[cloddopper]

Well is now nearly two months since we took possession of our petrol electric hybrid car

 We have done 843 miles  using 45 litres of fuel and have been using our solar panels to do the electric charging most of the time. occasionally if we have ben wanting to make several local journeys we have also use non solar electricity for hours of no solar charging periods .

 We've been discovering the different techniques needed for driving the PHEV.

 Using the air conditioning  hammers the traction battery capacity by about 10 miles on a 20 mile journey . Partially opening the windows for air con hits it at about 5 miles extra electrical consumption drag per charge .

All un necessary weight ( wheel chair , rucksack  of extra clothing etc. ) needs to be removed daily from the car ..this gives over 3 miles extra per charge .

 Checking the tyre pressures and maintaining them at the manufactures spec  is vital a slightly low tyre pressure can slurp off traction energy like there was no tomorrow.

 The battery is best charged to maximum levels when the capacity remaining & indicated is less than 50 %  thought the manual says only charge if the capacity is 80 % or less.

 The charging point ..ours was supplied free & installed free under a government scheme for a trials purpose ..some companies jumped on the installing band wagon and made quite a lot of money ..that scheme has now ended .  You will need to buy and have the charging pod professionally installed by a registered electrical,and also don 't for get to get the legally required installation  certificates in your hand and inform the BCO of the event as it is also a requirement ( well most certainly here in Wales ) for changes to your properties electrical system ..

We have several options for recharging /
(1)
 A card from the government that tracks our usage ( not sure if it is still available ) this means we can get an 80 % super charged for the traction battery  in about 1/2 an hour at some but not all motorway services FOC there are also otheres elswhere but none local to us so far.

( 2 )
Our fixed on the outside wall molunted " Podpoint" ( on 16 amp fusing 0  that I've already mentioned.
This takes about 3 & 1/2 hours to charge up from zero
 
(3)
 
We also have a 13 amp plug in charger that came withe car, this takes up to 8 hours to charge the car.


 The greatest mileage we have had from one full charge with only the driver ( Alison 53 Kg ) in the car has been 32 miles .
 When I get in ( 102 kg ) a full charge drops it to about 25 miles range

When all the family ( Munchkin 26 kg & the dog 27 kg)  get in the car plus my wheel chair and ruck sack the range drops to about 20 miles.

Once the traction battery is used up the engine takes over supplying power to the wheels and also puts some charge back in the battery
 We can set a variable " Paddle control " to allow the vehicle overrun on slowing /foot taken off the accelerator or going down hills to also put varying levels of power back into the traction battery . This is like having the vehicle being braked by an unseen hand so we are still learning to take advantage of this principle .

We also have the facility where we can press a button to have the engine fully recharge the traction battery ..... handy for electric vehicles only zones .

Sitting in a five mile traffic tail back ( Due to a major RTI at the end of the motorway at a roundabout )  for 2 hours saw us run the engine in this charge the traction battery mode to fully charge from zero   , with the air con also on  . Doing this drank 1/4 of a tank of petrol. 

 If any of you have any questions about our PHEV experience  post them up & I'll try and give you a sensible answer.

[Greenerlife]

Weight increases charge?  That has to be impossible surely? Only when you are driving it with weight in?


I absolutely love my EV - have done over 10000 miles in just under a year.  I always top it up at home and when I shop at Sainsburys! The range always says about 70 miles, but with careful driving (anticipation of slowing, and not. speeding away) I get 90 miles from a charge.  I went to London (45 miles) and drove back in the dark, forgetting that the lights drain energy like nobody's business - drove the last 15 miles hoping not to have to slow down at traffic lights and using the regenerative braking whenever I could.  Kept phoning my other half, saying I am going to get stuck on the M25/a3/a281 but it ever happened - coasted right into my drive! 

[doganjo]

Not sure I could be bothered with the hassle.  85 miles to the gallon sounds impressive on petrol/diesel but how much extra is the electricity included in those 843 miles?

My little Dacia Logan does pretty well on unleaded at 40 mpg, AND it was cheap but not nasty - well made wee vehicle.  I don't have to check what weight it can carry - i just load up, gt in it and drive.

