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Sun, vacation, good mood
In the plug-in Hybrid SUV on vacation
Part 2: It’s all about the right “Charge & Save strategy”!
This year's summer vacation took us to the mountains. Exactly the holiday region that electric car drivers and PHEV owners fear. There are few scenarios for electric vehicles that are even more demanding than climbing mountain passes. On the one hand, the question was: Will the “first plug-in hybrid SUV” master the journey confidently? Is the electric power enough? Can you reload often enough? How much energy can you regain through recuperation downhill?
One thing was clear on the first day: the “Sölden” holiday region is not an electric car community!
In the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid on the mountain pastures
Charge & Save - bunker electricity!
A PHEV is always really good when the batteries are charged. That’s with the “first plug-in hybrid SUV” no different either. In principle, once you get used to the almost silent and dynamic “gliding” under the power of the electric motors, you don't want to do anything else. I have already mentioned several times that the charging infrastructure in Germany is the biggest obstacle to this. This isn't a problem in daily use as a family SUV - but it's more of a problem when you're on the road on vacation!
Then as a hybrid
Our first holiday destination was Sölden, 470 km from home. No problem for the PHEV Outlander, the first 46 km to the motorway were completely electric and then driven towards the Fern Pass using petrol and cruise control. I will discuss consumption throughout the entire vacation in Part 4. This “Charge & Save” article is about the right strategy for the Alps, without any charging stations. Because, it may be hard to believe, but the Ötztal holiday region is far behind when it comes to “e-mobility”. I couldn't believe it when "Plug-Finder” did not identify an electricity filling station for Sölden. In fact, the Ötztal is an “E-free” zone!
Neither google nor the personal search on site could conjure up a charging station. So what to do - when it goes steeply up the mountain?
With a full battery charge, the Outlander PHEV can be compared to a tight mountain goat. Thanks to all-wheel drive, it can avoid obstacles on gravel and meadows without grumbling. It is also easy to move away from asphalt. Silent and loose, but only as long as the batteries are charged. Without a battery buffer, the 121 hp petrol engine has to produce e-power for the electric motors. Below 65 km / h, it can also not be helpful on the axis. The PHEV system reaches its limits on a mountain pass. Unless a high-revving gasoline engine doesn't bother you. I personally got used to the silent background noise when accelerating - I wanted to move the PHEV using e-power, especially on the mountain.
CHARGE & SAVE
There are two buttons behind the shift lever: Charge and Save. The charge button activates the charging of the on-board batteries via the operation of the electric motor, the charge button ensures that the battery charge level is not empty.
No matter whether it's Timmelsjoch or just the access to the next alpine pasture, the electric boost from the 12.1 kWh batteries makes the journey much more pleasant than at a speed of 35-60 km/h with a “roaring” petrol engine.
Because mountain passes in particular do not harmonize with the design of the petrol drive at all. 65 km / h? Rarely to be reached between two mountain bends, but it is steep uphill, so a lot of power has to be available.
So - whenever the PHEV Outlander drove on the level, we tried the charge mode. Downhill, the power is always fed back in the fifth recuperation stage and, as soon as the batteries have been charged, the energy is saved for the next pass or ascent to the alpine pasture via save mode.
If you want to do something from Sölden, there are basically only two options: back towards the Fernpass or up towards the Timmelsjoch. In the valley, we therefore activated the charge mode whenever we stood or rolled downhill. As of speed 65 on the country roads, the charge mode was generally activated, but the PHEV charges much slower here than when stationary. What is clear is that the petrol engine is coupled directly to the front axle and can only rotate the speed, which is also directly via translation is driven.
Charge me up, Outlander!
Anyone who “charges” down the passes using “charge” and recuperation will drive up the mountain on the other side purely electrically. And because this question has often been asked by email: mountains are not a problem for the PHEV. No, it's not a sports car - but with children and dogs on holiday, maximum cornering speeds are of secondary importance. No, the PHEV is a whisper-quiet mountain goat. So silent that you have to warn other road users. Cyclists in particular pant audibly louder up the mountain than the whirring electric motors of the PHEV!
Going on vacation to the mountains with the Outlander PHEV? It's all just a question of the right “Charge & Save” strategy!
Four episodes to our vacation trip with the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid:
- Part 1: The advantage of the speed limiter in practice
- Part 3: in the coming week: that fits into the Outlander (23.08.2015)
- Part 4: route planning and consumption on the holiday trip (30.08.2015)