Gas conversion?

[chasingamy]

Ideally, Mitsu would have installed a small diesel instead of a petrol engine making the phev more efficient than the regular oil burner in virtually all conditions (what are phev designers thinking?).

But we are stuck with an inefficient petrol genset; hence my question. Has anyone installed a gas kit, or is anyone contemplating this? I know commercial installations can be north of £1000, but DIY can be done for a few hundred and might be worthwhile?

 

[MackV12]

Couple of arguments against the diesel:

1. If you want a diesel - buy a diesel Outlander
2. Media has turned on the diesel, as "...diesel cars emit a higher amount of deadly pollutants"

As a big fan of the torque in diesel engines I get where you are coming from, but the tide has turned on diesel.

Had a couple of LPG cars. As the PHEV is full of batteries, a fuel tank, there is not a lot of space left for a LPG tank. Don't forget the PHEV is not exactly light weight and another fuel tank.....

Assuming the LPG installer can interrupt the fuel supply, without all the warnings going off (suitable emulator), I would love to see when you take your car for a service and it reports back to Mitsubishi Japan that it reveals your PHEV was doing north of 1,000 mpg

 

[chasingamy]

1. Gotta diesel (320 CDI Merc) and a PHEV Oulander.
2. The Media turn on a lot of things, i.e. renewables in the UK, but the media inform my opinions (taken with a grain of salt), they do not make my opinions.
My Merc, an estate has gotten 54.8 MPG on lone runs, delivers 200 hp and takes the beast to 60 in 8 seconds, so yeah, I do like the torque but its the efficiency that twists my missile.
Truth be told, I am no a fan of the Mitsu's design, interior or exterior/ its a little dated on the outside and pretty plain-Jane on the inside.
With that said, I love it, the technology is brilliant and the designers got it nearly spot on perfect in my view.
Their only shortcomings (again in my view) are the choice of inefficient genset and the lack of "EV only" button. I working on rectifying the later.
Now if only the current crop of politicians get voted out and someone realises burning imported gas and coal are only the cheap solution for the short/medium terms, the world would be roundish again.

 

[outofyorkshire]

I have to agree with Mack on this one despite being a big diesel fan.
I have run 3 Land Rovers, so was fully behind the 'benefits' of diesel over petrol.
So I too wondered why a lot of EV hybrids where petrol & not diesel.

However, when you look at the growing evidence on the issues with diesel, I do believe they have got it right.
When the French are looking at banning diesels from Paris, then as a nation of diesel lovers, there must have a good argument. :shock:

That said , I also think they need to look at cleaning up the output from diesel freight on the roads :lol:

 

[user 816]

I was surprised too they didn't go with a small diesel. With 1.6 diesels now easily doing 160bhp with a low CO2 still (like new CR-V) a small 1.2 - 1.4l could easily do the 120bhp. But then you need a CAT and a DPF adding more weight and traditionally diesel engines are heavier for the same size.

Also diesels don't start as smoothly so the constant stop/start of the PHEV operation would have harmed that wonderful refinement.

But ultimately I thinks its R&D cost, the 2.0l petrol is an existing Mitsubishi engine they already had rehashed and retuned into the PHEV application. In many parts of the PHEV you see the development budget actually must have been very tight and corners were clearly cut to save money (you see that just looking around the car structure).


I am sure their marketing people knew others were going down this route and Mitsubishi wanted to get to market early to become the 'reference' brand for it. And they have sold a heck of a lot of PHEV's too which isn't a bad thing!

 

[rkde]

Interestingly I would not have purchased the car if it had a diesel engine in it. I spent a lot of time avoiding diesel as for my driving I killed my DPV in less than 20k in my E90. I do local trips now all on EV and in 1 month of owning the car have I done a 60 mile trip which only a few miles were on fuel thanks to free charges along the way.

The cycle of the engine and the EV part has been aimed at those who do short trips and occasionally need to go further, I would have thought the L200 PHEV may have a diesel lump in it.

Also do not forget it is only us British hell bent on diesel the rest of the world prefers petrol

 

[anko]

(what are phev designers thinking?).

Maybe they compared road taxes for an 1800 kg petrol car with those for a 1900 kg diesel car. As a Dutch citizen, I am so happy they choose petrol.

 

[Fragge]

Start/stop in a diesel is'nt very smooth. The Volvo V60 PHEV owners complain about the constant start rumble of the diesel. The choice of a small petrol in our cars make it smooth and quiet.

 

[user 816]

Also the car would need to be more complex and probably need a gearbox with a diesel, meaning more weight and expense.

Diesels have a narrower rev range than a petrol, and an even narrower range if you don't want it to rev high enough to become rough and noisy.

The PHEV couples the engine straight to the wheels via a fixed gear ratio at higher speed and then varies its revs to road speed.

With the narrow range of a diesel you would need to either couple it at an even higher speed only, limit top speed even lower, or include some sort of gearbox in-between.

Personally I think the way to go with the PHEV design ultimately is more powerful electric motors, a more powerful engine/generator and no need to couple the engine to the wheels at all.

 

[anko]

On topic: in The Netherlands several guys have made this conversion and seem quite happy about it. Some have them of decent sized tanks having under the back of the car.

 

[maby]

I'm pretty sure I've seen an explicit statement from Mitsubishi somewhere in the documentation that conversion to LPG will invalidate the warranty.

 

[discorduk]

Start/stop in a diesel is'nt very smooth.

Not entirely true, my last car was a 1.6 diesel C4 Picasso, it had a stop/start system, the engine would just instantly and smoothly start in the time it took to take your foot from the brake to the accelerator.

 

[jaapv]

If you want a Diesel PHEV get the Volvo...