Trip planning, best way to maximise fuel economy

Yes, Save mode on highway then normal or EV when in towns. Chademo is not worth it north america because you pay by time and you don't get a lot of juice for the price you pay. It would be cheaper for you to go into Charge mode and use fuel to recharge the battery.

yes, on SAVE mode at higher speed on highway, then EV or NORMAL when going Slowly ( 70 km/h or less) for town an cities. However, I would probably not go in CHARGE mode nor would I pay for any charge level 2 or level 3 (CHADEMO) for your distance, roughly 460 km back and forth.

I would stay on SAVE mode long enough, then estimate my battery usage to make sure that it is mostly all used by the time I get home, where you charge it. That’s the cheapest place to plug-in the PHEV and the car doesn’t use more gas to charge the battery on the run. Depending on your ride, you should finish with a very acceptable fuel consumption and a cheap electric charge.

Thanks! That's interesting about the chademo charging costs/benefits. I may do it anyways just for the novelty aspect!

Just came back from 270 klm round trip where we were able to full charge both directions. Previous times used save function this time tried running battery down on highway travelling at 110 km per hour as an experiment. Got about 65 km of charge On highway then ran hybrid the rest of way. Ended up with about 2.8-3.2 litres per 100 kms. Very good. The battery would recharge and car would go back to electric for a few kms at a time. Then back into parallel hybrid or Sometimes series. What was interesting was going down hills it would coast and/or regenerate Depending on length of decline. During stop and go traffic would default to electric. Used adaptive cruise and mi pilot assist throughout trip.

I was wondering if that's an option as well. Did you find this way better than sticking with save mode on the highway? It certainly requires less micro management

IME save mode does the same thing on the highway. Charges to when you set it then runs in EV, charges, runs in parallel, sometimes series if need more power, then EV, then charges, ICE runs in parallel, and so on. The only difference is that when I get off the highway there will be charge left in the battery if needed for more urban/stop n' go driving.

If you need to save charge for extended city traffic then it makes sense. But for long distance travelling I don’t want to think about saving or not. I will just charge over night along the way. I find I can get a little obsessed with mileage numbers.

Interesting question, good to hear some of the suggestions/opinions. I have a similar question since my wife will be taking the car on a 2000 mile round trip journey next month. The drive will be mostly on freeway 65-70 mph no real town driving until she reaches her destination. I think basic hybrid mode or save would give about the same result. I am pretty sure this trip will expose the biggest weakness of this car--its fuel economy when running on gas/hybrid. When running in parallel at freeway speeds the rpm's are way to high (about 3600) to get good fuel economy. Maybe a different gear on the one speed tranny would be better? Luckily this is likely the only trip over 50 miles we will make this year, so a PHEV saves a lot of gas over time.

There is no rpm tach, that gauge shows kW for the ICE.

It's definitely not best in class on the highway but I was getting about 8L/100km in the winter on winter tires through the mountains and is 80% less than what my previous V6 ever achieved in the same conditions.

Hasenphever said:

winter tires

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On this topic, I have the 20" factory rims. What winter tires did you get, did you downsize if you had the bigger rims? 20" winters seem excessive to me!

suttercane said:

On this topic, I have the 20" factory rims. What winter tires did you get, did you downsize if you had the bigger rims? 20" winters seem excessive to me!

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Hello, I have the GT-P coming with 20" factory rims and Nexen Roadian tires supplied with it. I downsized for the winter to 18" steel rims (with TPMS) and Yokohama tires suggested by my dealer for about 1500$, like you I thought that 20" was way too big for winter, and much more expensive. It also protects the nice rims...

For the winter a taller tire is preferred, so go down to an 18" rim and get a taller tire so that the overall diameter is the same.

thanks both of you, I am trying to price them out so I am not surprised when I have to purchase. What would be the tire code (?) that you got, just so I have a baseline of where to start looking.

Pretty sure they were 235/60/18.

Mine as well, the recommended size by the dealer 235/60/18