[whynot]

The PHEV is currently on a road trip through the Northern Rivers of NSW. While this has put a stop to the experiment on how low I could get the (petrol) fuel consumption to go, it does highlight the main advantage of a PHEV over an EV. When it runs out of battery, the petrol engine takes over.

Two fuel consumption figures to report. One refill was for 20l (actually 19.88l) for a neat 1,000km. This puts the petrol fuel consumption at 2l/100. However, that result was weighted by a trip out to the recent All Ford Day at Willowbank (round trip 150km). (Yeah, I slunked in through the back gate …) If that is removed, the fuel consumption for around town falls to 1.03l/100km. Even that is somewhat high as I am still doing demo runs for work colleagues, including showing off how the engine can recharge, wide open throttle runs, etc. For my daily home-work-home cycle, average fuel consumption would be 0.5l/100. With some care, I can make the work trip exclusively on battery. But, that means gingerly trudging up a few step hills (and there is very little fun in that), so as not to kick in petrol powered assistance.

The second fuel consumption report is a 400km run at 7.28l/100. This was a mainly highway work at 100 or 110, plus some town driving, and a short 20km section of rutted track. The battery has been kept fully charged (generally via the “save” button on the dash), which forces the PHEV to hold the battery at a fixed charge and to use petrol for all power requirements. However, even in this mode, the PHEV cheats a little. Under the bonnet there is a continual dance of the power trains. Sometimes the petrol engine is doing all of the work. But, when there is an increase in demand, like climbing a hill, the battery chimes in with support. On descent, the petrol engine cuts out and the lets gravity recharge the battery. As the road levels out, the battery comes back in to keep the speed up. The petrol engine returns gently, at first recharging the battery. Then, paralleling up with the battery, before finally providing all of the power for driving, and sending surplus to the battery to return the charge back where it was. It is very clever engineering, and I suspect is designed to use the battery to soak up the peaks and troughs in power demand, while leaving the petrol engine to operate at its most fuel efficient delivery points.

The place we are staying at has an interesting driveway. It is a 400 foot climb on a sealed, but very steep driveway through a forest, with three switchbacks. It is amazing to put the PHEV in battery mode, wind down the windows, and listen to it climb this driveway. Except for the crunch of loose gravel and the faint whine of the electric motors, it is a nearly silent climb. The wildlife is noisier than the PHEV. There is heaps of low down torque from the electric motors.

A deeper read of the manual reveals some interesting statistics. While the front and rear electric motors are rated at 60kW each, they also have a 30 minute rating of only 25kW each. (Those with electrical qualifications are probably saying ahhhh ...). While the petrol engine is rated at 87kW, the electric generator connected to it is only rated at 70kW (but there are no indications what the duty cycle is at this rating). Judging by the battery power meter, it takes around 25-30kW to push the PHEV down the highway at 110kph on the flat. Hill climbing can easily see the power meter go deep into the red (haven’t had the chance to take one eye off the road to read off a number). For highway work, it does pay to keep some battery in the tank, so to speak. Still, the PHEV has absolutely no problems climbing hills. The PHEV also sticks to its cruise control set point like glue. Also pleasingly, is how the PHEV sticks to the set point speed during it descent. Obviously it is doing so to slurp off spare kinetic energy for refilling the battery. (One thing that used to really annoy me about the diesel Territory is how the cruise control would occasionally “give up” on the downhill run.)

All up, still a high personal satisfaction rating from me for the PHEV.