North East England

[david1972]

That's why I've gone for the phev, low emissions for the salary sacrifice scheme but needed 4x4 for the road we live on no brainer really when the wife only commutes 30 mile a day.

Absolutely +1 here on that front mate

 

[ABatty]

Hi, new member here
I took delivery of a GX3h on 23rd September, what a great car. Then I realised what way happening with it, the petrol engine never stopped!!!
Returned to the dealer, they were mystified and sent me off with a courtesy car. Some hours later I was summoned and told it was fine, they are supposed to do that. 'It's because you use the heater!! (also if you use AirCon in any model)
I tried without the heater, engine stopped but the car steamed up and I couldn't drive it.
The car has been returned to the garage today
It did 1 gallon of petrol an hour to run the demister when running pure EV. In town in medium traffic that's 20mpg for demister + EV cost of 4p/mile. It was more expensive to run than my other 2 vehicles added together.
Leasing company threatening legal action now!

 

[maby]

Hi, new member here
I took delivery of a GX3h on 23rd September, what a great car. Then I realised what way happening with it, the petrol engine never stopped!!!
Returned to the dealer, they were mystified and sent me off with a courtesy car. Some hours later I was summoned and told it was fine, they are supposed to do that. 'It's because you use the heater!! (also if you use AirCon in any model)
I tried without the heater, engine stopped but the car steamed up and I couldn't drive it.
The car has been returned to the garage today
It did 1 gallon of petrol an hour to run the demister when running pure EV. In town in medium traffic that's 20mpg for demister + EV cost of 4p/mile. It was more expensive to run than my other 2 vehicles added together.
Leasing company threatening legal action now!

I do agree that it is a slightly strange idea to market a plugin hybrid without an electric heater in a country like this. The GX4h is fine. The aircon works off the battery - it will reduce your range on battery, but will not force the engine on until the battery is flat.

That said, there is no reason for it to be worse than a similar size conventional petrol car. I'm seeing around 44mpg with a flat battery on a motorway run and 30-ish around town.

 

[ABatty]

Thanks for the reply.
It gave me 32 on the motorway with an empty battery and at the end of a 50:50 dual/single carriageway run of 70 miles returned an average 38.2. That was the return leg of a journey.
The outward leg started with a full battery, still the 50:50 roads, returned a supposed 50mpg but an empty battery.

The garage has told me that they think the AirCon pump is engine driven on all models, not that I've used it. Road test do seem to say 'switch off the climate control to preserve the battery'

I'm feeling very bitter at the moment, and very very let down.

I'm in Scarborough by the way.

 

[maby]

Thanks for the reply.
It gave me 32 on the motorway with an empty battery and at the end of a 50:50 dual/single carriageway run of 70 miles returned an average 38.2. That was the return leg of a journey.
The outward leg started with a full battery, still the 50:50 roads, returned a supposed 50mpg but an empty battery.

The garage has told me that they think the AirCon pump is engine driven on all models, not that I've used it. Road test do seem to say 'switch off the climate control to preserve the battery'

I'm feeling very bitter at the moment, and very very let down.

I'm in Scarborough by the way.

I guess a lot depends on what you would be driving instead of the Outlander. The very low headline fuel consumption is only achievable under some quite specific conditions and I think most people are going to find themselves using a fair amount of petrol in the middle of winter. In the spring and autumn, someone who does a lot of relatively short journeys and a few longer motorway runs are going to see fuel consumption of perhaps 150 mpg-equivalent. In the middle of a hot summer, this is likely to come down a fair bit if you expect to use the aircon. If you just treat it like an ordinary car and you're not a boy racer, you should be able to get 35mpg or better out of it - which is not bad for a 4WD of that size.

 

[maby]

and P.S. the aircon is definitely not engine driven. I was just waiting at the station to collect my wife and switched the aircon off (opening a window) - the estimated EV range showed 35 miles - then she arrived, I closed the window and switched the aircon on and the estimated range dropped to 19 miles. If you have the car plugged up on charge, you can turn the aircon on in the morning to get the car comfortable before you set out.

