1st day of 2 day test period in PHEV
Discussion
If i'm honest i'm not over the moon!
Started off badly when i arrived at dealers at arranged time 9:30am to be told that no salesmen where in. Eventually the chap who i saw just 2 days ago for an initial test drive rolled up, he couldn't remember me and wanted to take all my details and go out for a spin, after a bit of telling the penny dropped that i'd done all that, anyway all sorted.
I'll go and get the car for you he smilingly said, it's the 3h. "No" i said, "we agreed it's the 4h i'm taking", he replied along the lines that all the 4's were out and he only had the 3. As i pointed out to him the whole point of taking a 4 is that i wanted to replicate owning one including the pre-heating, actually especially the pre-heating. His reply was priceless "the mechanicals are the same sir" - i gave up, obviously the pre-heating, therefore petrol saving aspect he wanted to brush over.
After a brief control talk - again, he said, "best to keep the heating turned off and run it in eco-mode, afterall you might not be able to handle 200bhp" "yeah" i replied not wanting to spoil his condescending grin with the fact that i drive a 400bhp/ton fun car, that does 0-60 in 4sec rather than the pathetic 11 sec plus for the PHEV - more on that aspect later.
So off i went, in eco-mode and no heating, now bearing in mind it's 3 deg c, with snow on the ground, i turn the heating on, to a sub-tropical 17 degC, and hey presto the engine started, to cut this bit short the engine was in and out for the 15 mile drive home, by the time i got home it was at 50% charge and the petrol average was 72mpg, so not too bad i suppose.
In the afternoon the Mrs and I decided to go into another town, again on start up the engine was running, it did this on and off all the way in which was 20 miles, my Mrs who was driving remarked how slow it was, and that pulling away from junctions there was a lag from pressing the accelerator to actually moving, and even then it was slow, she actually said "this is frighteningly slow".
I drove home and decided to give it some welly just to see what the overtaking potential was, and to sum it up - slow and horribly noisy with the droning engine note.
We finally got home having covered a total of 61 miles, with the battery range on 0, and 45mpg on the trip computer. Now i'm not a leaden right foot driver, i can always beat manufacturers mpg figures, so i'm a little concerned.
As a general note, i found the seats hard and uncomfortable, very "slab" like with little contouring, i'm very disappointed with the performance, even when in full EV and Motor mode, and i found the road noise tiring.
The car is currently 50% through a charge, i'll see what tomorrow brings.
Started off badly when i arrived at dealers at arranged time 9:30am to be told that no salesmen where in. Eventually the chap who i saw just 2 days ago for an initial test drive rolled up, he couldn't remember me and wanted to take all my details and go out for a spin, after a bit of telling the penny dropped that i'd done all that, anyway all sorted.
I'll go and get the car for you he smilingly said, it's the 3h. "No" i said, "we agreed it's the 4h i'm taking", he replied along the lines that all the 4's were out and he only had the 3. As i pointed out to him the whole point of taking a 4 is that i wanted to replicate owning one including the pre-heating, actually especially the pre-heating. His reply was priceless "the mechanicals are the same sir" - i gave up, obviously the pre-heating, therefore petrol saving aspect he wanted to brush over.
After a brief control talk - again, he said, "best to keep the heating turned off and run it in eco-mode, afterall you might not be able to handle 200bhp" "yeah" i replied not wanting to spoil his condescending grin with the fact that i drive a 400bhp/ton fun car, that does 0-60 in 4sec rather than the pathetic 11 sec plus for the PHEV - more on that aspect later.
So off i went, in eco-mode and no heating, now bearing in mind it's 3 deg c, with snow on the ground, i turn the heating on, to a sub-tropical 17 degC, and hey presto the engine started, to cut this bit short the engine was in and out for the 15 mile drive home, by the time i got home it was at 50% charge and the petrol average was 72mpg, so not too bad i suppose.
In the afternoon the Mrs and I decided to go into another town, again on start up the engine was running, it did this on and off all the way in which was 20 miles, my Mrs who was driving remarked how slow it was, and that pulling away from junctions there was a lag from pressing the accelerator to actually moving, and even then it was slow, she actually said "this is frighteningly slow".
I drove home and decided to give it some welly just to see what the overtaking potential was, and to sum it up - slow and horribly noisy with the droning engine note.
We finally got home having covered a total of 61 miles, with the battery range on 0, and 45mpg on the trip computer. Now i'm not a leaden right foot driver, i can always beat manufacturers mpg figures, so i'm a little concerned.
As a general note, i found the seats hard and uncomfortable, very "slab" like with little contouring, i'm very disappointed with the performance, even when in full EV and Motor mode, and i found the road noise tiring.
The car is currently 50% through a charge, i'll see what tomorrow brings.
Rather than put a separate "Day 2" i'll update here:
Charged yesterday on 13A domestic circuit, no problems and from empty to full in 5hrs, although range said 22 miles despite all indications saying it wasn't taking any more juice.
We did a daily short run to replicate usage, this is 4 miles up to the field to feed horses and walk dogs, the return trip showed 28.6mpg, obviously the hills, wanting some heat and then having it cool down between journeys took it's toll.
Soon after we went into town and the mpg went off scale ie. over 100mpg, so all was good, however the battery was flat soon after we started the return journey and take the car back to the Mitsubishi garage.
The day ended with a total of 61 miles and an overall average of 66mpg including a full charge, so effectively it averaged 39mpg on petrol, and 22 miles of battery.
I can see the point of the car on a 20-30 mile round trip with a full charge, but short and longer runs then I might as well run a diesel when comparing mpg's, however the 2 points that really made us decide it was wasn't for us are the gutless acceleration and damned bench-like seats, my back was killing me and my arse was numb.
So after a brief flirtation I'm afraid this particular car is not for us, maybe in 5 years when things have progressed a bit it will be a better time to take the plunge into EV or Hybrid technology.
Charged yesterday on 13A domestic circuit, no problems and from empty to full in 5hrs, although range said 22 miles despite all indications saying it wasn't taking any more juice.
We did a daily short run to replicate usage, this is 4 miles up to the field to feed horses and walk dogs, the return trip showed 28.6mpg, obviously the hills, wanting some heat and then having it cool down between journeys took it's toll.
Soon after we went into town and the mpg went off scale ie. over 100mpg, so all was good, however the battery was flat soon after we started the return journey and take the car back to the Mitsubishi garage.
The day ended with a total of 61 miles and an overall average of 66mpg including a full charge, so effectively it averaged 39mpg on petrol, and 22 miles of battery.
I can see the point of the car on a 20-30 mile round trip with a full charge, but short and longer runs then I might as well run a diesel when comparing mpg's, however the 2 points that really made us decide it was wasn't for us are the gutless acceleration and damned bench-like seats, my back was killing me and my arse was numb.
So after a brief flirtation I'm afraid this particular car is not for us, maybe in 5 years when things have progressed a bit it will be a better time to take the plunge into EV or Hybrid technology.
Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff