Towing Advice

[pal928]

Hello
I have recently taken delivery of a new PHEV on a personal lease and am enjoying getting to grips with it and finding out how to get the best out of it.

One thing is making me nervous, however. We have a caravan and my first PHEV towing experience is coming up soon. I am therefore seeking reassurance from fellow owners who have towing experience.

I did plenty of research before deciding on the PHEV and it is rated as a good match on the Caravan Club’s online towcar matching service. However, I have seen the odd negative comment on its towing capability. I didn’t want to have to buy another big diesel car just for towing, which will probably amount to less than 5% of my overall annual mileage.

I would be very grateful to hear any advice from anyone who has experience of towing a caravan with their PHEV. Questions floating around my mind are:
• What MPG/range can I expect when fully loaded (bikes on roof, wife, 2 kids and a granny on board!)?;
• Is the car likely to feel very underpowered when towing, particularly on hills?
• Should I use Charge mode on the flat so that I have some battery power to pull up hills?

Any advice would be much appreciated (apart from anything along the lines of "sell your caravan and stop clogging up the roads"!).

Thanks

 

[Steepndeep]

Hi

I have not towed a caravan but driven in the Alps with a fully loaded car, i.e. 3 persons, large refrigerator box, three mountainbikes, big fully loaded skibox on the roof. Car overloaded!

It performs very well. Quiet and stable and enough power to overtake PROVIDED THAT YOU HAVE GOOD SOC, also known as charged battery.

Fuel consumption on Autobahn around 11 liters per 100 km at 120 km/h.

I see no reason to not tow a caravan with the car other than you must have a charged battery for the long inclines. When battery is fully depleted the car goes into one of several limp-modes. Another limp-mode is with fully charged battery and less than about 5 liters in the tank. Then the car switches to EV mode and you cannot charge. Happened in the Pyrenees when I knew I had a gasstation 30 km ahead and needed full SOC. Car refuced to turn ICE on in Save mode and made all sorts of warning noises. Arrived at the incline with little SOC. Stupid engineering.

Also you should know that it can take a VERY long time to charge using ICE on highway with high air resistance caused by the caravan.

When you reach the mountains with high SOC, always keep charge mode on and it will perform great. And remeber to fill the gastank sort of immediately after first gastank empty warning comes on. When you get the second level warning (faster flashing and higher beep if I remember correctly) then you also go into limp-mode and it refuses to use ICE.

Happy caravaning

 

[trickyh]

I find it tows very well. The weight of the batteries seem to add stability, and the rear suspension is already tuned to support that weight over the back axle.

Also had her underwater up to the rear bumper picking up a boat, and nothing went phut!

 

[STEVIAN]

hi
i have just taken delivery of my new 5hs 2017 and have been told by the dealer and also read in the manual that the charge button is to be done whilst stationary , to charge the drive battery up for steep hills and such, i thought it was odd but seems to be the way. this might be the way for the new cars like mine and can only comment on what is on my car and i do own a caravan and shall be testing it out at some point soon.

 

[anko]

hi
i have just taken delivery of my new 5hs 2017 and have been told by the dealer and also read in the manual that the charge button is to be done whilst stationary , to charge the drive battery up for steep hills and such, i thought it was odd but seems to be the way. this might be the way for the new cars like mine and can only comment on what is on my car and i do own a caravan and shall be testing it out at some point soon.

When towing, use Charge mode all the time. New or old model.

 

[Fecn]

hi
i have just taken delivery of my new 5hs 2017 and have been told by the dealer and also read in the manual that the charge button is to be done whilst stationary , to charge the drive battery up for steep hills and such, i thought it was odd but seems to be the way. this might be the way for the new cars like mine and can only comment on what is on my car and i do own a caravan and shall be testing it out at some point soon.

PHEV has a total of 149KW (200HP) of output power available... 60KW (80HP) comes from the battery and the other 89KW (120HP) from the engine... If your battery is low, then output power is reduced down to 89KW (120HP) and you might struggle on steep hills... If you use 'charge' mode all the time, then the battery charge will get topped up by the engine when you're not going up steep hills and you'll have the full 149KW (200HP) available for towing.

 

[ChrisMiller]

Naturally, running in 'Charge' full time will put a dent in your fuel consumption. It would be interesting to compare with fuel consumption on a conventional SUV.

 

[anko]

hi
i have just taken delivery of my new 5hs 2017 and have been told by the dealer and also read in the manual that the charge button is to be done whilst stationary , to charge the drive battery up for steep hills and such, i thought it was odd but seems to be the way. this might be the way for the new cars like mine and can only comment on what is on my car and i do own a caravan and shall be testing it out at some point soon.

PHEV has a total of 149KW (200HP) of output power available... 60KW (80HP) comes from the battery and the other 89KW (120HP) from the engine... If your battery is low, then output power is reduced down to 89KW (120HP) and you might struggle on steep hills... If you use 'charge' mode all the time, then the battery charge will get topped up by the engine when you're not going up steep hills and you'll have the full 149KW (200HP) available for towing.

If you are towing at 170 km/h :lol:

At towing speed with full battery:

In parallel mode, max power is 80 HP from the E-motors + approx. 50 HP from the ICE, providing a total of 130 HP.
In serial mode, it is 2 x 80 HP from the E-motors, providing a total of 160 HP.