 

[Casper]

Hello everyone I've just discovered this thread so this is my first post. I've had my new Glacier Blue GX4h for nearly 3 weeks now. I live up in Consett, Co Durham but picked it up in Barnsley party for my old agin 4 x 4. It took us up to Scotland for the Ryder Cup and performed very well coming back late in the dark on the Sunday night. The A68 route over the border is a very steep windy road with the cats eyes constantly disappearing and lots of sudden breaking so I found the brake regen paddles really useful for slowing down on the bends. Love the electric sunshine roof and heated seats but not keen on the sat nav ( takes to long to get post code accepted).
Looking forward to the snow up in the hills.
Other car is a LEAF which we have had for about 18 months.
Can't see how to attach photos on this site

 

[david1972]

Casper...we are in Consett too. Think I may have seen you once at no1 roundabout...was in my subaru at the time though

 

[Hypermiler]

Hi Casper
There is a how to post pictures in the photos/videos section about 10 threads down.
Are you getting winter tyres then?
Cheers
H

 

[Casper]

Casper...we are in Consett too. Think I may have seen you once at no1 roundabout...was in my subaru at the time though

Damn you come on an international forum thinking you will be the first from a small poor town to get a relatively rare new car and then find you are beaten to it. Same thing happened with my first LEAF over two years ago - my first visit to the towns public chargers ( sited close to my grandfathers house in what was Edward St 50 odd years ago) found I was queuing behind two other LEAFs charging. See you around. Perhaps we can negotiate a discount for tow bar fitting or something

In regard to other post about winter tyres will wait and see unless I decide to join that skiing club up at Stanhope - I reckon if there's enough snow to ski the getting there will be a challenge

 

[Hypermiler]

Come on now, don't be shy. I know there are some new Yorkshire folk on the forum... you know who you are. Please consider letting us know roughly where you are so we can look out for you. I really ought to update my profile - I am between York and Thirsk.
Cheers
H

 

[steve2001]

I am in Leeds so you might spot me pottering around south Leeds, Rothwell or Wakefield when the car arrives later this month. There is already a White one just down my estate, but I don't know the owner. Small world...

 

[Hypermiler]

Hi Steve
Welcome! yes, I do occasionally visit Leeds - was at Ikea a week or two ago and saw two phevs in the charging area. I can be seen around the north York, Boroughbridge, Easingwold and Harrogate area - mine is currently the filthy blue car. Doesn't seem much point washing it at the moment (although leaving it out in the rain would be better than nothing!).
Cheers
H

 

[ABatty]

Hi Steve

Very best of luck to you, I had a GX3H, on lease, I returned it after 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!

The GX3 is not the same vehicle as the advertised PHEV, it uses the engine all the time to operate the heater and screen demister. I mean ALL the time. The exception is if you happen to drive long enough and the car gets up to the temperature you have set for cabin temp. it's short lived as the temp will drop again in a minute or two and the engine starts up again.

My check on the GX3H showed it to be using about a gallon an hour to run the demister, in slow town traffic that represents 20mpg!!!! and that's when it's running on battery. The irony is that to warm the engine it actually puts a charge into the battery just so that it can do some work to warm itself up. That robs you of the opportunity to charge from the mains, it's charging the battery using pump petrol (at £1.25 / l) when running on battery.

Cancel it while you can.

 

[Cymro]

GX3H No Leccy heater.

 

[maby]

GX3H No Leccy heater.

That is certainly part of the problem, though all hybrid owners need to realise that the fuel savings are not uniform across the year or across all patterns of usage. Everyone is going to burn more petrol in the winter than in the summer and a lot of users are going to be disappointed with the fuel economy when they hike off across Europe next summer on holiday and run a thousand miles with few, if any, opportunities for charging. You need to look at the fuel consumption over a full year before condemning or praising the car.

