I thought I would let the Mitsubishi PHEV onboard algorithm sort this one out.

We filled up the tank with no battery charge left at an estimated range of 84 miles. The manual specifically says not to let the tank get too low.

After filling with 31.28 litres £30 the expected range went up to 247 miles. This will be on urban driving, as the computer takes into account the type of driving you have been doing.

The cost per mile on driving in petrol only works out to 12.15p per mile, which is about a third less than driving the Chevrolet Captiva on nasty old diesel with awful emissions stats. This is worst case scenario. I suspect it's less as driving today didn't change our range much but we did about 30 miles. I still think it's probably closer to 10 p per mile with no battery charge.

I have made an appointment with the Jersey Electricity technical man for Friday to see about installing a charge point. I think for us this is the way forward.

We are on a comfort heat tarrif, which means our normal units are about 14.5 pence. The night low tarrif for washing machines is about 10.5 pence and economy 7 rate on a separate ring for the water, and storage radiators about 7.5 pence.

Jersey Electricity recommend the EV cars are charged on economy seven tarrif. 

What I am hoping is to get this low tarrif on a dedicated ring to the charge point and only charge on this tarrif. 

This is will be great for us in terms of low cost charging, so our 10 units and approximately 23 miles I think we are really getting will cost under 3.3pence per mile in EV mode.

I also think it makes sense for the Electricity company, because it means they will not have a huge power demand to fast charge our car. I assume the output on economy seven is a bit lower too so the car can happily charge for five hours overnight if the battery is empty.

What is extraordinary for me about putting in this petrol, is this is the first time we have filled up the car in over 520 miles of driving. 

In in reality we have spent about £15 on electricity, and £30 on petrol. 

This is makes the overall cost per mile under 9 pence. This is one half the cost of driving the Chevrolet Captiva.

Or it goes twice as far as the Chevrolet Captiva for the same cost, if that's how you prefer to work it out.

I love driving this car as well. Cruising at 80mph the other day was quiet and smooth. This was on petrol as we had the save button on. Just a few miles to see what it was like...

I see the cost of installing a charge point as a capital investment to the house, rather than a cost of driving, as it makes the house more value.

If the negotiation over the electricity tarrif goes well, this will bring our cost per mile down to about three pence per mile around Jersey which is staggering. It also means we will be driving with almost no emissions.

I am also looking into the converters that can be bought to use battery power back to the house, as in the long run this may be a great way to store economy seven tarrif and get the benefit of it during daytime use. I am sure this will have occurred to a few other people!

​Mitsubishi have now launched this in Europe, as it was only available in Japan for the first couple of years. Heaven knows what the charging port would cost but it's a great idea. This port is a chademo which is being phased out in Europe. Most of the European cars use a different port, so the French are not even going to put new Chademo on after 2019.

Certainly if there were a big problem with power outage, on a full tank of petrol the car can be used as a generator, and could save a freezer full of food from going off if there was a storm that brought down power lines for a few days. This is a likelihood in France, not in Jersey as all our cables are underground. We don't like pylons!

A lot of comments I have seen from other people is that the seats are uncomfortable. I disagree. I have a bad back, and It used to be awful even on a 45 minute drive in the Captiva. What I have noticed already is that I don't get out of the Mitsubishi PHEV feeling I can barely stand up. My back is so much better, the firm seats get a thumbs up from me!

I started out with this Mitsubishi PHEV quite suspicious of the economy claims made for it. The reality is that a comparable aggregate of driving with the PHEV has proven it costs half of what the Chevrolet Captiva cost to run. This will be less around Jersey running on EV alone, 

We had the catastrophic failure with the Chevrolet Captiva, and the awful response to the aftercare now that Chevrolet do not support their product in Europe any more.

I am just delighted we bought the Mitsubishi PHEV, and had such a wonderful and helpful experience from the Mansell Collection in Jersey to help us out of the terrible situation we were in. 

Not or only that we got back from our holiday to find we had been sent a lovely gift from the  
​Mansell Collection. The Champagne has already been drunk though!

​

We have just done 500 miles of mixed driving with the new Mitsubishi PHEV since I set the cost per charge meter. I decided to get the calculator out and check how much the aggregate cost of driving has been over the said 500 miles.
​

We have used £13.80p of electricity, and about half the 30 litre tank of petrol at 92p per litre which works out at the same cost.


500 miles of driving has cost us £27.60p or 5.52p per mile.

I keep thinking I have got this wrong, but I have checked it a few times now.

The Chevrolet Captiva used 28 miles per gallon on longer journeys, and around Jersey in the lanes only 23 miles per gallon. At 28 miles per gallon this equates to 4.52 litres of diesel at about 95p per litre at the moment. 

That's a staggering 18.66p urban cycle and 15.33p for longer trips. Plus all the nasty emissions from diesel. Wow... And this on the cheapest prices we have had in years.

We have a French friend up the road who has a free to roam chicken shed covered in solar panels. Last Tuesday we had a 36C heatwave and he got 400kw of power downloaded to the grid. Today is overcast and about 19C, so I said is that about 100KW, I think the look of surprise said yes.

He is very happy on sunny days! I asked how his chickens coped with the heat last Tuesday. He said they wouldn't go out in the sun, and did a great impression of a chicken trying to sit still with its wings out to try and cool down. I asked if he lost any from heat stroke but he said no he spent the day keeping them cool.

