January 2018 Trip

We organized caravan parks for 7 stays over a 2 week and 1 day period from January 9th to January 24th. We travelled from our home 20km east of Melbourne up the east coast of Australia to Katoomba (the Blue Mountains) near Sydney - and back.

There were many hills...

The short story is the the PHEV performed well but I learnt even more interesting facits of towing with this vehicle.

Trip ODO readings are as follows:
Home 17550
Beechworth 17858
Tumut 18100
Jinderbyne 18325-18350
Narooma 18600-18639
Ulladulla 18810
Blackheath (near Katoomba in Blue Mountains) 19105-19335 (trip to/from Jenolan caves and various trips around Katoomba etc.)
Gerroa 19603
Bermagui 19852
Bairnsdale 20317 (trip into Paynesville and back included)
Home 20595

So just over 3000km.

My new learning experience that was to forever change my driving style with the PHEV when towing was just north of Albury on the Beechworth to Tumut leg - second day out.

On that section of the Hume highway it is a 110km/h freeway (same as many sections of the Hume) and has a gradual climb as well. We were on cruise control and around 108km/h and the battery range was nearing zero. I commented that I was curious to see when the PHEV did when we no longer had any battery power to assist maintaining a speed that needed more than the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) could do. (This isn't something I will do again.)

The answer came a few minutes later. Suddenly the cruise control either cut-out or wound it's way down to 80 km/h in a few seconds. Simultaneously a flashing orange turtle appeared on the dash. The PHEV had switched to series hybrid and about 20 to 30 seconds later the turtle disappeared. I'm not sure whether I cancelled the cruise control or the PHEV did.

Having learnt that little (big) lesson. throughout the rest of the trip we always maintained a speed that allowed the battery level to stay above zero range. Flat and level and towing 1500kg this is about 95km/h (PHEV speedo).

Hilly terrain is totally another matter...

Addition: 30th Nov-2018

In undulating highway areas the PHEV does suffer from a lack of energy - not power. By that I mean the battery depletes on the climb and you end up at about 70km/h so as to get it to stay in series mode in an endeavour to get a little energy back into the battery. I would love to see this configurable but it could be that the eMotor gear ratios would make the vehicle less efficient of it were.

The net result is that vehicles behind you think you are underpowered - when in fact you are under-energied. Weird huh!

Tour fuel record & more Observations

ODO    Fuel   Trip   Place
14278  26.1   0      Near Home (Do not include)
14553  31.3   275    Bairnsdale
14798  32.6   245    Cann River
15023  33.65  225    Bermaguie
15349  37.02  326    Bega ***
15528  22.7   179    Cann River
15767  31.94  329    Sale
15995  26.68  228    Village Loch
16095  12     100    Home (fuel estimate)

You can see after our scare coming back into Bega we filled a bit sooner than normal on the next one.

The road from South Durras to Eden was a pleasant drive.

The PHEV doesn't have great range when towing but with only a 45 liter tank a couple of Jerry cans would get close to doubling its range. That said, a range of around 300 km is fine for us at the moment.

I always hit "Charge" as soon as departing a site. The battery might then last anywhere from 250km (first day) to 100 km depending on terrain. The hillier it is, the less likely that the battery will last. When the battery bars disappear, the engine is much more likely to drop out of direct-to-road mode and run as a pure generator for a couple of minutes or so - and when climbing.

We had a running joke for the first 6 days that I never remembered to plug on the OBD2 dongle. I rightly am not allowed to fiddle with EvBatMon while driving but Mrs. EV managed to get a few figures of interest.
When the battery bars are gone, the PHEV will not let the battery drop below around 24% SOC (real). It then charges it up to around 29 to 30% then drops back to direct-to-road (parallel hybrid). On the flat and level at 100 km/h it manages to hold battery level without going into series hybrid (generator mode).

So the PHEV takes good care of the battery pack even though the bars rarely come back when travelling at speed. The battery range can get up to about 4 km when cruising around a township looking for the caravan park. I generally turn "Charge" off at this point so we can run EV into the park.

Once more thing. It is REALLY unusual for me to have to use brakes at all when on the highway. Even down the mountains - B5 regen handles it all. I did dial the caravan brakes (via electric brake controller) down to 0 once or twice so I could touch the brake peddle for more regen. A bit Anal really and I understand the dangers of doing it (a momentary button would be nice).

Caravan distance: ~1817km.

Nine days touring

We took the van away for nine days just before Easter - touring up the east coast from Melbourne as far as Batemans Bay. We only stayed for two nights at two places, otherwise moving every day.
I'll fill out some details in the next few days but in the meantime here is the summary. Essentially the trip was largely uneventful PHEV wise.

Our site for two nights at Buchan on the outward journey.

We charged the car nine times including the night before leaving home. All charging was done using the EVSE (brick) with the 10A plug (it draws about 6 Amps) plugged into the side of the van
Total distance traveled was 1817 km. Fuel used was 228 litres. Fuel economy for the trip was 12.5 l/100 km.

The "largely uneventful" event was what we thought was a near miss running out of fuel coming back down the coast into Bega. With 26 km to go into Bega, the remaining distance estimate on the dash suddenly went from 50 km to "---". So there we were with battery distance at "---" and combined distance estimate at "---", counting the kilometers. I swapped driving style to "EV efficiency  mode" using what little skills I have gleaned driving my EV over the past four years to get the most distance for the least energy expended.

I kept reassuring my other half that we wouldn't just stop - that we would get more warnings and the car would have a couple of km under it's sleeve. We became less stressed when we only had about 6 km to go - figuring that at least we could now walk into Bega. As we pulled into the first petrol station in Bega, the dashboard beeped and suggested we "refuel". We put 37 liters in the tank - which I later verified as holding 45 liters. So it wasn't that close after all.