Probably done to death but cant find it

[simonrh]

Once the engine is hot (battery flat and driving on a longer journey) will i still use electricity to heat the car?
Does the electric heating element (GX4) only cut in if there is no excess heat being created by the ICE?
I have driven around for the last few days with the heating switched off to save power but I wanted to check that once the ICE starts for several minutes and stays on then I am creating the necessary heat anyway?

 

[aitchjaybee]

page 3 of the technical graphs thread in the same forum section as this thread has the heater diagram. If the engine coolant is warm (which in your scenario it will be) then the electric heater wont need to heat up the elements which is what takes the 4Kw of energy from cold. It will use some elec power (in car fan, coolant pump etc) but not much at all. So if you are driving on ICE, I would certainly use the heater. The ICE would top up any charge that was used anyway.
HJB

 

[anko]

Your has MMCS, doesn't it? Pull up the EV trip screen with the three dials. The left one (yellow) shows how much energy is taken by the aircon. You will see it will stay off when the engine regularly switches on in hybrid mode.