[cloddopper]

Weight increases charge?  That has to be impossible surely? Only when you are driving it with weight in?

Have I made a mistook GL ?
Can you tell me where please & I'll correct or explain things better.

Dave

[cloddopper]

Not sure I could be bothered with the hassle.  85 miles to the gallon sounds impressive on petrol/diesel but how much extra is the electricity included in those 843 miles?

My little Dacia Logan does pretty well on unleaded at 40 mpg, AND it was cheap but not nasty - well made wee vehicle.  I don't have to check what weight it can carry - i just load up, gt in it and drive.

 I'm only guessing here, but as it is a two litre engine I suspect it is about 60 % powered off the 240 volt electricity of which 80 % will be the free solar panels electricity at present ( This will change when winter arrives with shorter days ) .

Prior to getting the PHEV I think we were spending about £ 80 every 17 to 20  days on diesel for our 2.2 litre KIA Sedona for the same sort of mileage .


 Re :- Hassel .... your thoughts of having a rechargable green car .

As I have to walk past the car to get in it and back out to get in the house , it is no difficulty even in the rain to take an extra 20 seconds to plug in or un plug the car if it's been on charge .

[doganjo]

That's not hassle I agree - but you seem to have to work out an awful lot of stuff for load carrying. Plus not everyone has solar panels - I just wondered what the total cost per mile was.

Your post had me tired just reading it 

[cloddopper]

I can see that initially the idea is not every ones cup of tea.
 
Yet when we add up the tariff payments  per year and the fact that we have adjusted /planned our electricity consumption to fit in with the generation of the panels it suddenly becomes a very good financial viable proposition especially if you have perfectly  angled roof's that face south .
 Panels & the controller should be good for around 20 years or more unless damaged by lightening or over voltage from the electricity boards supply .

 I was talking to a small holder cum farmer with a 4 bed B&B set up some three miles from me last week he has the perfect roof angle and it also faces south .  he only bhas the allowed array that does not need planning conscent .
He said he got £480 for his first full quarter of generation this year as well as being able to charge up three vehicles for free . His electric bill is very very small as well due to the free electricity angle.

[regen]

" I was talking to a small holder cum farmer with a 4 bed B&B set up some three miles from me last week he has the perfect roof angle and it also faces south .  he only bhas the allowed array that does not need planning conscent .
He said he got £480 for his first full quarter of generation this year as well as being able to charge up three vehicles for free . His electric bill is very very small as well due to the free electricity angle."

I reckon he was pulling your leg! At current FIT rates £480 per year would be closer to the mark. Even with the original (now 50p) rate it would be difficult to achieve this in sunny Carms unless your first quarter started in march off a 4kw installation. If you plan carefully then I expect to still pay for 60% of the electricty used which still leaves an annual bill of more than £500. As to charging 3 vehicles on the excess of around 2000kwh pa from a 4kw system in Carms then I guess the vehicles dont go far.

[cloddopper]

That makes a lot more sense .. I understood him to mean the first quarter  , I didn't think anything of it , but like you say it's more like his first years return.

I never asked him about distances as it was cold and starting to rain , there was me buttonholed by my  car wearing just sandels, T shirt and jeans  .

 It's good to see figures that are different especially worked examples with a bit of back up to them .

Thanks .

[pgkevet]

I recall reading that eco-tricity as suppliers give a reduced rate for the part used for home electric vehicle charging - don't know if that helps...

I quite fancied a tessla as the only all leccy with both range and performance - for a pensioner who thinks he's a boy racer - but here in the sticks it's an hour and a half to their nearest free superfast charging point and anywhere else the charge time is painful.

My nissan sports is still probably one of the greenest cars about..if only 'cos it's over 20yrs old

[cloddopper]

We run with the eco tricity card & agreement scheme , I understand that the scheme is now closed to newcomers .
 
It didn't take some sharp thinkers long to realise that they could make a financial killing  installing the pod points under the scheme .  Several fair sized companies set up small call center type organisations to call hoteliers & B&B'ers to see if they wanted a pod point for free .  That's how the smallholder I spoke of earlier said he got his .