At towing speed with empty battery:

In parallel mode, max power is approx. 50 HP from the ICE.
In serial mode, it is 80 HP (due to limitations of the generator, not the ICE).

BTW: The engine WILL NOT top up the battery while towing a caravan at 50 - 60 MPH, not even on a flat road. It may be capable to do so, but it won't. The ICE is programmed to deliver approx 75% of the max power available at the RPMs associated with the current speed (as this is where the ICE is most efficient). It can deliver more, when driving conditions dictate, but it will not do so just to charge the battery. So, you will loose SOC. Perhaps, unless you have a very small (narrow) caravan that is extremely aerodynamic.

 

[anko]

Naturally, running in 'Charge' full time will put a dent in your fuel consumption. It would be interesting to compare with fuel consumption on a conventional SUV.

High fuel consumption is caused by the towing, not by running Charge mode all the time :idea:

BTW: I am quite happy with with fuel consumption of mine while towing, even compared to my previous Outlander, which was a 2.2 diesel. My caravan is 2.3 meter wide and weighs approx. 1500 kg. Traveling speed is little over 60 MPH. Consumption is mostly between 22.5 and 25.5 MPG. I have seen 16.9 MPG over a full tank of gas once, but this gas was spent on driving from Beziers to Col de la Fageole along the A75 in France, where you gain approx. 1100 meters of altitude over a distance of about 250 km. Not so bad

 

[Grigou]

I hate MPG, miles, gallons, inches, pounds and so on :twisted: :mrgreen:

 

[HHL]

I hate MPG, miles, gallons, inches, pounds and so on :twisted: :mrgreen:

+1
you forgot feet......

and I hate km/l even more

 

[ChrisMiller]

I hate MPG, miles, gallons, inches, pounds and so on :twisted: :mrgreen:

And yet your monitor screen is advertised in pouces, and you buy your tomatoes in livres. :shock:

 

[greendwarf]

I hate MPG, miles, gallons, inches, pounds and so on :twisted: :mrgreen:

+1
you forgot feet......

and I hate km/l even more

Never mind rods, poles & perches :lol:

 

[Grigou]

I hate MPG, miles, gallons, inches, pounds and so on :twisted: :mrgreen:

And yet your monitor screen is advertised in pouces, and you buy your tomatoes in livres. :shock:

TV sets are advertised in cm here, and in pouces too. Monitor mostly in pouces, you're right ! I hate monitors.
But I buy my tomatoes in grammes or kg !
Only old people speak about livres (souvenir of very old times, before metric system).

 

[Albacore]

Definitely use charge all the time when towing. It prolongs the SOC. I have driven 150 miles with a 1500kg van incl. some seriously long steep hills (telegraph hill in Devon) and arrived at my destination with 25-30% charge left. Turn off charge when you get to the site though, as its lovely to glide around pulling the van to the pitch People are generally quite bemused!

I did a long trip to Bordeaux last year (400miles) and was a little nervous to say the least, as I had not towed so far before knowing I would not arrive with any battery left. Needn't have worried - on the way down we stopped off a few times (to fill up!!) and I ran the car on charge whilst stationary to try and boost the SOC. Got the old burning rubber smell..
Anyway towards the end of the trip I didn't worry - the SOC gauge disappeared completey and the car performed just as well. It did actually regain a couple of bars during the journey which was reassuring to see. Due to the stopping and charging breaks the journey took us over 10 hours on the way down - but on the way back we took a route with fewer tolls (£90 cheaper) - and did it in 8hours and did not charge whilst stopped.

Word of warning though - We did have a very worrying moment right at the end of our journey down about 4 miles away from the campsite... traffic jams. nothing moving through the town - suddenly I was horrified to see whilst we were stopped (no engine or battery running) that the petrol gauge had dropped from 50 miles (very tight I know when towing but enough for a 4 mile journey right?) to 0 miles range. Arghhh - and about a mile left on the battery. I was pooping myself I have to admit. Managed to pick my way through the congestion (a challenge in itself) to turn around and head back to a garage about a mile away.....

PHEW - lesson learned - NEVER LET THE PHEV GET REALLY LOW ON FUEL WHEN TOWING! I don't want that sort of excitement on holiday.

We're going again this year, but I think I might take a 10l jerry can of fuel for those 'just in case' moments!

I use fuelly to track my fuel consumption - typically when towing I get between 22-25mpg. Although I think the trip back from France reduced to 19mpg as I was probably driving faster - and it was more uphill. Overall including all of my towing trips (at least 4 last year) my average is just shy of 68mpg - so very happy with that - prior to the trip to France it was running at 86mpg.

 

[Patsparks]

towed my 1500kg boat from Victor Harbor to Mannum in South Australia
The consumption reading was about 12L/100km on the way there but I had left the park brake partly engaged on the way there. (Yep, I'm not perfect) On the way home about 9L/100km. Mostly flat ground but some hills crossing the back of the Adelaide Hills. Overall the increase in elevation from my home in Victor to Mannum is only about 20 metres.

The good book or bible in the glove box says to use charge for at least 20 minutes prior to arriving at a steep hill if the battery is discharged to ensure the battery can assist the ICE to provide enough power to get up a hill.

I have read elsewhere that if you try to go up a hill with a depleted battery from a stationary start while towing 1500kg the car will only crawl up the hill. I haven't tried this yet.