Long Distance MPG

[mellwaters100]

Hello!

I know there are occasional discussions about "concerns" over long distance MPG of the Outlander when it is not possible to charge regularly, so I thought I would post about my experience of a return trip to France. I was pleasantly surprised!

Firstly, shout out to the fantastic PHEV Watchdog app and the recent update that allows 'Resume previous trip'. Would highly recommend to anyone vaguely interested in what their car is doing!!

Attached are the trips to / from France from the north east of England. Started near Darlington -> York -> Dover / Dunkirk -> Aubusson (Paris route). The outbound trip included a slight detour via Lincoln. In both cases, the car (a 2014 4HS) started with a full battery and included x1 rapid charge to 80% in York.

View attachment Trip.JPG

As can be seen from the image, on the outbound trip I averaged 41mpg over the 824 miles; and 47mpg for the 804 mile return (neither figure adjusted for the pre-charge on the battery).

On both trips, I set ACC to 62mph (on the dash) which is 60mph on road and let the car do its thing - not using charge / save at all. On the outbound (12th October), there was a strong head wind in the UK and heavy rain, which died down once in France.

I will be doing the same trip this weekend but going via the tunnel. As yet, I am undecided whether to go via Paris (which is motorway nearly all the way through France) or Rouen / Orleans, which includes a number of city and 50mph roads with roundabouts - there are also more hills on this route in northern France. It would be interesting to see if the averages are vastly different, though!

Oh, by the way, I have fitted Vredestrein Quatrac 5's all round which I am convinced has massively improved the MPG performance over the Toyos.

I know tootling along at 60mph isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it suits me fine and it helps me save a few quid on petrol too! Talking of which, can't help but be impressed that, on a trip of 2,600km, nearly 1,000km were on pure electric - nice.

 

[maby]

...

I know tootling along at 60mph isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it suits me fine and it helps me save a few quid on petrol too! Talking of which, can't help but be impressed that, on a trip of 2,600km, nearly 1,000km were on pure electric - nice.

Hmmm, by definition if you drive 2,600km without plugging in with a car that has an EV range of about 50km, then 2,550 of those km were driven on petrol - you just deferred 1,000 of those km for a while.

 

[greendwarf]

...

I know tootling along at 60mph isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it suits me fine and it helps me save a few quid on petrol too! Talking of which, can't help but be impressed that, on a trip of 2,600km, nearly 1,000km were on pure electric - nice.

Hmmm, by definition if you drive 2,600km without plugging in with a car that has an EV range of about 50km, then 2,550 of those km were driven on petrol - you just deferred 1,000 of those km for a while.

Surely yes and no! Yes, if you haven't charged the battery from the mains, all the energy used will be derived from petrol in the tank but no, because some of the time the car will be driven by energy stored in the battery on the move either from regen or surplus from the ICE not immediately used. This will be especially true when cruising at 60 mph rather than flat out at 80 mph down an autoroute.

If the OP is taking this from the %EV display it may be this is calculated by the car taking the above periods into account.

 

[maby]

...

I know tootling along at 60mph isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it suits me fine and it helps me save a few quid on petrol too! Talking of which, can't help but be impressed that, on a trip of 2,600km, nearly 1,000km were on pure electric - nice.

Hmmm, by definition if you drive 2,600km without plugging in with a car that has an EV range of about 50km, then 2,550 of those km were driven on petrol - you just deferred 1,000 of those km for a while.

Surely yes and no! Yes, if you haven't charged the battery from the mains, all the energy used will be derived from petrol in the tank but no, because some of the time the car will be driven by energy stored in the battery on the move either from regen or surplus from the ICE not immediately used. This will be especially true when cruising at 60 mph rather than flat out at 80 mph down an autoroute.

If the OP is taking this from the %EV display it may be this is calculated by the car taking the above periods into account.

