How I Received 65 Miles Of EV Vary Highway Tripping In My Kia Sorento PHEV

How did I presumably handle to double the EV vary of my Kia Sorento PHEV? The reply is that I merely cheated, kind of. I drove myself and 5 passengers as much as about 5,400 ft in elevation on Mt Rainier, southeast of Seattle, Washington. I used roughly 17 miles of EV vary driving to and up the mountain, deliberately sparing the estimated 15 miles of remaining vary for the journey again down. By the point I drove down the mountain, overlaying roughly 35 miles solely on electrical energy, I nonetheless had 11 miles of EV vary exhibiting, as a result of all of the downhill coasting and regenerative braking I did coming dwelling. I managed to go one other 13 miles on that remaining 11 mile estimate although, due to a pace restrict of 45 or decrease and mild driving. Whereas my PHEV was working on fuel, I averaged 35.5 MPG spherical journey.

In impact, I principally used fuel to get me up the mountain and coasted/braked usually on my means down and each generated a big quantity of further vary in doing so and boosted my electrical effectivity enormously. I lined simply over half the gap from the mountain again to my dwelling on electrical energy (in comparison with solely about 20% of the gap on the way in which up). That is why I contemplate it a type of “dishonest” (just like if I had used the fuel engine to generate electrical cost to the purpose of totally recharging my battery), however the actuality is that since plug-in hybrids have considerably bigger batteries than normal hybrid electrical automobiles (HEVs) that don’t plug in, they excel on this explicit situation and may obtain outstanding effectivity. The identical is true for totally electrical automobiles too, after all.

In a normal hybrid I might have additionally gotten higher than common effectivity on these first 35 miles on my return journey, nevertheless the battery in a normal hybrid would have stuffed to its full capability throughout the first mile or two of that 35 mile part. At that time, almost the entire vitality it might seize from regenerative braking wouldn’t be captured. This truth is a big benefit that automobiles with bigger batteries that may draw energy from the grid have over normal hybrids (HEVs) that don’t plug in. Large deal one could say, you’ll be able to’t drive downhill on a regular basis. Whereas that’s true, anybody that goes up after which down massive or lengthy hills on daily basis might actually expertise the advantages of a bigger capability battery in a plug-in hybrid or EV in comparison with an HEV although.

Talking of ordinary hybrids, the hybrid model of the Kia Sorento is likely one of the most gas environment friendly 3 row hybrid SUVs you should purchase proper now, and returns 37 MPG mixed. My PHEV Sorento will get rated at a barely decrease 34 MPG mixed because of the additional weight of its bigger 13.8 kWh battery. Nonetheless, I’ve a lifetime common gas financial system of roughly double the HEV Sorento’s MPG determine in my PHEV Sorento, once I calculated it based mostly on the variety of miles I’ve pushed and the variety of gallons of fuel I’ve utilized in doing so. If we’re speaking about my MPG figures when solely utilizing fuel, my lifetime common remains to be only a skosh above the 34 MPG EPA mixed common. In fact, your mileage could fluctuate, however I drive gently and perform a little over half of my complete miles on brief drives throughout the full vary of the battery in my PHEV.

Whether or not you go up and down numerous hills or not, PHEVs like my Kia Sorento are at their finest, by way of effectivity, on brief to medium journeys which are not more than 3-4X the utmost vary of their batteries, or when one is ready to recharge them throughout an extended drive. In any other case, one is hauling numerous “useless” weight on an extended journey with a principally depleted hybrid battery. This truth warrants repeating since PHEV and vary prolonged expertise is usually complicated to shoppers and one cause extra people could initially go for an HEV as a substitute when buying a extra environment friendly automobile.

Do you personal a PHEV? What’s the most distance you’ve ever gotten from a single cost of the battery? Please go away your ideas and questions beneath.

Picture courtesy of Justin Hart.

Justin Hart has owned and pushed electrical automobiles for over 16 years, together with a primary era Nissan LEAF, second era Chevy Volt, Tesla Mannequin 3, an electrical bicycle and most lately a Kia Sorento PHEV. He’s additionally an avid SUP rider, poet, photographer and wine lover. He enjoys taking lengthy EV and PHEV street journeys to lovely and serene locations with the folks he loves. Observe Justin on Torque Information Kia or X for normal electrical and hybrid information protection.