Anyway back to the Lithium ion batteries in the PHEV. I am sure these are going to be a leapfrog to a more environmentally sound solution, and advances in battery technology within a few short years will mean more efficient batteries that charge quicker, and last longer, and have better life than these will become available.

This means the car itself will become a resource instead of a problem.

In France there is a complicated energy tariff that I am sure is linked to their wind farms. When it is going to be very windy often wind farms have to dump their energy because there isn't enough storage capacity to save excess output. With massive battery capacity installed in cars, and an extra battery for the house, all this cheap energy could be got cheaply and stored for later.

This means within a short period of time, with some clever wiring options renewables become very much more attractive, and nasty expensive nuclear power stations that produce radio active material we can't get rid of are already obsolete.

The news today said that Ford are going to close their engine manufacturing plants in England because of BREXIT. I think it is more likely that the petrol engine has now become old technology.

I don't think it's fair to blame this on BREXIT. This is more about the public wanting to drive electric and PHEV cars, which are much cheaper, especially for urban driving, and avoid congestion charges.

We Brits are the worlds best inventors and manufacturers of high quality products, how about we develop the best electric cars, and roll out renewables in conjunction with all that spare battery capacity!

I still think this is some kind of metaphorical story. you will have to scroll down to previous posts to get the gist of it.

The garage in Jersey that was the agent for Captiva spilled petrol on the fire yesterday. We had asked them how much we could get as a part exchange for our Captiva against a new model such as a RAV 4 hybrid, or a Lexus Hybrid. we had arranged to meet with their salesman at 10 am yesterday to be talked through the cars to make a decision.

No salesman, he was in England on a jolly. No call either to say sorry, can't do the appointment. So we had gone, and not been met with any welcome, or hello prospective buyer carpet.

We spent 45 minutes looking at the cars, and comparing stats, and taking the brochures. 

We then had a call at about 2pm, to say the garage were not prepared to give us a test drive of a car we could not afford. How much could we afford, and how would we be paying for a new car.

On top of abysmal aftercare, we now have to deal with a crass sales team.

In the meantime we have out on trial a Mitsubishi PHEV which we are very taken with, and the garage has said as long as The Chevy dealer can get the wheels back on ours they will give us a great exchange, sort out the problems with the Chevy, and we can be on the road with a new Toyota which is perfect for Jersey, or London driving, and deliver on our driveway on Saturday. (Its Wednesday).

We can't have it tomorrow because they want to put the paint protector on it before we get it.

This is the Nigel Mansell Garage and Museum in Jersey with an incredible, 'can do' ethic.

This is a bit how I feel the EU has become, and why so many Brits decided to leave. Would you want to buy a car from the dealer, who should be looking after your interests, and have been abysmal in dealership, aftercare, and sales, or from someone else who will take a hedge on how much money they will make from the deal.

Certainly if nothing else, our relief at being given this alternative deal has delighted me. It's a win win amount. More than we were offered, less the hassle.

We were test driving today, and if nothing else the car was quiet, didn't roll, and still had battery left when we handed it back. We have an economy seven tarriff so a full charge will cost us about .77p which in Jersey will cover about 25 miles with some canny driving.

Also I did have a holier than thou moment sitting in traffic with the window open and smelling all the exhast fumes from other cars. I think knowing we are protecting our Island as well with this new purchase puts it up there for the hitting the local emmisions target.

We might also be getting tidal power very shortly, so happy days, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is  certainly for the next few years a great solution in my opinion. I will update on the reality of owning one.

It won't perform much better than the chev on our Motorway driving in France, which is minimal for us. However in the village, and on short journeys or in traffic, which is the majority of our driving, it should outperform anything in the SUV category with ease as far as eco savings and emmisions are concerned.

It is a car made for Jersey, or any other short distance, heavy traffic area. It has all the feel of our chev captiva, just a massive change in eco emissions and economy, considering our top speed limit in only 10 % of the island roads is 40mph. Mostly 30mph, some 20mph, and Green lanes of 15mph.

(If you are after the racy side of Jersey check out the Boulley Bay Hill Climb, it needs to be on Top Gear! Forget the Stig!) However we are a haven for classic and vintage cars who love to come here.

In a couple of years the Alderney race will be populated with underwater turbines. The generating capacity is huge. At the moment the turbines are being made in Cherbourg, and the idea is to put the energy into the UK grid with a new cable, and also into the French grid with new cables. This ought to offset some of the UK's forcast for renewable energy.

Perhaps a little negotiation about a spare cable might be in order. We don't have to supply the French? 

Let's 'sea' what little ships come sailing in once we have stabilised our UK government and stopped them being so pessimistic. The thing is, much as the Brits think small at times, Generally they have a very canny sense of what is going to work out well. 

Most European countries do not have the sea on their doorstep. Britain does, and if the new array in Alderney works well, you can imagine every tidal area in the Uk will be a powerhouse. And it is not going to be expensive technology once it is rolled out.

Those who can generate renewable energy in the next 30 years are going to be able to negotiate what they like. There is a lot of potential areas this technology will be able to work. Around the British coast it will provide a near seamless stream of electricity.