Month: December 2015

156 MPG with the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid

Okategoriserade

Outlander display

Can you achieve 156 MPG in an Outlander plug-in hybrid?

Running with a consumption of 156 mpg with the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid is that even possible? Mitsubishi promises a very low consumption and it is achieved through lab results that all cars must undergo in order to have a comparable standard. In reality, of course, that consumption is very hard to achieve. All energy-consuming equipment such as air conditioning, heated chairs and head lamps are disconnected in the lab tests. The Australian auto test-site "The Motor Report, however, has managed to achieve 156 mpg in a reality test. The test was carried out during the summer, at a distance of 80 kilometres of highway, hills, roundabouts and traffic lights. They turned off the climate control to save electricity. They came to the conclusion that the optimum speed for the electric engines was 37mph and to try to keep the speed in steep hills was the best for electricity consumption. Legs without hills were done at 50 mph as far as possible to keep the consumption down. They used the regenerative braking as much as possible instead of the usual brakes. Even the acceleration was extremely careful in order to save energy.
This is not really a true reality test, because who wants to go in 37mph uphill and 50 mph on flat stretches and accelerate 0-50 mph in 20 seconds? But they have shown that it is possible and what it takes to achieve it and if you have that in mind when running you can save a lot of petrol.

Read the full review here: http://www.themotorreport.com.au/58513/2014-mitsubishi-outlander-phev-economy-review

Lab tests are performed in a temperature of + 20 degrees celsius and in our country (sweden), there are not many months we have such temperatures. Something that saves consumption in winter is to preheat the car with the Mitsubishi Remote App before leaving and when the vehicle is charging. That way the car don´t need the petrol engine to warm the Interior. To ensure that no gasoline engine starts, you can put the fan in the "OFF" position. However, you will need to start the fan and therefore gasoline engine again when the temperature begins to drop in the compartment.

Do you want to leave comments on my posts, there is comment box below each post. The comments field is not listed on the home page, but you have to go into each post. You get to it by clicking on the title of the post.

……………………………………….

Visit Graphic Studio – my company's website
Photographer Photographer Hudiksvall, Söderhamn

Long journey with Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

Okategoriserade

Outlander PHEV Interior

460 mile with plug-in hybrid-Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

Now I have made a trip that this car is not really intended for. We made a trip to Kalix for Christmas celebrations. The trip was 460 miles and took 8.5 hours. We packed the car full of suitcases and gifts, the boot swallowed it all very well. Our children (4 and 7 years old) were placed in the the back seat in booster seats. The space in the back is a little worse than in our Subaru Legacy station wagon from 2010. It gets pretty crowded for an adult to sit in the middle between the booster seats.  In the front seats my wife and I sits very comfortable . I’m very happy with the choice to not have full leather seats, I have not yet felt the need to keep the heat on in the front seats. The Comfort Tech fabric seems to work. In our old Subaru with full leather seats I had the heat constantly on so as not to freeze.

Outlander PHEV Comfort tech

My wife always has cold hands and she´s loving the steering wheel heater. In the tray between the front seats there is a USB outlet where we plug in a USB flash drive with music which can be controlled from the radio. When we get tired of the music we  hook up my smartphone with Spotify via Bluetooth and it works very well to control with the radio.

Outlander Radio USB Outlander_Plug_in_Hybrid-4

In the tray between the front seats, there is also a 12 volt outlet where we plug in charger for cell phones and DVD players. Unfortunately a fuse had gone in our house during the night so the car was not fully loaded at startup. Since the battery capacity is not enough to run on electric drive the whole journey I try to save it by pressing the Save button and start the electric power only at distances where the petrol engine would consume the most, such as slopes and city driving.

Outlander Save switch

The car feels solid and stable and there are no problems overtaking on a slushy E4. The acceleration is actually really good, something I was a bit worried before I bought the car. Since the range of the electric drive is about 30 miles, this is not a stretch when the car is performing its best. I stop along the road at a gas station to fill it up with petrol, the consumption is around 8 lit/100 km (35 mpg) It had probably been a little better if the battery has been fully charged from the beginning. The car is fully loaded and it’s winter so the capacity of the battery is reduced, moreover, we are charging DVD players, mobile phones and listening to the radio and that also consumes electricity.

I’ve now been running 620 miles totally in this car and I notice that the studded winter tyres Pirelli Winter Carve Edge is not the tyres to recommend for this car. The noise from the wheels are too strong. The question is, however, if it is the brand of the tires that matter. I have had contact with a guy who also recently bought a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid and he had Good Year studded tires on his car that he immediately switched for friction tyres due to the noise. So maybe friction tires is recommended for this car model. It´s a pity that the tires are going to ruin the whole experience.

Finally, my Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid is delivered!

Okategoriserade

Mitsubishi_Outlander_PHEV 2016

The wait is over – My hybrid car is delivered!

For two weeks i´ve been waiting for the winter wheels that I ordered separately to arrive and last Friday they were delivered to me.
I contacted Emil at Thunbergs Car in Soderhamn to schedule a time to fit the winter wheels.
On Tuesday morning we met again to sign the final papers and to get some information and getting started tips. Everything was working fine until we tried to pair the Mitsubishi's Outlander PHEV smartphone app to the car´s wifi. The app is used to with wifi control loading timer, reprogram time charge to start or monitor the charging cycle with your phone. You can also activate the function that cools or heats the Interior. Suitable in the winter if you want a warm car before your journey. No matter how we tried we did not get the app to sync with the car's wifi. Thunbergs Car is going to contact Mitsubishi who hopefully will solve it.

