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

 

[drwho]

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.

I, of course, have been using the same starting procedure, but I don't shift it to B0. I just leave it on B2 which is the default start setting and the ICE still doesn't come on at all.
I figure on B2 that I'm getting a bit more Regen then on B0.

 

[PHEV07]

I, of course, have been using the same starting procedure, but I don't shift it to B0. I just leave it on B2 which is the default start setting and the ICE still doesn't come on at all.
I figure on B2 that I'm getting a bit more Regen then on B0.

Temperature has been hovering around Zero. (3'C)

Even though I used the Procedure to Force into EV Mode, I noticed the EV Power Meter increasing then the ICE started up. I drove with ICE running for a minute or so. Pulled over and restarted car to get to EV Mode again Not sure why it did this. ICE never kicked in even though I had the Heater on and set to 19'C.

Car did start ICE again, for no reason at all, even with Heater off.

Have to do more testing when Temp drops to near 0'C again.

Strange, to say the least.

 

[drwho]

Temperature has been hovering around Zero. (3'C)

Even though I used the Procedure to Force into EV Mode, I noticed the EV Power Meter increasing then the ICE started up. I drove with ICE running for a minute or so. Pulled over and restarted car to get to EV Mode again Not sure why it did this. ICE never kicked in even though I had the Heater on and set to 19'C.

Car did start ICE again, for no reason at all, even with Heater off.

Have to do more testing when Temp drops to near 0'C again.

Strange, to say the least.

Now that we're using the heater a bit or sometimes still the air conditioning, you know the weather has been really weird here lately, we're getting 70 km on a full charge. And the ice has not been coming on even with the heater or whatever on.
But when nothing else is turned on we still get 90 kilometers on a full charge.

I'm sure in the middle of winter in inclement weather, with the wipers on, the heater on, starting with steering wheel heater and seat heater at first, and maybe some Tire slippage, we will get more like 50 km on a charge. I think that's pretty good though.

 

[yajeep]

Hi, anyone tested and can verify if the software update works? I know it's a little bit colder now. I'm planning to buy a PHEV but thinking twice because of the no start issue during cold weather -30 or lower.

 

[PHEV07]

Now that we're using the heater a bit or sometimes still the air conditioning, you know the weather has been really weird here lately, we're getting 70 km on a full charge. And the ice has not been coming on even with the heater or whatever on.
But when nothing else is turned on we still get 90 kilometers on a full charge.

I'm sure in the middle of winter in inclement weather, with the wipers on, the heater on, starting with steering wheel heater and seat heater at first, and maybe some Tire slippage, we will get more like 50 km on a charge. I think that's pretty good though.

Weather in Winnipeg has been in the range of -1 to 5'C. I am now using the Heater about 25% of the time, set for 20'C Seat heat on and steering wheel heat on. 50% of driving I had a passenger and have a full tank of fuel. I can now, only get a full charge of 80kms, 2 days ago was 79kms this morning only charging to 78kms.

My actual driven range has only been 70 to 65 kms per charge for the last 3 charge cycles. ICE does kick in out of the blue even though I force car into forced EV Mode. Weird

 

[DougF]

Hi, anyone tested and can verify if the software update works? I know it's a little bit colder now. I'm planning to buy a PHEV but thinking twice because of the no start issue during cold weather -30 or lower.

I thought about it too and decided not to buy an Outlander. @Grandad bought one and decided to sell it because of the no start issue. He doubts that the software update will solve the issue. See what he wrote here and elsewhere on this forum.