
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!