??Hybrid Issues

[Penfold72]

Hi.  I'm new to this Hybrid era, and just bought a 2022 1.8 C-HR.

Its a lovely car, but since I've got it home, I've noticed when I start the car first thing in a morning, the Hybrid part is not useable in electric mode only. I get the message EV mode unavailable.

I've noticed that the Battery is powering the drive as well as the engine on the display on the dash, but it will not drive the car on Battery alone, until the car has done a couple of miles. This is even with 4-5 bars of Battery power available.  Once its run for the said couple of miles its fine for the rest of the day running in EV mode when it needs to.  Is this normal for these Hybrids or is there possibly an issue?  Not sure how long it was sat at the dealers, and I was wondering if its the 12V battery, or is it the need for the ICE to warm up first.

Happy for any advice on hybrid cars.

Many Thanks

[Cyker]

Totally normal.

While it is possible to get the car to run EV-only when you first turn it on if the Battery has enough charge, it's tricky and requires very specific circumstances, like very low acceleration and no need for heating - e.g. If the HVAC is set to 20 degrees but it's over 20 degrees already the chances are good the engine will stay off, but if it's only 16 the engine will fire up to generate heat. For best chance you need to have switched the HVAC off before you started the car so it doesn't even try and ask for heat.

After the car is turned on, if the engine fires up for *any* reason (HVAC asking for more heat, too much acceleration, The Moon aligned with Andromeda etc.), it will go through sortof a 'startup' routine, where it runs the engine for a bit to warm it up, get fluids flowing, put some charge into the 12v and traction Battery etc. and it won't interrupt this routine for anything, except maybe if you floor the accelerator (Which you really shouldn't do anyway while an engine is still stone cold!)

While it does this, the car will act a bit unusual, and do weird stuff like mostly using the electric motors or both to move the car, even tho' the engine is running constantly. This is totally normal. Once the car's done what it needs to with the engine, it will settle back to more expected normal behaviour.

The EV-mode thing is a bit of a gimmick on the hybrids anyway - Because their batteries are so small the range is very low, but that is also normal. The hybrids are not EVs, they're designed to use the engine and the electrics together and switch between them constantly for optimal efficiency. Trying to force it to use one or the other will just make it less efficient and slower.

 

[TonyHSD]

Totally normal. 
If you want to use ev mode via the button and you have enough charge you can select ev mode and immediately after press the fan off button on your hvac control panel. The car won’t fire up the engine and you can swap parking space or top up your tyres using air compressor for example but not much more than that. It’s a small Battery plus the car has not been designed to drive in ev mode alone. These that can do that are only the plug in hybrids, Prius prime, rav4 phev etc. 

[Penfold72]

Thanks for the replies. Just need to get used to this hybrid thing. Must say it's a lovely car to drive. Getting around 58 mpg at the moment. As long as this is normal behaviour then I'm happy. It's got to go back to dealer anyway this week, as it keeps saying front camera unavailable and the front collision detection turns off. Even when it's on road signs are not detected and lane keeping etc didn't work. Dealer got an error of low voltage from camera. Hopefully it's a quick fix....

[Big_D]

Hi Chris. As everyone has already said, it's perfectly normal. Having the ICE run when the car first starts also allows the engine to warm up. Imagine the following scenario:

You have started your car. Off you drive on the hybrid Battery. As you drive down the road at 30mph, the hybrid Battery needs to be charged, This is done via the engine, which suddenly kicks in at 30mph. The oil, while thin, is all in the sump and still needs to flow through the oil channels in the engine. 

If the car hasn't started moving, the engine will be running at around 900 rpm. At 30 miles per hour, the engine could be running at 2000 rpm. What damage could be done to an engine if there is no oil and it is expected to run at around 2000 rpm?

Just my 2 pennys worth, bit I think it's better for the engine to run when the car first starts

[Catlover]

Hi Chris, and welcome to the forum.

if you happy with 58mpg now just wait for the weather gets warmer. Then next winter you will feel deflated because the weather gone colder and mpg drops. Enjoy your “new” car, hope the dealer sorts your problems quickly.