Mitsubishi_Outlander_PHEV 2016

Today I´m going on a trip to Gavle, around 90 km along the motorway. Unfortunately, it seems that I ordered the winter wheels from hell! Now that I have got a quiet car it is the tyres are making a lot of noise. I really hope that there is some running-in problems with the tires and that they get better with time. Too bad that the tires are ruining the overall experience. When I was about to buy the tires I was looking specifically for tires that wouldn't make that much noise. I ordered Pirelli Winter Carving Edge. There is a resonance noise that increases with speed. We'll see how it develops. The car is not quite fully charged when I leave for Gavle and after about 35 km the battery meter starts getting closer to the bottom. It is about 5 degrees (C) below zero out there so the petrol engine is warming the Interior every now and then. I start the stereo to dampen some of the wheel noice and after fiddeling with the sound setup of the stereo, I think the sound from stereo sounds really good even though I haven't got the Rockford Fosgate package in my model. The rest of the trip, I use the paddles behind the steering wheel to set the Brake Energy Regeneration System that recharges the battery. It works well to use as engine breaking and to recover energy when driving down-hill or to reduce speed before an exit or similar. I stop at a gravel pit to take some pictures of the car, then I quickly move on, I´m in a little bit of a hurry today. All in all, I drive 200 kilometers this day and I have no possibility to charge the car during the day.

Mitsubishi_Outlander_PHEV 2016

The next day begins with a fully charged battery since I charged the car during the night. At first I do mostly highway driving, about 50 km, then a little city driving in 10 km. I'm going to photograph a house for sale in Stugsund outside Söderhamn. Then I drive back home again, it'll be about 100 km in total. I look at the average MPG meter and it reads 47 MPG. If this is good or bad I don´t know, it takes a little more time to evaluate it and maybe see how much petrol I have to refuel in a month. It's not in those longer distances that the car perfoms the best fuel economy and low consumption, it is the short commuter journeys under 50 km which is the optimal distance. 47mpg is roughly the same as my previous car Subaru Legacy Diesel used . However, it is a smaller car than the Mitsubishi Outlander.

Mitsubishi_Outlander_PHEV 2016

UPDATE 14 January 2016

It is now completely confirmed that Mitsubishi Remote App is not compatible with Samsung S6 and S5 mini. It is certainly more phones that don't work but these are the two I tried with no success. Ever since I could pick up my Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV in december and then the seller failed to match the car with my phone, I have repeatedly tried to get it to work. I got some time at the workshop in order to check it, and yesterday I got the vehicle back with the answer that Mitsubishi has not yet done the phone compatible because it is too new (released in april 2015). Mitsubishi Sweden had no help or a good answer to give. Dealer Thunbergs car is obviously distraught that they were unable to solve it and that they have not been informed that some phones do not work. I have managed to match the car with my Ipad Air 1 and my old mobile phone Sony Xperia Z1 without problems.

Mitsubishi Remote App is, at least in Sweden, a very important part of the operation and ownership of the car. It is with the app and ONLY with it you can start for the heater in the car. It starts the heating system in your car and warming up the car so that you have a hot car to get to winter time. In the summer the AC started using the app. It is incredibly poorly by Mitsubishi that does not have a working solution for one of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. They should inform their dealers if the limitation it poses for the buyer if they have a Samsung or any other model that does not work.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 2016 – what’s new?

Okategoriserade

Outlander display  What´s new on the Outlander PHEV 2016?

Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid by the model year 2016 claims to have 100 updates. But what are they really? A lot of it are just garnish with chrome details and different materials used. Others are parts of the engine that has been updated. The former model has been quite anonymous and Mitsubishi has therefore updated the bodywork and called it “Dynamic Shield”. I like it since I wasn’t so fond of the previous model’s design. The front has been updated with a new grille with chrome and the rear looks wider than its predecessor and it has red glass on the rear lights instead of the previous white.  The Interior has been updated with more comfortable chairs, new leather interior of higher quality, goggles pocket in the roof, enhanced graphics on the display, Auto-Dimming Rearview Mirror, LED interior lighting , the heated steering wheel is new and 360-degree rear view camera as well. In order to increase the comfort Mitsubishi has updated the suspension and body rigidity, tires and rims are new. The car has better insulation at different places and better sound-proofed windows has been installed.The window defroster has been improved.

Outlander seats

And the winner is… -Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid

Okategoriserade

Mitsubishi_Outlander_PHEV _-1-5A green car – the decision has been made

After the test runs I made with Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid and the calculations I made on the economy and the comparison I made to other cars it is now decided that I will buy a Outlander as my company car. Buying a diesel car could have been an option but the cars in the same size and with all-wheel drive loses on a much higher tax value, a higher fuel consumption on the routes I will be driving and it also feels right with a plug-in hybrid in this "protect the environment age".

Today I have been to Thunbergs car, a car dealer in Söderhamn and signed the lease for the car. I chose the GXh3+ model since the GXh3 model I was going for would not arrive until February 2016 which would mean that I would get a lower Plug in Car Grant support from the Government. In Sweden it will be lowered by half in 2016. The GX4h model also has full leather seats which I don't like, I think it will be too cold in winter and too hot in summer. GX3h and GX3h+ models only have leather on the sides of the seats while middle part is of a different fabric, which Mitsubishi calls Comfort Tech. It is a functional material which Mitsubishi claims to be neither too cold during cold days or too hot during hot days. I like that better, we'll see how it works in reality. However, I have to wait to pick up the car since the winter tires that I ordered separately have not arrived yet. All I could do was to stare longingly at the car in car showroom. At the end of next week I should have the car and more updates on the blog are coming after that.

My car is now available on the Thunbergs car in Söderhamn

……………………………………….

Visit Grafikstudion – my company's website
Photographer Hudiksvall, Photographer Söderhamn