My road trip across the country

[SeattleExPat]

In April and early May, I made a road trip in my red '23 SEL with a class mate who came over from Austria to Seattle.
We departed Seattle on April 1st and drove first to Southern Illinois (via Grand Teton, Devils Tower, Badlands) to visit my cousin and watch the Total Eclipse on April 8th. We were lucky - weather was perfect!

Then along the following route:
- Buffalo Trace distillery (Frankfort, KY) - scored some Eagle Rare Bourbon!
- Washington, DC - visited the Smithsonian Air & Space museum (half was closed for renovation - bummer!)
- Blue Ridge Parkway, with several stops
- Gulf coast - enjoyed the beaches
- New Orleans - 12 days for the 2024 Jazzfest
- Utah National Parks (Arches, Canyonlands ...)
- Grand Canyon
- Death Valley (that was HOT, but the Outlander did well)
- Sequoia N.P.
- Yosemite N.P.
- Back to Seattle along the Pacific coast.
As you can tell, it was mostly a nature trip (plus the Rolling Stones at the Jazzfest).
All together 10,638 miles, 95% on Gas, we could only charge a few times.
Fuel consumption was 31.6 mpg (7.45 l/100km), better than EPA numbers, but we did not drive very fast and avoided freeways most of the time.

 

[Rockwallrick]

That sounds like an amazing trip! We did a couple road trips last year from Florida. The first was up to New Hampshire and back which was around 3k miles. We went as far north as Mt. Washington and visited with relatives on the way. We were able to charge at a couple hotels we stayed at and managed to get around 30 mpg. On the 2nd trip we drove all the way out to Oceanside California and back which was around 6k miles. Along the way we visited the Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and the Hoover Dam. We also visited with relatives in Texas and Arizona and my Wife got her gambling fix in Las Vegas! The Outlander is a comfortable ride for road trips. So far so good with just over 16k miles on it.

 

[michael8554]

"All together 10,638 miles, 95% on Gas, we could only charge a few times."

I'm surprised alternating Charge mode and EV mode only gave you 5% in EV ?

 

[SeattleExPat]

"All together 10,638 miles, 95% on Gas, we could only charge a few times."

I'm surprised alternating Charge mode and EV mode only gave you 5% in EV ?

It was certainly more than 5% in EV mode - sorry, I forgot to record the percentage. What I meant was that more than 95% of the energy source was gasoline, either directly or by charging the battery. We were able to charge at our AirBnB in New Orleans (didn't drive a lot there), and at a few campgrounds. We mostly did dispersed camping, with one of us sleeping in the car and the other in a tent, if possible near water (lake or river) for a quick "bath".

 

[SeattleExPat]

This is from one of our stops - Watauga River in Northeast Tennessee. We spent a couple of nights there.

 

[SeattleExPat]

And here is my "money shot" from the eclipse - you can see the flares.

 

[maby]

"All together 10,638 miles, 95% on Gas, we could only charge a few times."

I'm surprised alternating Charge mode and EV mode only gave you 5% in EV ?

If you are unable to charge from the mains, it is always 0% EV - every mile you travel is driven by gas - the battery just postpones the reckoning...

Martin

 

[russ]

If you are unable to charge from the mains, it is always 0% EV - every mile you travel is driven by gas - the battery just postpones the reckoning...

Martin

I understand what you are saying, but that is a bit harsh. You will get some gains from regeneration. That's the point of a non-plugin hybrid.

 

[maby]

I guess you might get a few miles back on regen, but they will probably not make up for the additional fuel consumption caused by hauling around quite a few kilos of flat battery. A purpose built non-plugin has a much smaller and lighter battery - my current X-Trail has an EV range of about one mile.

Martin

 

[russ]

E=mc2 so a flat battery should be lighter than a charged one...

Anyone have mileage figures for a petrol only outlander.?

 

[DougF]

E=mc2 so a flat battery should be lighter than a charged one...

Anyone have mileage figures for a petrol only outlander.?

I guess you meant a joke... E = mc2 applies to nuclear reactions. The reactions in a battery are chemical.

 

[greendwarf]

I understand what you are saying, but that is a bit harsh. You will get some gains from regeneration. That's the point of a non-plugin hybrid.

Not really, as unless you live in Sarf Lundun with our Escher designed roads (so all journeys are downhill), any regen you get - either from altitude or speed - has been "bought" with petrol, if you have no access to plug-in charging - simples!

 

[roussir]

I guess you meant a joke... E = mc2 applies to nuclear reactions. The reactions in a battery are chemical.

Sorry, cannot leave this uncorrected... the equation applies always. It is just that the loss of mass for chemical reactions is negligible.

(edit: and, yes, it was a joke)

 

[DougF]

Sorry, cannot leave this uncorrected... the equation applies always. It is just that the loss of mass for chemical reactions is negligible.

(edit: and, yes, it was a joke)

Thanks! Your correction taught me something today. I did an Internet search and found this:

Generally, in both chemical and nuclear reactions, some conversion between rest mass and energy occurs so that the products generally have smaller or greater mass than the reactants. Therefore the new conservation principle is the conservation of mass energy.

Source: https://www.nuclear-power.com/laws-...bed by Einstein's,very large amount of energy.

 

[maby]

I understand what you are saying, but that is a bit harsh. You will get some gains from regeneration. That's the point of a non-plugin hybrid.

The point of a non-plugin hybrid it's to use the small battery to even out the load on a typically underpowered petrol engine. A specialist in the field who I used to know described it as an electric turbocharger squeezing acceptable performance out of an underpowered car.


Martin

 

[russ]

Fair enough.
I'm still interested in a comparison between ordinary outlander and the phev.
But it is pure madness to drive a plugin hybrid without ever plugging it....

 

[greendwarf]

Fair enough.
I'm still interested in a comparison between ordinary outlander and the phev.
But it is pure madness to drive a plugin hybrid without ever plugging it....

More difficult than most because the ICE version is still diesel AFAIK

 

[SeattleExPat]

More difficult than most because the ICE version is still diesel AFAIK

Not in the US.
The gas version has a Nissan drivetrain since '22 (from the Rogue), the PHEV drivetrain is from Mitsubishi (including the engine).

EPA numbers:
Gas, 2WD - 24 city / 31 highway, 27 combined
Gas, AWD - 24 city / 30 higway, 26 combined
PHEV, AWD - Gas: 26mpg combined, Electric: 64MPGe (1.9 miles/kWh). No specs for city/highway on gas.

Driving locally, I average ~2.5 miles/kWh on electric - not much freeway, but a lot of hills up&down. A Tesla would be way more efficient.

On our roadtrip, when I was driving, I averaged 29mpg (60% freeway at 60-70mph, and mountain roads across the Rockies and Appalachians).
My friend drove from New Orleans back to Seattle via TX, NM, CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA, OR, WA (see route above). He is evidently a much more efficient driver and averaged 33.6mpg (but only ~10% freeway and fewer mountains). All consumption numbers are calculated from odometer and gas that was actually filled, not from the trip computer.