Difference between drive in save mode and charge mode

[Molnboman]

Hej,

Pardon for being thick but what is the actual difference in drive save and drive charge modes. Does the car still charge in save mode, or does the car use more petrol in charge rather than save?

Still gettin my head round the options.

Cheers
MM

 

[EssexBoy]

Essentially save retains the current state of your battery charge ( by running the ICE and charging the battery as necessary) so, for example, you can use electric only at the end of your journey through town or to get through the 30 min hold up your sat-nav has warned you about just up the road. The charge option will bring your battery charge back towards fully charged ( by running the ICE) so for example you can build a significant charge from empty for a more significant anticipated period of low speed/in-town driving.

Other scenarios where charge/save are needed are perhaps significant hills/mountain roads ahead where the modestly sized petrol engine could use additional help from the two electric motors you have at your disposal; the latter are just a burden if you have no stored volts to run them. Also if you are towing, or have a fully loaded vehicle, you will want those motors to help rather than hinder when the going gets tough so manually managing the state of battery charge becomes important and perhaps essential. Of course you have to bear in mind the added weight of all those volts you lug around in the batteries.

For much more tortuous discussions of the merits of using save and charge dig a bit deeper into the forum.

 

[jaapv]

There is no essential difference between "not selected" "save" and "charge" modes. All three cycle the engine to charge the battery.
The difference is that:

No button pressed - The engine will charge the battery to remain at the lowest permitted level after you run it down.
Charge pressed - The engine will attempt charge the battery to the highest possible level.
Save pressed - The engine will attempt to keep the battery charged to the level that it had when "save" was selected (but in practice the level will drop slowly)

This way you can control the amount of charge during and at the end of your journey - if you have no need of EV operation, let it run down to empty by not selecting a charge mode.
If you have to drive some distance on EV, select the save when the battery is at the level that you will need for the (last) EV bit.
If you need as full a charge as possible (e.g. with a long urban distance at the end, or an emission-controlled zone ahead, or a hilly bit, etc.) select "charge"

In general I like to run the car in charge mode all the time (except the last bit) on motorway journeys and in the mountains. Actually save can be fine too in these cases, depending on the circumstances.
There are claims that the car runs most efficiently with the battery half-full, but the differences will be small, and I have never seen it.

 

[Molnboman]

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers
A

 

[elm70]

One important difference between save and charge.

If stopped at a traffic light, in charge mode, the ICE will be still running for charge the battery (quite a waste of fuel)
At traffic light in save mode .. the ICE will automatically switch off

So ... charge should be used carefully .. since in many scenarios it will be not the most efficient way to drive the car.