Quote:
Originally Posted by Wivenhoe
I found in my E350e that I could improve the winter range by setting the pre-conditioning (whilst plugged in) really high to thoroughly warm the car and then initially run on E Save (ICE only) whilst the heated rear screen, seat heating etc. did their bit.
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As more users go PHEV, I believe the impact of the energy used to heat the cabin (usually ignored with ICE, or at least not critical), will show up even more.
I preheat my car's (F11) cabin on freezing days, with a 2kW electric fan heater. Minimum to defrost and get a bit of warmth is about 30 minutes. Really cold days 45 minutes and still not to a comfortable temperature. Still requires the HVAC system to provide the real heat while driving along.
Say it requires 2 kWh to get a good level of warmth, assume the PHEV drives 3 miles per kWh, that's knocking off about 6 miles range, if not preheated while plugged in. Then you need more energy to keep the cabin warm at cold temperatures.
Plugging in and preconditioning seems essential to me, if you really want to get the best out of the EV range, and overall consumption of a PHEV vehicle.