Hybrid or PHEV towcar
Jus wondering if anybody tows with a hybrid or PHEV vehicle, and would like to hear their opinion on how they perform.
John C
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No, but I have taken the trouble to speak to several owner/drivers of the PHEV. The general consensus seems to be that although they liked the vehicle for local journeys it had a very poor range and they didn't like it for towing.
Two actually told me that It was a company car, and had it been their own choice it would not have been staying long.
To some up the remarks, it clearly does some things very well. Its very quiet, has sparkling acceleration and initial and for local journeys it is great. BUT its fuel consumption is no where near as good as is claimed, and it cannot tow a heavy caravan for any distance.
I think the concept has great potential, but at the moment for caravanning purposes its just not there yet. Very much work in progress!
Needless to say, it was not on my list!
TF
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I agree that reports so far show they are only of benefit on short or in some cases very short journeys. After that you return to the petrol or diesel engine and you are just the same as the rest of us. Some do apparently tow well including the Mitsubishi but others having a smaller engine lacking the power needede. They are probably not worth the extra for most of us but a lot depends on what day to day driving you do and what you want to tow.
A fair bit of research would be needed before taking the plunge.
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If you can afford a range Rover or Cayenne hybrid then go for it, otherwise wait for another 5-10 years for the market to offer more and better options. The Mitsubishi is limited to a max towing weight of 1500kg's, is underpowered and uneconomical for towing. My local Mitsubishi dealer advised against buying an Outlander PHEV for towing, and that was from the owner himself.
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Hi John C, I have an Outlander PHEV. It suits us solo, as our commute and daily tasks take up about 20 odd miles. We usually get a battery range of at least 25 per day, so rarely use any petrol.
When towing the van, the battery runs out really quickly, say 10 - 15 miles. After that, it's not quite as simple to say that we have a normal 2litre petrol engine, due to the way the engine works, by charging the battery rather than driving the wheels.
You don't to worry about pressing buttons to change to the engine and back to the battery etc, the car does all of this itself, seamlessly.
The car is more than heavy and stable enough for a 1500kg van. But when you put the foot down, the response is a bit gutless. The engine revs quite high and is noisy when under hard acceleration or going up a steepish hill etc.
Having towed with various 4wd, for ability, this would be the worst.
We chose it, as it is very cheap to run, when not towing. Most of the time we are around town, but it also suits us by having 1 car that does both jobs.
I hope this helps, cheers, Alex.
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Re PHEV look a t the tow car report by the 'Friendly Club' 2016. Fuel consumption 16mpg starting with a fully charged battery and 11 mpg starting with a flat battery. Official 152 mpg.
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I am so glad someone asked the question - I have been toying with the idea of swapping my diesel Outlander for the PHEV - doesn't sound like a great idea yet! I nearly bought the PHEV in the first place but had my doubts about the towing ability. Thanks everyone. The diesel one is great by the way for my Abbey.
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No experience with a Rav4 Hybrid, but I had a Lexus RX400h hybrid (also from the Toyota stable) with which I towed an 1800kg caravan for six years. A great car which I enjoyed driving and very economical for its size when solo, but there were no fuel consumption benefits when towing.
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Currently pitched on a CC site where there's a Mitsubishi PHEV also pitched. Earlier this afternoon it was plugged in via the site to caravan hook up supply. So readers, is this contentious or perfectly ok? I'll be honest, I can't make my mind up on this one.
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Hi Nigel, it's definitely contentious, no doubt about that. Some strong opinions on whether it should be allowed, mostly surrounding the additional cost to the Club.
When we bought ours we checked with the Club, who said no we couldn't charge on-site. We've since been advised by the warden at Troutbeck Head that that has changed and it is now allowed.
On both Club and commercial sites, we only charge overnight, when only the fridge will be drawing power, so as not to risk overloading anything.
Cheers, Alex.
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It's all paid for in the site fees, senseless to try and heat an awning in winter but it happens. My site fees pay for the diesel that drives the wardens tractor but I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to help myself to that diesel to top up my own car.
As site electricity consumption increases, the fees will rise for everybody, we're 'all' paying for these cars to be recharged
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Hi everyone. We are thinking about an Outlander PHEV. It seems to tick some green boxes, moves away from diesel, ability to use e power locally etc. But what about its towing abilities. Poor initial write up, 1 in 6 slope etc. But what is it actually like to tow with ? We do about 10 - 12 k miles pa. made up of - 2 - 3k towing, 3k made up of 100 mile round trips threequaters of which is motorway and 6k local miles. it would be very usefull to know actual fuel consumption figures. Currently on second 2.0tdi passat estate 140bhp. very competant towcar for our Bailey Verona with mtplm of 1453kgs.I've done some figures that seem to show very little differance in overall gallons used -
Towing - Passat 25mpg PHEV 15mpg
Distance - Passat 45mpg PHEV 40 mpg
Local - Passat 35mpg PHEV 60mpg. Do these seem logical ?
Have read some good some mixed reports. We are retired so no BIK etc from the tax man. I just fancy the thought of epower.
Any views / facts / opinions please particularly from Alex in Scotland.
Been in the CC for 35 years towed with many cars, mostly over the recommended 85 percent figure !9 But always legal !
Thanks in advance
Martin
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It's not free it's paid for in the site fee, a previous poster said the warden allowed it, what's the difference to hooking up to van or motorhome. ? I don't own one by the way but as electric cars become more available/suitable for towing it's something the CC will have to provide for.
