mpg on long trips

[davestevens]

Seriously considering a phev but a little confused about range and have been told different things.

My main daily use is the school run totalling around 40 miles per day and happy that I will make significant savings

However I am informed by the dealer for a run of say 200 miles I would achieve around 80 mpg combined electric/petrol and yet on a utube video it says around 40 mpg.

Can anyone enlighten me on what the true mpg would be approx.

Thanks

 

[mellobob]

After I run out of electricity my hwy gas usage is around 7L/100km.

 

[Davejay]

You will get better results if you don't let your battery go flat, when you are on faster roads and going over about 45 mph on a light throttle the car will go into parallel mode. If you now press the charge button it will put charge back into the battery (try and keep the battery between 1/3rd and 2/3rd charged) When you have to slow down such as in a built up area just switch the charge off and use some of that almost free electricity, then when your speed increases again hit the charge button again and put a bit more back in. Try and judge it so that you arrive home with the battery empty. On a long run, if I am gentle with my right foot and stick to the speed limits I always get 40 to 42 mpg and when you are using the last of the battery at the end of the journey you will see the average fuel consumption improving even more. I regularly arrive home having achieved 50 to 52 mpg.

 

[Hypermiler]

No way you would get 80 mpg on a 200 mile run if you only charge once. You are right to be sceptical. Even a regular 40 mile round trip isn’t optimal for this car. Have you considered a full ev?
Cheers
H

 

[dogman12]

I have made several 240 - 300 mile trips with a 2018. Outbound starting with a full charge I get about 35 mpg for that distance. If I can't charge before the return, I get about 30. About half of the miles are at 70 mph, half at 60, with a little stop and go in town.

My daily commute is 32 miles, and I have made it all electric with no a/c or heat, and staying off the highway. Highway use and hvac yield 55-75 mpg.

 

[Kesto]

200 mile run will give you 38 to 42 mpg. At 70mph definitely 38

 

[mellobob]

You will get better results if you don't let your battery go flat, when you are on faster roads and going over about 45 mph on a light throttle the car will go into parallel mode. If you now press the charge button it will put charge back into the battery (try and keep the battery between 1/3rd and 2/3rd charged) When you have to slow down such as in a built up area just switch the charge off and use some of that almost free electricity, then when your speed increases again hit the charge button again and put a bit more back in. Try and judge it so that you arrive home with the battery empty. On a long run, if I am gentle with my right foot and stick to the speed limits I always get 40 to 42 mpg and when you are using the last of the battery at the end of the journey you will see the average fuel consumption improving even more. I regularly arrive home having achieved 50 to 52 mpg.

Can we please not US or IMP gallons in these discussions? I'm assuming your 50mpg is Imperial? Ahh ... at least L/100km is the same everywhere ... expect that some countries use km/l. Gotta keep some confusion going

 

[Andrev]

We have 2 threads with the same title, "mpg on long trips". If we follow the title, replies must use mpg but to add the suffix gall.US or gal.Imp. will be better.

 

[greendwarf]

Can we please not US or IMP gallons in these discussions? I'm assuming your 50mpg is Imperial? Ahh ... at least L/100km is the same everywhere ... expect that some countries use km/l. Gotta keep some confusion going

Certainly not after 29th March! :lol:

 

[davestevens]

No way you would get 80 mpg on a 200 mile run if you only charge once. You are right to be sceptical. Even a regular 40 mile round trip isn’t optimal for this car. Have you considered a full ev?
Cheers
H

Would love a full EV but haven't seen anything that feels big enough for me - I'm 6ft 2in and quite broad and have 2 young children with one needing a push chair. Tthe only EVs in my budget are a bit on the small side unless you know of anything larger.

Thanks for your comment

 

[nils944]

Similar to the Prius we had some years ago, the PHEV generally gets better gas mileage in the city vs. the highway.

At higher speeds the fuel consumption increases quite a bit. Recently I did a little test on a 600km round trip. The temperature was just below freezing (say -2 Celsius) and the roads were mostly dry. On the 300km drive south the speed averaged over 120km/h and consumption was about 10.5 liters/100km (~27 mpg). It wasn't windy, but the prevailing winds are generally from the south so that may have contributed to the high consumption. On 300km trip back north (same day) the average speed was closer to 100km/h and consumption was only 7.5 l/100km (~38 mpg). 

My daily driving is mostly within the PHEV's electric range so the ICE doesn't usually get used.

 

[dogman12]

"...almost free energy..."

I would like to see factual results of the mpg loss when road charging to see what it costs per kwh.

I bet it is over 12 cents. But I have not measured it myself.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

You're missing the point that the car will be charging around 50% of the time anyway once the battery's empty or it's in Save. So it's making the car charge when it can potentially be most efficient in parallel mode and low throttle, instead of allowing it to charge willy-nilly when it may well be less efficient.

 

[ChrisMiller]

If there were modes in which 'free' electricity could be harvested from the engine, I would expect the Mitsubishi engineers to be taking advantage of them already.

 

[Davejay]

I don't think anybody at any point said "Free Electricity"

 

[ChrisMiller]

When you have to slow down such as in a built up area just switch the charge off and use some of that almost free electricity, then when your speed increases again hit the charge button again and put a bit more back in.

 

[twosout]

Perhaps you "almost" did?

 

[Davejay]

That's being a bit pathetic, the sentence says "almost free electricity". Obviously the meaning being that the engine is running anyway and driving the front wheels, any surplus power can put charge back into the battery to be used later when required at lower speeds. In the 18 months that I have owned this car I have found this to be far more efficient than using the battery up first and then just leaving it to do it's own thing, also if you keep the charge level up then you have full power if you need it.

 

[ChrisMiller]

[sigh] Okay, then insert the word 'almost' before 'free electricity' in my post. Does it change the logic in any way whatsoever? No. So stop being unnecessarily pedantic and answer the implied question. If there's almost free electricity available, why wouldn't Mitsubishi engineers have designed their systems to capture it?

 

[Trex]

[sigh] Okay, then insert the word 'almost' before 'free electricity' in my post. Does it change the logic in any way whatsoever? No. So stop being unnecessarily pedantic and answer the implied question. If there's almost free electricity available, why wouldn't Mitsubishi engineers have designed their systems to capture it?

Hi Chris,

The battery is charged to put ICE in its most efficient "zone" so it is captured. Please see this topic http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3430

But please Chris read that first page to hopefully help you understand and ask questions if you have them over in that topic.

Regards Trex.