TANSTAAFL - as they say - it is certainly true that a hybrid had scope to run the petrol engine closer to its optimum efficiency, but in the absence of mains charging, every km travelled is derived from petrol burned - at least unless you are measuring over a one way journey that starts at a greater height above sea level than it ends. To say that 1000km out of 2600km travelled was done on pure electric is very misleading - those 1000km were achieved to a large extent by burning rather more petrol than was strictly necessary while travelling the other 1600km. That is not to say that the overall fuel economy was not better than it would have been in the same body shell with a simple petrol drive train, but it is no way near as good as the OP's post seemed to suggest.

 

[zerozero]

What about the fuel consumption at 130km/h? Can anyone share some data about this?

 

[VillageIdiotDan]

Interesting and bloody amazing mpg, well done.

Good question re: 130km per hour (80mph), would be interesting to know but unfortunately we can't legally go that speed in the UK so can't help

I barely managed 53kmg/33mpg/4.4l/100km at 110km (just under 70mph) but that was over a very short/specific motorway trip using just the Mitsubishi onboard estimate.

 

[Daff]

We did a 2100 mile holiday to France and got an average of 33.3mpg over the trip (brim to brim measurements). We were four-up with a very full boot and large roof box. And we took full advantage of the very good autoroutes so probably over half the mileage was at 130km/h. We were in mountain country for quite a bit of the trip, so it wasn't all easy cruising. Probably only about 200 of the miles were pure electric.

Of course it is a lot lower than our usual average but quite acceptable for a large car I feel. I do wish that the tank held a couple more gallons though!

Steve

 

[mellwaters100]

Interesting comments! I actually drive this route fairly regularly and have done several trips over the summer - a couple of times with an 8m twin axle, 1250kg caravan (plus a decent load) and ran the entire journey on ICE (using the charge button). From memory, the battery rarely gained the entire journey, always showing near depleted.

The stats from Watchdog were as follows:

1234km travelled, 27km on electric.
14.6L/100km = 179.9L used. (19.34mpg)
76km/h average speed.
9% coasting / 17.9% regen.
Time taken: 16h 59m 57s

@Daff - I am with you, I wish the fuel tank was bigger - especially when towing a caravan and you are lucky if you get 160 miles from the tank, needing refill every 3 hours or so!


I also repeated the trip as mentioned in the original post, and here are the figures for those that are interested, comparing the two routes through France:

Southbound (via Rouens, Chartres and Orleans)
1380km travelled, 527km on electric
6.7L/100km = 92.9L used. (42.1mpg)
80.2km/h average speed.
8.2% coasting / 14,4% regen.
Time taken: 18h 14m

Northbound (via Paris)
1259km travelled, 435km on electric
7.2L/100km = 90.4L used. (39.2mpg)
83.3km/h average speed.
7% coasting / 10.2% regen.
Time taken: 15h 47m

Both trips started with 100% battery and included x2 rapid charges to 80%. The northbound trip included heavy snow / rain through France and strong winds which I think accounts for the worse figures.


With the 130km/h question - I will be heading south again toward the end of November and so will plan to do a 1 hour run at 130 km/h and see what figures I get. And, for the good of the community, I will also do a 1 hour, 110 km/h run to compare averages at 60 mph, 70 mph and 80 mph.

A while ago, I did a similar experiment in the UK on a 40 mile straight of the A1 in England running cruise control at 70 mph rather than my usual 60 mph. That was in a different car but what I found was the average speed for the trip being set at 70 mph was only 56 mph, whereas the 60 mph trip was 52 mph. I can't recall mpg but, it made me think that the constant re-accelerating and higher speeds would be using more fuel for little net gain.

Of course, that was UK roads with our typically heaving traffic and so will be interesting to do a comparison in France.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[greendwarf]

As I posted elsewhere in the summer - slamming down the autoroute to the Riviera @ 85 mph under cruise control in 24 hours (no recharge for car just me :lol: ) the car showed average EV and mpg of around 27.

NB. Just me in car but didn't take off the roof bars - so. if I had (and kept to speed limit or lower ) I might have got it up to low 30s. :idea:

 

[cornclose]

Just thought I'd add my first experience of a longer trip with no charging being done.

Over this weekend did a trip from Peterborough to Bath, two adults on board with luggage - full tank of unleaded to begin with and a full charge;

Outbound journey A mixture of A roads, faster A roads (A34 - dual carriageway) and motorway (M4) as well as some local driving in town and around built up areas.
Car displayed 41.7 mpg, 43% electric driving.

