Filled up with petrol this evening so I’ve worked out my true mpg equivalent over the last 540 miles. The fuel computer in the car (which I had reset at the last refuel) shows an average mpg over those 540 miles of 78.6mpg but, as we know, this is nonsense as it takes no account of charging costs. Once I add charging costs to the petrol cost, it works out as 11.79 pence per mile. That equates to a ‘real’ mpg equivalent over the last 540 miles of 49.7 mpg. This compares to a ‘real’ mpg equivalent of 51.3 mpg for the first 479 miles, so it looks like around 50 mpg is going to be the average based on how I use the car. That would compare to the long term average of 42.2 mpg in our previous BMW X1 petrol. Based on my 9,000 miles a year, if that gap is maintained that will be a saving of just under £200 a year. In truth I’d probably rather pay £200 more a year in petrol (which would be around one extra 5 minute fuel stop every 3 months) and not have the faff of having to charge the car after each use, but we are where we are and thankfully I like the car! Over the winter months I shall be doing less longer journeys than I’ve been doing recently, so a greater proportion of mileage will be in EV mode, which means that the mpg equivalent should improve. Most of our local journeys are in the region of 25-30 miles round trip, so hopefully any drop in EV range in colder months shouldn’t affect us, but I certainly won’t be compromising on comfort to save a few pence – as well as the cabin heater, the heated seats and heated steering wheel will all be in full use
To be fair thats not bad considering you hurtle up and down the M5 and certainly on par, if not better than the AWD hybrid variant.
I expect it to improve drastically, even throughout winter as local/lower speed journeys is where battery vehicles are at their best.
Currently, I have temp set to 20c on fan speed 1 and reunning some tests both local and on journey, on whether using HEV mode for the first mile or so, to get the cabin heat up to temperaturer quicke vs doing it in both Atou and EV modes. However the weather hasn’t been quite cold enough to get an accurate result yet. One thing I have noticed, when the engine comes on to heat the cabin, is the engine starts at 1500rpm for a minute or so and then drops to 1100rpm irrespective of speed. It then switches of after about 5min or less and stays off untill cabing heat needs to be maintained. Reminds me of the E-Power system Nissan use.
I’m currently at around 2500 miles and a quick head calculation puts me at an average of 60+ mpg.