 PG...   Yes that Tessla does have some "   Snaz " appeal going for it .

 I wonder how things will work out with the latest high capacity rechargeable lightweight aluminium plate battery if it is successful.  From what I read it could be the new fuel cell of the 21 st century and well beyond , as well as being very cheap to produce and not as polluting as most batteries to boot. 

You'll just have to have your own 30 KVA wind genny & small solar farm to charge it up.   

[pgkevet]

We're going to get off the topic of your review here... but the downfall of all available solar systems and current battery technolgies is the environmental unfriendliness of sourcng the bases and their future disposal... similar to the 50's wonderful hype over cheap nuclear power that costs a fortune.
Wind is too unrelaible as a sole source.. for some reason we hang back on the UK's most practical power source.. tidal.. which they really should be pushing forwards. And globally there are some great ideas such as sunlight used to power synthetic fuel productions - which is obviously limited to desert type sites.

Did you research the future costs of battery packs and secondhand values on electric vehicles with the constant evolvement of battery technologies that require differeing charge monitoring systems? Are they integrated into the packs or the car?

[cloddopper]

My car is a motability hired one so the costs are not a worry to me ..i got the car because it is one of the few that I can actually get into & even then I find it a bit of a struggle due to the back problems and a crocked knee .
I've had two Kia Sedona from Motability this last 10 yrs  that have been on exteneded contracts for 5 years .   However the dealership of KIA UK did not import the Sedona model this year saying there was not enough call for it to be financially viable so I had to go for what was available .


Because of the disabilities I have i have to use the " ricabiity"  website to discover the various dimensions and features of a car before I can think of would I like to hire this or that.

Once all the dimensional requirements were entered  The outlander was the only car shown with the right sized access dimensions and being an automatic .

 I balked at the idea of having a 4x4 car thinking that the fuel economy would be like pouring money down the drain.
 Then I saw the 147 mpg on the Motability site thinking there must be a data entry error ..no 4x4 2 litre can do 147 mpg.
 So I went to the Mitsubishi website and found the same figures there. We went to the local dealership the next day and to put it mildly I was chuffed to bits that I could even get in the car .. the rest just followed as  natural as day follows night.
 
 I understand that the battery pack is renewable either piecemeal or as a whole but like most of these things it will be a dealership job only.

 I do forsee a great advancement  in electric cars in the next five years.

Re your wave power .
You should hear the locals in and around Swansea  yapping , yorping & crying "  NIMBY , NIMBY " , now that the WAG has given the go ahead for a tidal lagoon to be constructed to generate power as in the Bristol channel towards Cardiff we have some rather large tides of 45 feet or so .

[pgkevet]

Car comfort is one of the reasons i still have my 200sx after 21yrs. During he worst of my back problems.. as in cane, corsets, codeine and hardly move.. I used to go sit in it in the driveway as the only comfortable seat i could find. Although actually getting in and back out was an issue. I'm over 2m tall so any car gives some problems. In the past i've had seat tracking rewelded on some cars for the extra space..or even taken the front seat right out and sat on the floor. I don't think the police would like that these days .

We have an Xtrail 4x4 as well for the worst weathers and it's no where as comfy for any distance. Modern higher car seats stir the sciatica.

[cloddopper]

We took the Outlander & caravan to Cardiff , a distance of 60 miles from here. Had a full tank of fuel @ 45 litre & a fully charged drive battery .
We topped up the drive battery twice at IKEA Cardiff ( 80 % charge only... FOC  ) and also twice using the portable charging unit at the caravan site whilst our caravan was plugged into the sites supply . 
We made it back hole with just over 1/8 th  of a tank of fuel left & the drive battery in need of charge .
Total mileage done 167 miles for say 39 litres for fuel divide by 4.58 gives 8 .5 gallons so giving about 19.65 miles per gallon on average . That is a lot better than the old KIA Sedona that barely gave 16 per gallon of the same journey over the same period this  time last year