How many miles (or km) have you managed on one tank?

[phevmike]

Managed just over 1000 miles on the last tank however the MPG has crashed over the last couple of weeks, partly through doing a few 40+ mile round trips, using the heaters more and noticing the ICE was working, and I think my Dad left the 'charge' button on for about an hour on one journey. Filled up last night 7.12 gallons for 530 miles (74.4mpg). Battery life over the last couple of weeks has been terrible too.

 

[maby]

I reckon on getting around 270 miles between fills - though I never run it below a quarter of a tank. That said, I do use it as a car, not a milk-float.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

I got only about 450 miles out of my first tank, supplemented with home overnight charges. I do a regular 40 mile round trip commute on weekdays and anything between 0 and 300 miles over a weekend. But as of Tuesday this week I have access to charge points at the workplace, so I just about manage the trip to work on a full battery, and now the trip home on a full battery, so petrol use should be limited to the times I do longer weekend miles.

Must admit after only two weeks of ownership I'm already cursing those tailgating BMW drivers (which I was one of for 6 yrs until the PHEV! ). Driving style has certainly changed for the better.....or maybe I'm just getting old! :lol:

 

[maby]

After years as a Prius driver, I came to the conclusion that a good 50% of the fuel efficiency of a hybrid comes down to driving style and watching the instrumentation. You could put any Prius or Outlander PHEV driver into a conventional car and they would get 25% better fuel economy than the average driver!

 

[gwatpe]

Hi maby,

having driven a Prius for a few weeks, I concur with good instrumentation aiding in driver education to achieve better fuel economy. Unfortunately the PHEV is severely lacking the same good instrumentation. You cannot underestimate the value of the real time L/100km number. The power meter would be better with a number and not just the needle.

The oddity with a plug in hybrid car is that anyone can get really good mpg doing short drives on only the battery, with a light foot driving style. It is actually reasonably difficult to maintain good mileage with a normal hybrid as petrol is always being consumed.

 

[steve2001]

Well I've only had my car 24hrs and I am having to be careful because I am watching the instrumentation perhaps a llittle bit too closely.

This thread got me thinking - we need to be careful out there folks and watch the road. Drive safely as well as effeciently. Especially with those beamers close on your tail!

(Hope I'm not preaching - but we don't need a 'Near Miss Due To PHEV Distraction' thread)

 

[WattCar]

Hi Steve

Welcome. I'm sure you'll be luvin' it!

After I test drove the car I was tempted to upgrade to the ACC version as I knew I'd be a bit too addicted to all the dials. In the end i didn't think the extra cost was justified. However, initially there were lots of distractions and I can confirm the brakes are very sharp when needed!

I'm 5 months on now and only need to look for those bits of info which are useful. A lot of the flashing pictos are irrelevant.

You are right to be aware of the distractions at the start - and I'm still luvin' it.

 

[maby]

Hi maby,

having driven a Prius for a few weeks, I concur with good instrumentation aiding in driver education to achieve better fuel economy. Unfortunately the PHEV is severely lacking the same good instrumentation. You cannot underestimate the value of the real time L/100km number. The power meter would be better with a number and not just the needle.

The oddity with a plug in hybrid car is that anyone can get really good mpg doing short drives on only the battery, with a light foot driving style. It is actually reasonably difficult to maintain good mileage with a normal hybrid as petrol is always being consumed.

On the other hand, the Toyota style of hybrid tends to do better on the long journeys where the Mitsubishi effectively becomes a petrol car with electric transmission. Toyota use the hybrid technology as a sort of electric turbocharger which allows them to get acceptable performance out of an Atkinson Cycle engine. Atkinson engines give good fuel economy for their size but have a very narrow power curve - without the hybrid systems, a Prius would need a 12 speed gearbox to give adequate performance. Mitsubishi use a standard design of petrol engine without relying on the battery for that performance smoothing effect - when the battery goes flat, you are driving a 2 litre conventional car.

 

[Paddlepower]

Well I've only had my car 24hrs and I am having to be careful because I am watching the instrumentation perhaps a llittle bit too closely.