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We have just ordered our Outlander PHEV because we believe that, given the disastrous impact of NOx emissions, anything we can do to reduce them is good. We were surprised that it could tow our outfit (Lunar Clubman SB 2017) but delighted - we look forward to many years of (relatively) easy life.
Will report back on any issues we come across but, at the moment, very optimistic!
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djwake - I will be interested to hear your opinion of its towing ability. I tried one out 18 months ago and ended up with the diesel which I love - but with the current opinions on diesel I nearly attended the big sale my local dealer had - but something got in the way that weekend!
With so many people heating awnings and leaving lights on 24/7 I see no objection to PHEVs! Although maybe new sites could be considering metered electricity?
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We will be interested in your thoughts on this. As I see it the economy possible is only on short journeys up to about 30 mph and after that it is just another car as far as economy is concerned. A bit of real life experience will be interesting and it might be something the magazine should be looking at if it can find enough members with them to give long term results.
We have taken note of the diesel controversy and wondered if they may become worthless in the future just when we need to move it on so took a petrol, but there was very little choice as many makes seem to have dropped decent sized ones from larger cars.
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I tow my Bailey Pegasus GT65 (1472kg)with a PHEV and I love it. I have a 30 mile commute each way to work and can charge there so its saving me a loads of money each month. I can get to work on 98-100% EV in the summer, my best month being 1 fill up averaging 178mpg. I'm also really pleased with it when towing. I had a diesel CRV before - which struggled somewhat with the Pegasus. The PHEV is a much better match and a much easier drive... The real test was last year when we took the caravan to Bordeaux... yes, I had to fill up 3 times on the way down, but consumption was no worse than the CRV - at around 20-25mpg. Just take it steady on ACC at the spead limit. Very comfortable and although I was a little apprehensive at the start as to what would happen when I ran out of charge, the car proved to be extremely capable. I love it - and I charge on site, with permission of course!!
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I`ll be interested to see in the future what resale value these cars will achieve when the cost of replacing batteries becomes more evident. I see Teslar are currently guaranteeing batteries for eight years to offset this problem (appreciate these are fully electric).
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The Mitsubishi also has an 8 year guarantee on the batteries, and I believe each cell can be swapped out, so its not necessary to replace the whole thing.
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The towing limit is 1500kg which is the loaded caravan but if you remove heavy items (awning.chairs etc) out of the van and into the car how does it affect the towing performance, also my van tows far better loaded for holidays than it does empty as when taking for service so if you lighten the van and add weight to the car is the towing stability compromised. Because of the low towing capacity some people could be tempted to lighten the van to be within the tow limit but overload the car due to the large cargo area to be within the limit.
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We considered a Mitsubishi PHEV but the rock like seats made it impossible. My back would be miserable after ten miles. We got a Nissan X-Trail 2 litre instead through the Club/Nissan offer. Still awaiting the free tow bar so no towing yet.
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Well, I promised feedback and here it is!
We have just returned from a 4.5 week holiday touring Spain and Portugal towing our 2017 Lunar Clubman SB (1470 kg) with our Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV covering a total of about 3500 miles during that time.
The first thing to say is that, due to the low amperage limits on almost all the sites we stayed at, we ended up spending most of our time (and money) operating on petrol - particularly onerous in Portugal as their government have a different tax regime than we had become used to - €1.59 per litre!)
In terms of pure towing, the car was a dream - no problems with side winds or large vehicles passing; braking (when necessary - regenerative braking makes you drive differently!) faultless; noise acceptable, even with windows open to save depleting the battery with A/C
Economy wise - 22.9 mpg took some adjusting to after the 35 of my previous diesel towcar and the Mitsubishi has quite a small fuel tank so needs to be filled more often (an issue on Palm Sunday in central Spain....!!). However, talking to owners of more recognised brands of towcars, that was seen as "acceptable"
Comfort was not an issue - we did a couple of 300-325 mile runs using cruise control set to 50 mph and arrived feeling OK. By the way, our miniature schnauzer loved the whole back seat to herself!
Disadvantages were mainly experienced on the long, reasonably steep climbs from the north coast up on to the central plain. As previously stated, we tended to run at 50 mph on the cruise control (we're retired and happy to let life pass us by!). However, imagine my surprise when, on one particularly steep bit, the dash showed an image of a tortoise with the words "Propulsion power is reduced" showing below it! Soon followed by the cruise control cutting out!
Turns out that
a) it's all in the handbook (even Mitsubishi dealers say it's unuseable!)
b) when your speed drops below 10 mph below the set ctuise speed, cruise control disengages!
Did we have a great holiday - you bet!
Would I go again with the same set up - Yes, I think I would
Back home, I haven't used any petrol for nearly 2 weeks (and no, I haven't stayed in!)
Hope for technology improvements but, for now, feel I'm as green as I can be (most of the time)
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Currently own a Honda CR-V (2.2 diesel) but hoping to change it for a hybrid with our next (granted, second hand) purchase.
Great review djwake, thanks for taking the time to do this.
I am tempted by a PHEV, as we only do 8,500 miles a year, mostly local journeys, making it a greener SUV for "non-van" times - which equates to about 6/7 of a year.
My current way of thinking is to wait three or four years until I can afford the new XC60 hybrid, (hopefully they'll be around £18-20k in three or four years time).
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We have had the turtle a few times now too. Its always after or during, periods of sustained high power output, going up long steep hills for example.
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