 

[steve2001]

Hi Steve

Very best of luck to you, I had a GX3H, on lease, I returned it after 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!

The GX3 is not the same vehicle as the advertised PHEV, it uses the engine all the time to operate the heater and screen demister. I mean ALL the time. The exception is if you happen to drive long enough and the car gets up to the temperature you have set for cabin temp. it's short lived as the temp will drop again in a minute or two and the engine starts up again.

My check on the GX3H showed it to be using about a gallon an hour to run the demister, in slow town traffic that represents 20mpg!!!! and that's when it's running on battery. The irony is that to warm the engine it actually puts a charge into the battery just so that it can do some work to warm itself up. That robs you of the opportunity to charge from the mains, it's charging the battery using pump petrol (at £1.25 / l) when running on battery.

Cancel it while you can.

Gulp!

I saw your other previous posts about this and I did wonder what would happen when the cold wet weather kicked in. I even spoke to a dealer when trawling round the lease companies and they promised to look into it, but they never got back to me.
I expected that the car would run a few miles on ICE until warmed up and then occasionally when the coolant temp dropped again but not run continuously as you have found.
Bit nervous now having heard of your experiences - sounds like an extreme case. Have you been back to dealers to have it checked? Are other GX3h owners complaining in significant numbers?

For me this is 2 year experiment - If I like the car and it does what the adverts claim I was going to get a GX4h PHEV when this lease is up. So I'm reluctant to cancel just yet but will do some more digging now on ICE usage in cold weather.

 

[Cymro]

Haven't got mine yet, 10days apparently, but its a GX4hs. My 'normal' drive is about 20-30miles per day local commute with the occasional trip up to 150-200 miles. However I am driving to the alps on Boxing day and back a week later (750 miles each way) so it'll be interesting to see the comparison.

I agree people need to look at the fuel consumption in the round. With a regular ICE car you never think of the energy you're using to charge the battery, run the radio, lights, the AC, the heater and heated seats etc... but you should be aware you are still doing this. When you get a PHEV you immediately become aware of this energy use. So chill out a bit and wait a while to see what you get. Even if my usage is as bad as my current Kuga (34mpg) I'll still be £241 per month better off due to BIK changes. If I can get combined 50mpg then it'll be another £45 per month. So I'm not going to worry too much at the moment.

 

[maby]

Others are complaining - there is another thread running on the subject right now.

The GX3 does accentuate the issue, but the GX4 is not immune, it just postpones it a bit. The root of the problem really is some unrealistic expectations of the car which are partly Mitsubishi's fault, but also down to reviewers and some members of forums like this one. The PHEV can return some very good fuel consumption figures, but only under some specific patterns of usage that are not representative of general purpose car use. Cold weather makes this worse and the lack of the electric heater in the GX3 makes it worse still.

In the worst case, a GX3 behaves exactly the same as a GX4 with a flat battery - the GX4 does have an electric heater, but that can only work if the car has charge. The absolute maximum range of either on battery is about 30 miles and running the heater off the battery in a GX4 is going to reduce your EV range to around 15 miles or less in cold weather. Once the battery is flat, both models are going to run on petrol and can return consumption figures in the region of 40mpg. Hence, the ability to heat on battery in a GX4 saves you rather less than half a gallon of petrol.

If you are only going to drive 10 or 15 miles per day, then the GX3 lack of electric heating will be noticeable. If you are using it as a general purpose car, then a GX4 will give you an effective fuel consumption around 55 to 60 mpg and the GX3, in the winter at least, will manage a few mpg less. In the summer, they will both perform the same.

 

[steve2001]

I average 32 MPG in my Diesel C-Crosser AKA Outlander - not good. That is because my daily commute is 10 miles there and back, also some school runs, so all local mileage. The car barely warms up before I reach my destination most days.

The PHEV suits my driving profile perfectly - or so I thought! But from what you say Maby the GX3h should hopefully beat my current poor MPG especially over the longer term.