Motorway Driving and Save Mode

[Stu]

Let me ask a daft question.

I understand it's more efficient for the car to be in parallel mode at motorway speeds and I've read posts that advocate using 'Save Mode' when driving on the motorway. I understand this is to stop using battery power as the engine is more efficient at higher speeds.

What would the difference be if you were driving at 70/80 and you didn't select 'Save Mode'? Would the car still attempt to use some of the battery power?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers

 

[maby]

As I understand it, up to about 70mph the car will always run on battery in preference to petrol unless you hit the Save or Charge buttons. Somewhere between 70 and 80, you reach the limit of what it can do on electricity alone and the petrol engine will kick in irrespective of how much charge you have in the battery pack.

 

[maddogsetc]

I can't say with certainty as I haven't tried this but I'm fairly confident that even at a constant 70/80mph the battery will still deplete unless you are in Save mode. Not sure why or what the car does with the charge but I've never managed to keep any charge over a longer distance even, for example, after rapid charging at a motorway service stop.

I'm sure Mark (avensys) will know for sure as he seems to have tested pretty much every aspect of the car's functionality

 

[maby]

I can't say with certainty as I haven't tried this but I'm fairly confident that even at a constant 70/80mph the battery will still deplete unless you are in Save mode. Not sure why or what the car does with the charge but I've never managed to keep any charge over a longer distance even, for example, after rapid charging at a motorway service stop.

I'm sure Mark (avensys) will know for sure as he seems to have tested pretty much every aspect of the car's functionality

That is consistent with my reading of the manual and brochure - in any mode other than Save or Charge, the car will deplete the battery until it gets down to the lower limit set by the control systems. At speeds up to about 70mph, it will run as pure electric provided there is sufficient charge. As you approach 80mph, it switches to parallel hybrid even if there is charge in the battery because the electric motors alone do not have the power to drive it at those speeds.

 

[jaapv]

At 70/80 Mph there is not enough power left to (re)charge the battery fully. However if you slow down due to traffic or speed limits the car will charge the battery up again, either to the level set by the "Save" button or to 80% when set to "Charge".
If you don't set "Save" or "Charge" the car will run the battery down to --.--(20%) and go into "save" mode automatically keeping the battery between --.-- and 1, playing with the 7% reserve. Only if you manage to run it down to 13% charge level (which is not easy to do) will it go into emergency power mode, cutting down on power output to recharge the battery to the 20% needed for normal running. You will notice by power loss and the appearance of a turtle on the dashboard display.

 

[user 258]

I can't say with certainty as I haven't tried this but I'm fairly confident that even at a constant 70/80mph the battery will still deplete unless you are in Save mode. Not sure why or what the car does with the charge but I've never managed to keep any charge over a longer distance even, for example, after rapid charging at a motorway service stop.

I'm sure Mark (avensys) will know for sure as he seems to have tested pretty much every aspect of the car's functionality

Hi,
I'll take that as a compliment
I know the theory but haven't actually gone fast enough to prove it!
Upto a genuine 74mph/118kmh it will run in pure EV mode if the battery has charge PROVIDING you are are not demanding more than 60KW/80BHP since that is all the battery can supply. Therefore if you are accelerating reasonably quicky upto motorway speeds then it is likely the engine will chime in to help. Once you have reached cruising speed it is likely it will switch back to EV mode. Using EV mode at motorway speeds (usually) makes no sense, as the OP says, since you will deplete the battery very quickly and ICE's are best used for this.
Kind regards,
Mark