Return journey Same but in reverse.
Uncanilly car displayed the same 41.7 mpg, but this time 42% electric driving.

Total distance approx 325 miles, arrived back with just less than a quarter of a tank of unleaded and zero charge.

Happy with the above!

So far, 1100 miles done, £84.33 of unleaded put in and £23.95 spent on electricty. Given that I still have probably 50 miles of unleaded left, total cost per mile of £0.094. This will obviously go down as I do more electric miles.

 

[Andrev]

My recent experience is a trip from Montreal Canada to Boynton Beach Florida. Distance of 2770 km mostly on Interstates at an average of 130 km/hr. I had a full battery when I left and empty when arrived. No charging station in between. I had 16% ev driving on the meter. My fuel consumption was 8.4 liter/100 km or 28.4 mi/gal. Car was loaded near the top.

 

[anko]

My recent experience is a trip from Montreal Canada to Boynton Beach Florida. Distance of 2770 km mostly on Interstates at an average of 130 km/hr. I had a full battery when I left and empty when arrived. No charging station in between. I had 16% ev driving on the meter. My fuel consumption was 8.4 liter/100 km or 28.4 mi/gal. Car was loaded near the top.

130 km/h ON AVERAGE? North to south through the US? That's quite impressive, isn't it? Managing 8.4 l/100 km on such average speed even more so. The speed would explain the very low EV% number though.

 

[BCbackroader]

Andrev, it appears that you're stating your MPG in US gallons, as 8.4L/100km works out to 33.8 MP/Imp gallon.

 

[anko]

Andrev, it appears that you're stating your MPG in US gallons, as 8.4L/100km works out to 33.8 MP/Imp gallon.

Makes sense as he is in NA. All the more reason for all of us to stick to l/100km. No confusion there

 

[Andrev]

For sure being in USA, the gallon was 3,78 liters. I use to do this trip for 18 years both ways, and it was the fastest I did. I had the Waze software on my screen showing police cars (not a lot) and traffic.
Pay attention, my average of 130 km/hr is when I was able to drive without obstructions, not the average speed for the entire trip. Construction cones and traffic jams are examples.
I was not alone going to that speed and plus!

 

[giuseppef]

Hi all,

Wanted to share efficiency (or lack thereof) during my initial trip in our brand new PHEV. I picked up the car in St. Louis, MO (elevation 550'/160m) and drove it 860mi/1400km to Denver, CO (elevation 5280'/1600m).

I began with a full charge and averaged 22mpg//10.7L/100km while averaging 77mph//125km/hr, half the time using cruise control.

I was pretty disappointed with the overall efficiency to the point where I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the vehicle. I expected to do MUCH better than that, although I acknowledge that I gained significant elevation along the way.

Is this reasonable? I was hoping for 35 mpg. Is there something I'm missing with the PHEV? Should I have been in one particular mode over another?

If 22-25 mpg is what I can expect on road trips cruising at 125 km/hr, I'm thinking I should have bought another diesel.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Andrev]

You have 2 factors reducing MPG. First, the gas engine is new, not at peak performances. Second, you start at 500´ elevation and ended your trip at 5000´+. This is the major factor increasing the consumption. If you do the trip back, you will probably get your 30+ mpg.

 

[jaapv]

Normally I would expect about 11 km/l on a long motorway trip. A heavy, not very well streamlined petrol car can never match a diesel motorway cruiser, not even close.

 

[mellobob]

Normally I would expect about 11 km/l on a long motorway trip. A heavy, not very well streamlined petrol car can never match a diesel motorway cruiser, not even close.

That seems to be quite high ... mind you it does depend a lot on your speed. I drive around the SE British Columbia and get around 8l/100km (opps, just noticed that you are using km per liter so we are close ... why oh why can't we all use the same damned system!). But, I was going to add that my speed is usually around 110km/h which is much less that the OPs 75Mile/hr.

 

[jaapv]

Yes, I drive motorways @ 120/130 (Netherlands) and 140 average in Germany.