First long drive - economy tips please

[pbainbridge]

I'm off on my first decent run in my 2015 Outlander PHEV. Anyone got any tips for settings to maximize economy. I'm assuming Ecomode and B0 is a start....

 

[spellinn]

Advice is no different from maximising economy in any car...

• leave longer gaps to the car in front to allow for a more constant speed and less braking..
  have a light right foot when accelerating..
  avoid stop/start where you can.
  don't use the aircon or heater
  keep windows/sunroof closed to avoid drag

B0 certainly helps with a number of those.

Cheers

Neil

 

[jdsx]

IMO 'Eco' mode has very little effect on economy (!), but may prevent the ICE starting if you turn the heating up :lol: .
My only advice would be: try to use the ICE for the faster sections of your journey (i.e. press 'save' when you reach the motorway), but make sure of course that you arrive at you charging destination with an empty battery!
Other than that, there's not a lot else to do, unless you want to travel at 56mph behind a lorry, and I don't recommend that

 

[BarrieB]

I am also about to embark on a long journey 4/5 hours in my 6 week old GX3, with a plan to only stop once at a service station about half way to recharge back to 80% if its available.

I've read different methods when motorway driving but which one is best?

I quite like the sound of this but not sure if the ICE uses more fuel when charge is selected: run the car normally until ICE kicks in when battery is empty, hit charge until battery is charged, then run on battery again and keep repeating this process?

Select save when on motorway then deselect so that you can arrive at your charging destination with and empty battery ready for charge?

Just let the car do its thing until you reach your destination?

 

[steviechi]

At 80mph economy seem to be about 28mpg (with no battery charge)
At 70mph it goes up to 38mpg (no battery charge)

(figures calculated using Fuellog app based on actual fuel used and distance travelled driving on relatively open M1 motorway)

Yes - charging your battery whenever does help drastically, but then doubles your driving time.

 

[Grigou]

My personal tips :

- ECO
- B0 (and Bx for braking as much of possible, for example when reaching a roundabout)
- to be as much as possible in B3 to B5 when I am obliged to push the brake pedal
- keep the battery level to 4 or 5 bars (or 15 km) at least, to be able to drive in EV in villages or in urban areas, or any circumstance wich implies a low speed
- do not hesitate to push Charge button to recover this battery level, but only when you drive in parallel mode

 

[maby]

At 80mph economy seem to be about 28mpg (with no battery charge)
At 70mph it goes up to 38mpg (no battery charge)

(figures calculated using Fuellog app based on actual fuel used and distance travelled driving on relatively open M1 motorway)

Yes - charging your battery whenever does help drastically, but then doubles your driving time.

And the moral of that is stick to the speed limit! (but you would anyway, wouldn't you???)

In general, as soon as you go far beyond the EV range, your total journey cost will be dominated by the cost of the petrol and nothing you do with the Save and Charge buttons is going to make a lot of difference. Yes, a given amount of charge will take you further at 40mph than it will at 70mph, but the difference is less than 10 miles - a quarter of a gallon of petrol.

You want to aim to arrive at your next charging point with a flat battery. As far as I'm concerned, the problem is how to handle a situation where you are starting the journey on slow roads and then travelling on motorways right up to your destination. The strategy for the absolute best fuel consumption would be to use up the charge at the start of the trip, then do the high speed bit on petrol with a flat battery. Personally, I like to avoid running on a completely flat battery because I want the reserve in it to give a boost on overtaking or climbing steep hills. Hence, I drive on Save till I'm around 20 miles from my destination, then switch to Normal and consume the charge. There is no doubt that this will not produce the absolute best running cost, but I accept that in the interests of having a responsive car.

 

[Hypermiler]

Also you want to save some battery for traffic jams on the motorway - nothing worse than the ICE kicking in when stuck in traffic...
H