We do not run the washing machine or tumble dryer at night or when we are out for the day even when it is negative rate.
We do. But, in fairness, i’m awake anyway. So for us, the washing machine/tumble don’t run when we sleep – but certainly do run at night.
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.
I am genuinely not quite sure. Heating in the GTE works purely electric, so i’d assume resistive heating.
My guess is that the Tucson has that too. The reason for that is, i’m pretty sure (albeit not 100% certain) that you can preheat/precool the car (which is btw another feature in a car that i never want to live without again – going outside in winter into a nice 23 degree warm car, windows all clear, lovely) through the app, like we can (and do) do with the GTE.
When the engine is running/hot, then it uses that, but it doesn’t force the engine for heating. It does force the engine for cooling, on the other hand – that seems to “eat” more miles than heating, also suggested by the fact that we can heat the car through the app while it’s not plugged in – we can’t cool it, though. For that it needs to be plugged in.
Make of that what you will, as i said i have zero clue as to how the Tucson system works, but assuming that you have an app that allows preheating, you’d also have to have resistive heating in the car (since, i’m somewhat sure, it won’t start the engine while plugged in, for example). That’s just assumption though.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.