This thread got me thinking - we need to be careful out there folks and watch the road. Drive safely as well as effeciently. Especially with those beamers close on your tail!

(Hope I'm not preaching - but we don't need a 'Near Miss Due To PHEV Distraction' thread)

I agree, having to stop myself checking my paddle number too much, would be great to have it on a head up display :roll:

 

[gwatpe]

I was under the impression that the Outlander PHEV had an Atkinson cycle engine.

I have found that my PHEV does not use the SAVE mode in the manner as stated in the manual. I have tried many times at the top of a long steep hill to turn OFF save mode, and store some energy in the battery from REGEN. The battery bars go up a few at the bottom of the hill. I then press SAVE, but the PHEV keeps just running on the battery for a few km, and takes the power back out again. Finally after about another 20 or more km, the energy goes back in to the battery again. The battery get another effective part cycle for no reason. It is hard enough to try and achieve good efficient driving style to get best use of the petrol in the tank, but in some ways the PHEV is fighting the drivers efforts to achieve this. Have other drivers observed their PHEV working the battery in a similar way, say on a motorway drive?

 

[maby]

I agree that "Save" is not interpreted as "don't use the battery". It seems to switch the strategy to something close to that used by Toyota - a more active interplay between the petrol and electrical systems. I think that the strategy is that when you hit save, it notes the charge level at that moment and then runs in a genuine hybrid mode oscillating a few percent above and below.

Re. the Atkinson cycle, I have never seen it mentioned in connection with the Outlander and I don't think it would be feasible for parallel hybrid mode. The Atkinson power curve is very narrow and it does not seem feasible to couple an Atkinson engine to the front wheels through a single speed gearbox at road speeds between something like 45mph and over 100mph. Toyota get away with it because the three-port differential that couples the engine and drive motor to the wheels behaves like a continuously variable transmission allowing them to keep the engine revs within a narrow range.

 

[gwatpe]

I will consult my source re the engine cycle. Will get back with a reference.

Re the SAVE. I have seen 2 battery bars change. Each bar is about 7%. The Prius has a completely different battery chemistry. No battery really gains extra life from mini cycles. A closer "Fuzzy Logic type" learning system could better match the engine throttle position and generator loading to the driving load and battery mode selection. Maybe something else to look for with a firmware upgrade.

 

[jdsx]

Had to fill up again today Only managed 1157 miles this time, not near my record but still not bad (ok I know it's meaningless without the electricity cost as well!).
Slightly off topic, but thought I'd post a pic of my mpg from a little while ago, when I finally got it to read over 100mpg (briefly!)

 

[Artorius]

On two long distance out of town trips with no ability recharge she averaged about 15km/l..

 

[anko]

Hello from a new member. Im am a Dutch PHEV owner, since November 8th, 2013.

It is a bit hard to find out what the current record is, or what is considered good or average, but my personal best is 3842 km / 39,18 liters, which boils down to 98,06 km / liter (or 276 MPG if I am not mistaken). I m quite happy with that. Although most fill-up's are much closer to each other.

 

[jdsx]

Hello from a new member. Im am a Dutch PHEV owner, since November 8th, 2013.

It is a bit hard to find out what the current record is, or what is considered good or average, but my personal best is 3842 km / 39,18 liters, which boils down to 98,06 km / liter (or 276 MPG if I am not mistaken). I m quite happy with that. Although most fill-up's are much closer to each other.

Hi anko and welcome! Have admired your posts on another forum and look forward to long discussions about how to prevent ICE from starting !

 

[anko]

Thanks!

 

[LaraWilkinson]

I once did a 2000 km with only one stop for the gas. and some food. My usually daily driving distance is about 60km from home <<-->> office and grab some food,

 

[Pickygit]

All you 'Newbies' out there just don't have a senior moment like I did and forget where the petrol filler cap release lever is! A bit embarrassing to visit a petrol station and pull out again to study the manual!

 

[anko]

One time, I managed 3700 km without fill-up. When the day came I had to go for a refill on the way home, I asked my co-workers to email me a picture of a gas station :mrgreen: