@kezo When you are next on a long run, if you are up for it try this;
Prior to the motorway, drive in EV mode so that the battery range drops (assuming you’ve started with a full charge)
When cruising on the motorway, make sure that the central display on the instrument cluster is one of the 3 that shows economy (current trip, since last refuel or since last reset). All 3 of these have an instant fuel consumption bar at the bottom. At the same time, call up the PHEV graphic on the infotainment screen (the one that shows whether the engine, battery or both are powering the car, and when the battery is being recharged.
Once the above is set up, switch the car to HEV mode. Watch what happens on the PHEV screen and when the petrol engine is both driving the car and recharging the battery at the same time, watch your instant mpg.
This is what I did the other day. The battery range was down to 30 miles when I joined the motorway and when I switched into HEV the engine gradually charged the battery back up to 38 miles range and 100% charge.
I’m doing exactly the same 110 mile round trip tomorrow and am going to try doing what I’ve done previously – drive in Auto mode and let the car decide when to use EV and when to use the petrol engine. On the way home, if I still have any EV range left, I will switch the car into EV mode so that I arrive home with just the reserve battery power and zero EV range. Assuming that the EV range has long expired before I get home, and the car automatically switches to HEV mode, I shall do what I’ve said above with the PHEV graphic and fuel readouts and watch what happens. The last time I did a long trip in Auto and HEV activated automatically, it only charged the battery to 2% and then deployed those 2 miles in EV mode. It didn’t keep on charging, as it did when I intentionally activated HEV mode the other day.
I”ll be really interested to know if your car behaves the same way as mine.