Niro PHEV Week #1
One week down. Honestly, after running some numbers I knew it was going to save a lot on gas. But, I wasn't really this optimistic.
Right now we're at 1.0L/100km, with over 340kms. The car started off at about 1.8L/100km and 45kms.
So, basically, in the almost 300kms we've added to the car, we've used just over 2L of gas. By contrast, in city, we would get about 450L a tank in the Santa Fe before we would fill up. And a fill-up would be about $45. The gas savings in one week has almost paid off the difference in our car payment already.
I had expected that most trips could be made on gas alone. But, this week, we've made almost ALL trips on gas alone. There were 2 notable exceptions; my wife's weekly trek out of town, which we knew in advance was beyond our range. And, we had guests drop in and offered to drive them home after a day in which we already drove further than usual, and hadn't had time to charge to car. Otherwise, that second trip also would have been all electric range.
And, I tossed the option to drive them back out there both to be nice, but also to see how much of an impact it would have. We can't account for everything after all.
I've set the car now to charge only during off peak hours. This should improve the cost savings further.
Beyond that, the car is fun to drive. It is no Tesla. But, it is interesting and different. And in Sport mode it is apparently plenty peppy. I haven't had an excuse to go on the highway yet or anywhere that I would need a little extra boost. But, my wife assures me it is considerably better than Eco mode when getting up to highway speeds.
The smaller battery (compared to an all electric vehicle) is more of a plus than a negative. It means we can easily go from zero all electric range to full overnight using just the regular outlet. So, very predictable. Though, I did discover we could install a level 2 charger at home for about $200 as we already have the bigger outlet in the garage.
On top of all of that has been the few times we've had to dip into the electric engine. By all accounts, the range was MUCH better than advertised. For instance, when my wife left on her longer outing last week, it said 745KMs of gas range. She had about 35km of electric range and couldn't make it all of the way there. Which means the drive is about 40+kms. She should have pulled into the garage with a remaining range of around 700KMs and instead still has 724KMs left.
Basically, that 2-ish liters we've consumed in hybrid mode has covered 45-75KMs between those two trips. Even that is still astoundingly good mileage. Especially since most of that was 80km/h+ which is a range where hybrids don't deliver their best fuel economy. They are meant to excel at city driving.
All of this really just reinforces my feelings that the government should be able to rest easy on the positive environmental impacts if they extend their rebates to even to regular hybrids. And that automakers should be shifting focus there until production levels and costs for BEVs can be justified.
At the end of the week, all I can say is, I've never been this excited about a car purchase.
Right now we're at 1.0L/100km, with over 340kms. The car started off at about 1.8L/100km and 45kms.
So, basically, in the almost 300kms we've added to the car, we've used just over 2L of gas. By contrast, in city, we would get about 450L a tank in the Santa Fe before we would fill up. And a fill-up would be about $45. The gas savings in one week has almost paid off the difference in our car payment already.
I had expected that most trips could be made on gas alone. But, this week, we've made almost ALL trips on gas alone. There were 2 notable exceptions; my wife's weekly trek out of town, which we knew in advance was beyond our range. And, we had guests drop in and offered to drive them home after a day in which we already drove further than usual, and hadn't had time to charge to car. Otherwise, that second trip also would have been all electric range.
And, I tossed the option to drive them back out there both to be nice, but also to see how much of an impact it would have. We can't account for everything after all.
I've set the car now to charge only during off peak hours. This should improve the cost savings further.
Beyond that, the car is fun to drive. It is no Tesla. But, it is interesting and different. And in Sport mode it is apparently plenty peppy. I haven't had an excuse to go on the highway yet or anywhere that I would need a little extra boost. But, my wife assures me it is considerably better than Eco mode when getting up to highway speeds.
The smaller battery (compared to an all electric vehicle) is more of a plus than a negative. It means we can easily go from zero all electric range to full overnight using just the regular outlet. So, very predictable. Though, I did discover we could install a level 2 charger at home for about $200 as we already have the bigger outlet in the garage.
On top of all of that has been the few times we've had to dip into the electric engine. By all accounts, the range was MUCH better than advertised. For instance, when my wife left on her longer outing last week, it said 745KMs of gas range. She had about 35km of electric range and couldn't make it all of the way there. Which means the drive is about 40+kms. She should have pulled into the garage with a remaining range of around 700KMs and instead still has 724KMs left.
Basically, that 2-ish liters we've consumed in hybrid mode has covered 45-75KMs between those two trips. Even that is still astoundingly good mileage. Especially since most of that was 80km/h+ which is a range where hybrids don't deliver their best fuel economy. They are meant to excel at city driving.
All of this really just reinforces my feelings that the government should be able to rest easy on the positive environmental impacts if they extend their rebates to even to regular hybrids. And that automakers should be shifting focus there until production levels and costs for BEVs can be justified.
At the end of the week, all I can say is, I've never been this excited about a car purchase.
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