the Heat Pump. So the car will not preheat when you need it the most.

After a restart a few minutes later the car started to limit EV power to <50 kW.
I've been trying to watch the battery temperature gauge rise but it only seems to rise a little when driving. Does not increase while charging.
I'm leaving it plugged in Level 2 tonight outside and will watch to see if it draws any additional shore power to heat the battery at all. Here is the current temperature indication:

 

[Lon12]

-11ºC today and the heat pump worked flawlessly. Wish Mitsubishi would publish some numbers so we could know what the cut off is.
Our dealership still hasn't received any of the information I have requested.

 

[kpetrov]

Sorry but I don't know of any, even stationary high end heat pumps working well bellow -20C
Mine, at home is rated at -30C but really... bellow -20C is not so great and moreover at those temperatures it is definitely encapsulate in ice so...

 

[Lon12]

Sorry but I don't know of any, even stationary high end heat pumps working well bellow -20C
Mine, at home is rated at -30C but really... bellow -20C is not so great and moreover at those temperatures it is definitely encapsulate in ice so...

My 2017 Leaf and Tesla Model Y have/had a heat pump. They make a lot of noise at -20 but continued to work fine.

I'm fairly confident that if anyone can make a heat pump for a car it would be Mitsubishi. They have built millions for home use.

 

[AndyInOz]

When you say running in EV mode, do you mean that you are making a selection to force the car to run in that mode?

 

[Lon12]

When you say running in EV mode, do you mean that you are making a selection to force the car to run in that mode?

Yes. It is very different from the previous model. You can select EV mode after pressing the start button without your foot on the brake. Most of the time this "ACC" mode will also let you turn on the seat heat, steering wheel heat, HVAC, etc. Then when you start the car it stays in EV mode. When the engine starts on its own because of the low engine temperature it does not cancel EV mode like I think the old one did.

 

[AndyInOz]

I'm wondering if 'EV mode' may be affecting the heater functions.

My version of the car has an 'Eco mode' which does also affect heating and cooling. (I think)

 

[littlescrote]

I'm wondering if 'EV mode' may be affecting the heater functions.

My version of the car has an 'Eco mode' which does also affect heating and cooling. (I think)

You can select in the menu system whether it does or not. IIRC I think ECO can only affect high or low cooling though, not heating.

 

[kpetrov]

Sorry but I don't know of any, even stationary high end heat pumps working well bellow -20C
Mine, at home is rated at -30C but really... bellow -20C is not so great and moreover at those temperatures it is definitely encapsulate in ice so...

My 2017 Leaf and Tesla Model Y have/had a heat pump. They make a lot of noise at -20 but continued to work fine.

I'm fairly confident that if anyone can make a heat pump for a car it would be Mitsubishi. They have built millions for home use.

Could they have additional electric heater working in tandem with the heat pump and Mitsubishi don't?
Looking at some technical schematics would be interesting if available.

 

[Lon12]

Sorry but I don't know of any, even stationary high end heat pumps working well bellow -20C
Mine, at home is rated at -30C but really... bellow -20C is not so great and moreover at those temperatures it is definitely encapsulate in ice so...

My 2017 Leaf and Tesla Model Y have/had a heat pump. They make a lot of noise at -20 but continued to work fine.

I'm fairly confident that if anyone can make a heat pump for a car it would be Mitsubishi. They have built millions for home use.

Could they have additional electric heater working in tandem with the heat pump and Mitsubishi don't?
Looking at some technical schematics would be interesting if available.

Yes maybe. But you would think that with the big gas burning engine you could use its heat to assist the heat pump if necessary.

 

[kpetrov]

My 2017 Leaf and Tesla Model Y have/had a heat pump. They make a lot of noise at -20 but continued to work fine.

I'm fairly confident that if anyone can make a heat pump for a car it would be Mitsubishi. They have built millions for home use.

Could they have additional electric heater working in tandem with the heat pump and Mitsubishi don't?
Looking at some technical schematics would be interesting if available.

Yes maybe. But you would think that with the big gas burning engine you could use its heat to assist the heat pump if necessary.

But the big gas burning engine is always available for hear if you want it!

The point is to be able to preheat the vehicle and not to use the engine in short trips.

 

[Lon12]

I guess the issue I have is that the car doesn’t let you know that it is turning the heat pump off or not even starting it. You only find out by how cold the interior is.
If I use the App to preheat the car it should tell me it can’t because of the low temperature.
If it turns off the pump while I’m driving let me know so I can burn some fuel to keep warm.

Another example of things that make you say “what?” Is the fact you can’t use the App to preheat the car unless the doors are locked. You send the request and it just fails with a message to read the manual for the many different reasons why it might fail. The App has the ability to lock the doors remotely. So why not just do that with the heat request or at least tell you that the doors are not locked?

 

[littlescrote]

I guess the issue I have is that the car doesn’t let you know that it is turning the heat pump off or not even starting it. You only find out by how cold the interior is.
If I use the App to preheat the car it should tell me it can’t because of the low temperature.
If it turns off the pump while I’m driving let me know so I can burn some fuel to keep warm.

Another example of things that make you say “what?” Is the fact you can’t use the App to preheat the car unless the doors are locked. You send the request and it just fails with a message to read the manual for the many different reasons why it might fail. The App has the ability to lock the doors remotely. So why not just do that with the heat request or at least tell you that the doors are not locked?

All of that requires programming and logic. Something Japanese manufacturers are pretty poor at throughout many industries. The culture is to do things manually. I've been constantly surprised through 30 years of working with them how much they still (generally) like to put data manually in a spreadsheet rather than automate the import from elsewhere using Excel's API (for example).