Outlander 2016 question on Battery

[Seth]

Hi there,

I purchased a second hand PHEV and I do very much love it. However, I charged the battery to full and it reads 13 miles? I thought it should be more than that. Also, it drops way way way down. I drove 2 miles (sensibly) and I'm at 8 miles on the battery.

Furthermore, can anyone explain to me (better than the manual does) these quick questions,

1, What does charge and save mean?
2, Because I dont have an "EV" button, does that mean I can't do a battery only drive?

I really appreciate any help you can give me on this. It's going to make the difference on whether or not I keep the PHEV.

 

[Regulo]

Charge means the engine is forced to run in an effort to charge the drive battery.
Save will attempt to maintain the drive battery at the same level of charge as when the button was pressed. Handy if you want to have some charge at the end of a long drive for whatever reason.

13 miles seems low. But see if it changes after a few drives. It is known as the "Guessometer" because that's what it does - guesses your predicted mileage against what the last few miles (perhaps 5 minutes?) of the last journey was (I think).

 

[Seth]

Does running on charge lower the distance?

I was expecting to see figures of around 50-60 miles per gallon at least but I'm getting 30 on average. I drive sensibley and with eco mode on.

Also, how do I run purely from the battery? I dont have an EV button?

 

[jaapv]

Running on charge will increase fuel consumption, but that will vary depending on the use of EV.
No, the vehicle has no EV switch, your right foot should function that way.
Driving "sensibly" is a rather fluid concept. The operating conditions can vary the results quite dramatically. The ECO button is only of marginal influence. The driving style is the real parameter. Do you drive mainly in town? Suburban use"? Country roads? Long distance motorway? At what speed? Do you like to brake and accelerate sharply? And so on...


One thing should be quite clear: This is NOT an electric vehicle. It is a hybrid vehicle that can run a reasonable distance on electricity and be recharged from an outside source.

 

[Regulo]

What model is it? What are your journeys? You will be hard pressed to run solely on battery in the winter, heating will start the engine, unless you like driving trussed up like an Eskimo, sorry native Inuit. I get about 35 to 40 mpg on a 200 mile run starting with a full charge. Mix of 50/60 mph single carriage A-roads, and 70 mph dual carriage A-roads. Round town I reckon on using a tiny amount of petrol, but my journeys are within the battery range. As I say, the engine will run this time of year, just to keep you warm.

 

[Seth]

My model is the PHEV GX4H 1998CC Petrol 5DR Automatic.

My dailey drive is, town -> dual carriageway -> motorway -> dual carriageway -> town. Roughly 20 miles.

What i tried to do was to run charge on the motorway and link roads. Is that the strategy?

 

[jaapv]

Up to about 50 mph the electric drive is more efficient, on higher speeds one can consider using Charge or Save, depending on the amount of electricity needed at the end of the drive. In the long run the difference in fuel economy between Charge and Save is marginal, it is all about the strategy of ending up at the next charge point with an empty battery and using EV for (sub)urban traffic as much as possible - and traffic jams.

 

[elm70]

Hi there,

I purchased a second hand PHEV and I do very much love it. However, I charged the battery to full and it reads 13 miles? I thought it should be more than that. Also, it drops way way way down. I drove 2 miles (sensibly) and I'm at 8 miles on the battery.

...

It might be that the main battery has lost capacity (it might be real lost, or "virtual" due to the known limitation of the BMU firmware)

The best way is to get a proper OBD2 adapter, and use the WatchDog application for get an indication of the battery condition.