PHEV... Lake District including off road and mountain roads

[Nick72]

Car loaded up with all of the Zombie Apocalypse gear you can think of under the floor panel and in the netting I installed in the boot. Plenty of water bottles.

Driving up to north Lakes early Sunday morning. About 1hr 20m. There for nearly a week.

Expect to be over several trails. Done quite a few local trails including steep wet and muddy inclines. No problems. Never in any doubt despite the stock 3 season road tyres. Pretty dry at the moment so unlikely I'm going to get stuck anywhere. Famous last words of course.

Dr Pepper.

[Centaur]

What sort of mpg around the little lanes?

I'm up here at the moment too, with a DofE group but in a minibus - not quite the same!

[ernieb]

8 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Car loaded up with all of the Zombie Apocalypse gear you can think of under the floor panel and in the netting I installed in the boot. Plenty of water bottles.

Driving up to north Lakes early Sunday morning. About 1hr 20m. There for nearly a week.

Expect to be over several trails. Done quite a few local trails including steep wet and muddy inclines. No problems. Never in any doubt despite the stock 3 season road tyres. Pretty dry at the moment so unlikely I'm going to get stuck anywhere. Famous last words of course.

Dr Pepper.

Keep us updated.

[Nick72]

21 hours ago, Centaur said:

What sort of mpg around the little lanes?

I'm up here at the moment too, with a DofE group but in a minibus - not quite the same!

Will find out but I assume the regen braking down hill and AWD electric torque should keep the petrol engine at bay most of the time.

[Nick72]

13 hours ago, ernieb said:

Keep us updated.

Wilco.

AWD performance. MPG. Comfort.

[Nick72]

On 7/14/2022 at 6:53 AM, ernieb said:

Keep us updated.

Back from the Lakes. Gorgeous weather. Bumped into Tom Cruise at Buttermere filming the latest mission impossible. He was a long way off with lots of private security.

Lots of mountain roads, narrow gravel off road trails, some pretty steep, small rocks, all very dry and no problems whatsoever. Such a great easy cruiser. Generated between 3 to 6 EV miles coming down the mountains each time so that was a bonus. 

Folding wing mirrors helpful on some of the roads which weren't really wide enough for two cars or a coach! As was being able to drive onto a steep hilly bank to let the coach pass. 

46 real mpg on the trip including motorway up and down. Used up the Battery, c. 55 miles worth over the first couple of days but each day trip generated enough EV miles on the down hill legs to get around the villages in all electric. 

Only pic I actually got of the car. On Whinlatter car park. 

[ernieb]

Thanks Nick, sounds like you had a good time. I agree about the folding wing mirrors a quick flick of the switch and cars, tractors can pass much more securely. The over mpg is impressive considering the inability to charge the traction Battery other than via recovered energy. What price pure EV now in these situations?  I do like the colour of the car.

 

[Centaur]

That sounds like very good mpg, considering all the hills and twisty lanes!  Without recharging, that's clearly what the car can manage in hybrid driving alone too.

[TonyFR]

It's fascinating to see how the car takes and then gives. I regularly travel to a place in the Alps. I drive to a certain village about 940m altitude using ICE, I then switch to EV and climb to our destination at just over 2050m, loads of hairpins. It showed me last time that I had about 75km EV range to do the 25km and 1090m climb. I make it exactly to the destination in EV and exhaust the traction battery- in fact it literally went to ICE as I parked it. Not so good you might think. But when I descend it does 25km entirely in EV and charges, giving me 30km additional EV range at the bottom of the mountain when I rejoin the motorway. So in total I have done 25+25+30 in EV, a little more than I started with.

[Nick72]

8 hours ago, TonyFR said:

It's fascinating to see how the car takes and then gives. I regularly travel to a place in the Alps. I drive to a certain village about 940m altitude using ICE, I then switch to EV and climb to our destination at just over 2050m, loads of hairpins. It showed me last time that I had about 75km EV range to do the 25km and 1090m climb. I make it exactly to the destination in EV and exhaust the traction battery- in fact it literally went to ICE as I parked it. Not so good you might think. But when I descend it does 25km entirely in EV and charges, giving me 30km additional EV range at the bottom of the mountain when I rejoin the motorway. So in total I have done 25+25+30 in EV, a little more than I started with.

That's awesome going.

As Ernie says it's great to operate largely in EV when it's inefficient for the ICE and the energy recouperation is superb.

[NASY]

Nick, I have just used some petrol on a trip from Dundee up through Glenshee and past the Lecht all mountainous/hilly and twisty roads. 55 mpg as I arrived home, so I must be using a very light right foot I guess.

[Nick72]

On 7/25/2022 at 11:19 AM, NASY said:

Nick, I have just used some petrol on a trip from Dundee up through Glenshee and past the Lecht all mountainous/hilly and twisty roads. 55 mpg as I arrived home, so I must be using a very light right foot I guess.

That's good going. I think if you hit the right speed and it's constant going and have a light foot generally then absolutely. I think I may have liked blasting around some of the roads I could clearly see ahead on, a bit too much.

[nlee]

There's something quite satisfying about generating additional range from driving down the passes. I gained 5 miles of EV range over the 3 miles descending down The Struggle from Kirkstone Pass to Ambleside when I was there earlier in the year. I can overlook that it probably drained the national grid on the ascent 😄

[ernieb]

@nlee, it certainly puts a smile on my face. As I said earlier it great to be fully charged with 57 miles EV range drive 7 miles and still have 57 miles range.