Outlander PHEV Sub-Zero Operation Question

[MiPHEV]

It's finally become cool enough that I need to work on a battery heater for my old gen 2019, the cool temps keep the engine locked out of parallel operation until the battery is reasonably warm, on my last trip yesterday it took about 15 miles of driving to warm the battery enough on a cool, but not cold, 40F/4.5C morning - which seemed to allow the parallel coupling to kick in once the coolest cell in the battery was above 12C/54F. A different problem than new gen users experience, but a battery heater is a battery heater at the end of the day...

Originally I was going to attach a panel to the bottom of the car as has been mentioned here, but I think I'll just make a parking heater that slides under the car instead for ease. I'm going with a $15 single air mattress and some style of those electric warming pads, whether RV tank heater, sidewalk ice melt, whatever has the size and wattage I want, ideally I'd like to get it up around 1000w+ so it won't take all day to preheat and I can put it on a timer to run for the bare minimum time before departure. Pop a simple programmable temperature controller on there, wrap the assembly in a tarp for puncture protection and call it good. The air mattress should help keep some of the heat from being lost while it's warming in frigid conditions as well.

This won't solve Mitsubishi's no start problem in the cold unless you could park near a power outlet, but it's a nice option for in the garage. Park, inflate/deflate, depart. Such a kludge for what should be taken care of at the factory.

 

[PHEV07]

The heating blanket idea sounds good, because I have a 2024 Model

This morning it was -4'C and after using the Forced EV mode, I just finished driving 15kms on EV only with a Drive Battery at 75%.

Procedure I used:

1) Press Start with no Brake pedal depressed.
2) Press EV Button
3) Press Brake Pedal and StRt zbutton
4) Select ECO Mode
5) Shift to Drive then B0

This prevents ICE to start up and I was able to use Heat without ICE starting up.

Finally I can drive in colder weather on pure EV. Now have to wait for the temp to drop to see how cold outdoor temp needs to be before the ICE kicks in.

 

[Woon Chung]

Yeah, I've always done this. It worked last year just fine, the engine kicks on way sooner since the update I had done late last winter / early spring.

This arouse me the curiosity. If you prevent ICE cold albeit by force using EV in front, is the battery enough to drive to your work without any charging (your work place is within the distance of battery only coverage)? If your driving distance is longer than battery coverage distance, eventually the ICE will be running to charge the battery. I don't believe that running under EV will heat up ICE during driving, until ambient temperature becomes hot suddenly. This means that it will do the cold cranking eventually, either from the start or after EV driving.

There is another if. If, I saying if, computer calculate that battery needs a certain temperature for best working condition, it will kick the ICE to heat up battery temperature for best condition, not for driving. Computer use every data for best and safe electric circuit functions. If, I say If, it is right, then you forced to use the battery in cold temperature. Battery is more sensitive than engine oil in temperature. This assumption is not common yet. But this reminds me the first stage of wrong charge and use of Lithium-Ion battery. Sometime later, it becomes common not charging full and not draining full. AndyInOz says the engineer already set the limit of charge and drain in its software, as we know it now, then we can get assumption of temp control in software, too. Unfortunately, it is not announced officially yet. So, nobody knows yet. I just guess. Just curiosity. In my person opinion, the modern electric vehicle has so many science hidden inside, any maneuvering by the unconfirmed processing, we are not safe at all. Also charging at 600vDC at CHAdeMO port to 292 VDC outlander battery is not guaranteed its safety. For your reference Tesla has 500VDC battery. Not all battery is same.

Good luck to you