They've changed the wording of the advert...

[maby]

... in Britain, at least. I'm sitting here working on a bid at the moment with the TV on in the background and they have just played the Outlander PHEV advert - same imagery, but the wording has subtly changed - it now states that "... it knows when it is more efficient to use petrol or electricity ..." - so no claim to be able to operate pure EV implied now...

Just rewound it and listened again - the advert describes it as "The world's first plugin hybrid SUV" - there is no mention of "electric vehicle" anywhere in the advert...

 

[george]

Really ???
So maybe we must simply "tell" our Outlander that petrol is extremely expensive and it will change its behavior !!!
Who tries?

 

[duetto]

Only had the phev a week, how do you set it to run pure electric? every now and then i get the blue arrow from engine to battery light up with blue arrown down to wheeel at ame time.

mine runs mainly battery with frequent sips of petrol, just wondered how to use electric only for short trips under 30mph.

 

[jaapv]

You don’t...

 

[maby]

Only had the phev a week, how do you set it to run pure electric? every now and then i get the blue arrow from engine to battery light up with blue arrown down to wheeel at ame time.

mine runs mainly battery with frequent sips of petrol, just wondered how to use electric only for short trips under 30mph.

Turn the heating off. Pre-heating (assuming you have a GX4) will reduce the physical pain of this. If you have the heater turned off and are still seeing bursts of power from the engine at speeds below around 40mph, then develop a more gentle right foot - it will fire the engine up in response to any significant demand for acceleration.

 

[KillerBob]

Turning heating and AC off will let you drive more on electric only, right?

 

[Hypermiler]

Turning heating and AC off will let you drive more on electric only, right?

Yes, indirectly since AC is electric it will reduce your electric range slightly - but turning off the heating is more important since that will actually start the ICE in many circumstances.
H

 

[outlandish]

I only do short journeys so the petrol engine hardly gets a chance to warm the heater so I have it turned off.

But then you find your window misting up on cold mornings.

So I set the temperature both side to 15 (lowest ) and press the windscreen demist button. Then turn the fan down to minimum and it just keeps sufficient air flowing across the screen to keep it clear.

I leave my car in this state at when I get home. If I don't and have left the heater on or turned up, when I set it to the above it seems to take a while for the car to realise that I have done it and the petrol engine keeps coming on. So much so that sometimes I stop to turn the car off and turn it back on. Then no petrol engine starts.

They never mentioned the use of the petrol engine requirement for the heater when I bought it. Obvious when you think about it but coming from a conventional car as most of us do we don't think about it.

In fact I was advised by the salesman to make sure I ran the petrol engine occasionally so that the petrol doesn't sit in the tank for too long ! I wish !!

I await summer to see how it goes. Hopefully the battery will be more efficient as well. I have never got in this winter after a full re-charge and seen an expected range of 30 mile or more.

 

[maby]

...

I await summer to see how it goes. Hopefully the battery will be more efficient as well. I have never got in this winter after a full re-charge and seen an expected range of 30 mile or more.

Range will certainly improve, but 30 miles is always optimistic. I've managed 29.5 once - in warm (but not hot) weather, sun-roof open and aircon off, cruising around 35mph on relatively flat roads out of the rush hour.

 

[offyoutoddle]

I await summer to see how it goes. Hopefully the battery will be more efficient as well. I have never got in this winter after a full re-charge and seen an expected range of 30 mile or more.

what sort of range do you see, and what sort of range do you actually get then?

 

[SMB]

I dont think I have had better than 25 in the 3 months I have had the car.

 

[Fenbass]

Had the same problem of only having a 24 mile range on a full charge starting out, I unplugged the charger and then plugged back in it went up to 26 I am taking the car back to the dealer on Monday to see if they can improve or if this is what I have to expect if that is the case I feel conned as 56mpg is the best I have had on country roads 148 is out the window

 

[maby]

The 32 miles on EV and 148mpg are definitely best-case scenarios. Car manufacturers in Europe are required by law to only claim the figures achieved on the standard test track - and this suits the manufacturers hybrids very well because the standard test track was designed before hybrids were ever thought of and it is very favourable to them.

Performance is very dependent on usage and weather conditions. It degrades a lot in cold weather and a 20 mile EV range is probably as good as you can expect in the winter. 148mpg is possible (actually better is possible) if your pattern of usage is almost exclusively short trips at relatively low speeds. In more general purpose usage, somewhere between 45 and 75mpg is more realistic.

 

[Fenbass]

Thanks for your reply I thought it was just me I now think it could be a waste of time taking the car back I am in the UK so temperature is about 8c this time of year I still think 32 should be their starting point as the advert says

 

[jdsx]

I dont think I have had better than 25 in the 3 months I have had the car.

If you've had 25 in Dec/Jan/Feb, you'll get to 30 in May, easily. Unless you're in Oz of course :lol:

 

[maby]

Thanks for your reply I thought it was just me I now think it could be a waste of time taking the car back I am in the UK so temperature is about 8c this time of year I still think 32 should be their starting point as the advert says

I guess all car adverts lie through their radiator grilles - but the standardised EU test regime makes the claims for hybrids particularly unrealistic, I'm afraid!

 

[outlandish]

I used to regularly see 28.

Strange though - yesterday the heater was on, so the petrol engine was running, and it was fully charged - showed a range of 15.

Turn off the heater and re-start so no petrol engine running and it sowed a range of 25.

I would expect that with the petrol engine running the range would be extended because of the assistance it is getting, not less !

 

[anko]

If you have the heater turned off and are still seeing bursts of power from the engine at speeds below around 40mph, then develop a more gentle right foot - it will fire the engine up in response to any significant demand for acceleration.

The boundary here is not 40 mph (lower limit for parallel drive) but almost double that speed (upper limit for EV drive).

 

[user 258]

If you have the heater turned off and are still seeing bursts of power from the engine at speeds below around 40mph, then develop a more gentle right foot - it will fire the engine up in response to any significant demand for acceleration.

The boundary here is not 40 mph (lower limit for parallel drive) but almost double that speed (upper limit for EV drive).

I think Maby means the driver is demanding more than the 60KW (80HP) that the battery alone can deliver so is starting the engine to provide additional power. This applies at all speeds, below or above 40mph.
Kind regards,
Mark