True MPG Phev

[DrElectron]

To anyone in here who has a Tucson PHEV

Did the vehicle come with charger cable(s) included or did you have to buy them separately?

[KeithB1]

Mine came with 2-1 to use with a 13 amp socket and the other for the 7kw charger. The 13 amp socket cable is a fair bit longer than the other. The thought has occurred to me since that if the gubbins on the car does all the fancy work converting AC to DC, why can't you just have a suitable 7KW socket fitted with suitable cable and fusing without the Podpoint (or similar) box? The Podpoint box does give some benefits but nothing I couldn't do without or provide in a different (cheaper) way.

[DrElectron]

Good to know, that'll save me £300 in cables!

You could make your own in theory, the 'charger' on the wall (and the little inline box on the 13a cable) have only a few functions:

To switch on / off the AC supply to the car, when it is required by the car.
Measure the current supplied and return, and cut off in the event of an imbalance (basically a soft RCD).
To tell the car how much current it should draw (frequency imposed on the 'data' cable).
Some other gubbins to deal with apps and internet connections etc which aren't really needed as the car app can handle those.

[KeithB1]

Thanks DrE. Sounds like the Podpoint box doesn't do much for £800+. Perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to offer an "economy" version.

Just a reminder for anyone thinking about getting 7kw charger fitted-make sure your main fuse is big enough to cope with the extra load. I had to get Western Power to replace the 60amp with an 80 amp, which meant I couldn't use the full 30amp capacity of the charger till that was done.

[roadster]

Although the car came with the domestic cable known as the ICCB it wasn't quite long enough for my situation so I have bought an additional 10m cable. I have also installed a weatherproof socket on an external wall but in a dry location, and I have wired this with a heavy duty cable going back to a domestic 13 amp socket indoors. The Rolec cable and control box, though functionally very similar to the Hyundai one, seems to be of good quality and has the option of selecting a full 13 amp charging rate. I haven't actually tried using the 13 amp setting because I want to avoid stressing my house wiring unduly.

Both the outdoor sockets and the vehicle end connection are lockable so should be relatively secure if I need to charge overnight. In addition the Bluelink phone connection can be used for scheduling charging time and sends a message when the charging is finished. It also allows the finishing charge threshold to be set to a lower percentage of the battery capacity which may extend the battery life. Finally I have a webcam running on a raspberry Pi located where it will overlook the charging point and detect/record any suspicious activity.

[alan sh]

Back to MPG. I was told, when I went to look at the two hybrid types (self charging and PHEV), that, on a long journey, the PHEV would get around 32mpg as it wsa lugging all those batteries. The Hybrid would get around 42 on the same journey.

I went for the Hybrid and so far, the 42mpg on a long run is realistic (Rochdale to Coventry via the M60, M62 and M6 driving at a real 70mph). I drove from Buxton back to Rochdale and got 58mpg from that run (lots of downhill bits).

My display shows that I can get over 450 miles on a tankful (last fill up it said 479).

As someone else said earlier, the tax is a lot more as it's over £40K and it costs a lot more to buy.

So, I hope that helps.

Alan

[DrElectron]

Back to MPG. I was told, when I went to look at the two hybrid types (self charging and PHEV), that, on a long journey, the PHEV would get around 32mpg as it wsa lugging all those batteries. The Hybrid would get around 42 on the same journey.

My display shows that I can get over 450 miles on a tankful (last fill up it said 479).

Alan

That just goes to show how badly informed sales people really are.
The PHEV battery is tiny, probably the same size as the 12v battery and being lithium rather than lead, probably weighs half as much, insignificant.
I suspect the motor is the same across the models too.

Running entirely on hybrid mode I can easily hit 50mpg on a motorway run, probably realistically the phev and hev would be the same given the same conditions.

Ultimately it depends on your journey types, if you are trolling up and down the country the plug in is going to give you barely any benefit. For someone like me doing 30ish miles per day most days per week, with a longer journey once or twice per week, it's the ideal combination, my commute to and from work can be purely electric.
You also get the benefit of adding 30miles per day so less trips to the pump.

Last time I filled up I had done 700 miles since last refuel and managed 106mpg

[DrElectron]

[madowl]

Back to MPG. I was told, when I went to look at the two hybrid types (self charging and PHEV), that, on a long journey, the PHEV would get around 32mpg as it wsa lugging all those batteries. The Hybrid would get around 42 on the same journey.

My display shows that I can get over 450 miles on a tankful (last fill up it said 479).

Alan

That just goes to show how badly informed sales people really are.
The PHEV battery is tiny, probably the same size as the 12v battery and being lithium rather than lead, probably weighs half as much, insignificant.
I suspect the motor is the same across the models too.

Running entirely on hybrid mode I can easily hit 50mpg on a motorway run, probably realistically the phev and hev would be the same given the same conditions.

Ultimately it depends on your journey types, if you are trolling up and down the country the plug in is going to give you barely any benefit. For someone like me doing 30ish miles per day most days per week, with a longer journey once or twice per week, it's the ideal combination, my commute to and from work can be purely electric.
You also get the benefit of adding 30miles per day so less trips to the pump.

Last time I filled up I had done 700 miles since last refuel and managed 106mpg

Having owned a PHEV and now the HEV the truth is that the PHEV is a significant amout heavier 254kg (according to Parkers). That is 3 large people so will have an effect on MPG. To get the same level of assistance (as in the HEV) from the battery in self charging mode the PHEV would have to use some of any available EV only range. The HEV engine can be tuned to run more economically due to having the boost from the battery.
That is not to say PHEVs don't make sense for journeys under 30 miles particularly in warm weather. Of course your 106mpg figure includes multiples of 30ish miles on battery only but not the cost of the electricity which can cost you about the same per mile as fuel.
It is never cut and dried and not that easy to work out.

[DrElectron]

the cost of the electricity which can cost you about the same per mile as fuel.

I don't know what you based that on, but my calculations yield the following:

Petrol 13.9p per mile (based on fuel costing 158.9 and achieving 52mpg)

To get the equivalent cost in electric mode you'd need to be paying 37.0p per KWh

That's assuming 32 miles per charge (accurate based on my experience, but depends on journey type) and 12KWh from empty to charged (based on my measurements)

I don't know what the going rate is for electricity but my tariff is 16p and I also charge for free at Tesco.

But there is something even more important to consider here ...

Based on the manufacturers data, the CO2 emissions of the HEV are 204g per mile. using the above 32 miles per charge and 12KWh electricity to get that, it works out at 545g/KWh to be comparable.
I've been collecting data from National Grid over the last couple of months and based on my location, the highest CO2 emissions per KWh has been 396g, the lowest has been just 55g. average of 248g.
So, on average every electric mile has half the emissions of a petrol fuelled mile.
If you live in the north of England or Scotland, those emissions rarely pass 50g and are regularly close to 0g