@kezo and @Rene Thank you both for sharing such detailed explanations and filling in some of my knowledge gaps. Much appreciated. Clearly driving a PHEV is a different experience and mindset to driving an ICE car, but one that I am sure I would adapt to, as you both have. One thing that crossed my mind is driving in the winter when it’s really cold. In order to warm up the interior of the car, does the petrol engine have to start, meaning that you couldn’t do complete journeys in EV only mode unless you were happy just having the heated seats and steering wheel on? During the coldest months I’d prefer (and my wife certainly would prefer) to have some warm air circulating as well.
It is a bit different, both in mindset and “skillset”. It’s not that you consciously adapt either, it’s something that happens over time and “just makes sense”, if that makes sense. I personally do indeed enjoy it. The engine does not need to be running to run the heating, although that said, we (as you mentioned) get away with turning the seats and steering wheel on for short journeys, longer journeys require heating due to the windows fogging up. Generally speaking, heating in the GTE takes around 20%ish off the range, if that helps. I assume it’s somewhat similar in the Tiguan that has a very similar drivetrain, i can’t speak to the Tucson but i don’t see why it would be any different. Kezo might be able to input more there. edit: that’s in a car without heatpump. With heatpump, the impact is less, albeit not by as much as manufacturers would argue it does. It helps, but it very much would depend for me whether or not the heatpump is included as standard – if it’s £1000 extra, you won’t make that money back over the time of ownership in terms of fuel/energy saved.
100% agree Rene, when he says it’s a bit different in both mindset and skillset but, it becomes natural over time and you soon adapt driving one. The part that is alien to me, is the flappy paddles for regen levels that double up as gear changes in sport mode, that I have used once but, find no reason to use it again, as it unnecessarily starts the engine and drives as a hybrid. I did however, experiment with the regen levels on level three and one pedal driving Mon/Tues of this week which upped the range to just under 38 miles. However, its not something as I can see myself taking to but, time will tell. At the moment I’m happy with regen off, which it default to on every restart and let coasting add a touch of regen, which you can’t feel or level 1.
Agree with Rene the engine doen’t need to be on for heating, though it depends what tempertature you set (I have Raynauds). The seats and steering wheel however, get far warmer than my previos 2022 Tucson ICE. On the other end of the scale I must mention the ventillated seats, which are awesome. No more sweaty balls😂
Its not like heating an ICE! Where the Tucson is concerned there is a bypass valve that sends coolant around the exhaust in the engine bay. The coolant is the heated quickly with the engine running at slightly higer rev’s than on tickover. After a couple of minutes or so, the engine turns off once the coolant is heated to provide heat demand. The engine restarts again after a while to maintain the cabin temperature or you demand an higher cabin temperature if that makes sense. Predominantly the car is still running in EV mode even though the light goes out, as the engine is only running at low revs for heat, unless of course you are driving as a hybrid. Some on the relevant forums suggest forcing it into ev mode to get the initial cabin temperature and then putting it back into auto or ev mode however I must stress there is a mixture of countries on the Hyundai forums, with some in much colder climates than the UK and I have not needed to do this yet anyway. I’m still learning. I image the Golf GTE works on a similar principle.
Using AC to cool the cabin on the few warm days we have had, I have found it uses the battery in the main, as the demand is alot less energy hungry than demanding heat.
Rene is 100% correct with whats said on heatpumps and if one is not standard fit, it is uneconomical to pay for one as an option. FWIW the RAV4/Across has a small heatpump as standard but, very few PHEV’s do.
Going back to Rene’s previous comment where the car starts of in ev mode and predominantly stays there untill you run out of battery or demand too much power where the engine will kick in and run as an hybrid. This is exactly what the Tucson does in ev mode however, the default mode is auto, which in all fairness does exactly the same as ev mode does. The other option is HEV mode which seems to hold the battery at whatever charge it was when you started, whils’t driving in hybrid mode. Going back to the Hyundai forums there is the possibility when in auto mode and the the battery has reached 12% switching then to hybrid mode, by pressing ev mode the car will drive a bit further in electric than it would otherwise would in hybrid mode. I have not tried this because (a) it seems a faf to gain an extra few hundred yards in electric than would be the case in hybrid and (b) the system has got to be in a state to do this. Unless you are a hypermiler I don’t see the point and its much easier to let the car drive in what it wants.
Sport mode speaks for its self, using full power of both systems.