I have completed a cycle I would call “EV unfavourable” meaning increased range driving which relies more on the petrol engine, regular use of air conditioning for hot weather and driving on consecutive days without recharging to see if there was any impact (other than using more fuel that day, there wasn’t).
In two weeks I used 35L of fuel to drive 1301km. That translates to a fuel economy average of 2.7L/100km which I’m pretty happy with.
In an extended range test today of 200km comparing to a previous test in October where I averaged 6.3L/100km, I manually controlled cutover between EV and fuel, saving battery for low speed roads and fuel for highways. I averaged 5.3L/100km. I was betting that the battery drain at high speed was less efficient and was correct. The car cannot know this automatically unless it knew the entire route, which is a feature the Outlander doesn’t have.
I have analysed my electricity bill to determine the impact of charging the car. Usage has increased 10kwh per day compared to last year without the car. I recharge the vehicle off peak using a timer. This minimises the cost but also impact on the grid. I can recharge from solar without increasing my electricity bill but it is both better for my wallet and the grid if I use off peak baseload power to charge the car while my green power supports my local grid in peak.
