PHEV Diary: Month two – Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

Electric vehicle charging public networks have been the only flies in our Outlander PHEV’s ointment this month. Getting to grips with them has been a learning curve, unlike the car which is getting more economical as well as more energy efficient.

Life with the big Mitsubishi has been pretty much plain sailing since my last report, with very little to test or frustrate. It’s a shame that once again, that can’t be said of the electric car charging infrastructure. As of last month, there have been obstacles which have prevented a blemish-free PHEV experience. In the last report I stated that charging at the GreenFleet offices has encountered some negativity from neighbouring premises, but we hope to have solved that issue. No, the public charging infrastructure has been our bug bear this month. 

Ease of accessibility
Upon further investigation, in answer to the office charging situation (GreenFleet issue 91), it turns out there are eight Source London charging points at Loughton underground station. However, the four banks of paired chargers are installed at the back of an NCP car park. It’s not accessibility which is the problem – they’re perfectly easy to get to – it’s more the ease of accessibility which enables EV/PHEV owners to use them which is at fault. I walked down to look at them one lunchtime and saw all eight bays occupied by internal combustion-engined cars, unfortunately a common sight in many charging locations. 

A post on Twitter revealed a possible answer from the @ivebeeniced account, which stated that NCP states there is little or no demand for the bays to be used, and so don’t mark them as EV-parking only. Which seems ludicrous. There are eight bays sitting directly near a Tube station for commuter parking, and no EV drivers can use them unless drivers are prepared to make an unreasonably early start to bag one of the coveted spots. I’ve asked both Source London and NCP for a confirmation as to why the bays are unmarked, but I’m still awaiting an answer. 

Met with frustration
My second try-out of the public charging network was also met with frustration. An early journey down to one of Ecotricity’s ‘Electric Highway’ charging stations at a local branch of IKEA was rewarded with a free charging bay. Success. Or so I thought. A Volkswagen Golf GTE was already plugged into the AC side of the charging station, but no worry, I wanted to use the CHAdeMO DC side of the unit. I pressed my Electric Highway card onto the reader to gain access to the unit, and no response. Several attempts still yielded nothing, and then I noticed that the charging unit was displaying a message which alluded to the fact that GTE wasn’t plugged in fully, and was therefore drawing no charge.

A quick trip to the customer service area brought out a member of staff who recognised the same issue – sadly Ecotricity’s helpline number is only open during office hours. One tannoy announcement later and the GTE owner and I were negotiating over charging time cycles. After further investigation it turns out that the Ecotricity units only charge one car at a time, despite there being two bays. So, once the GTE owner plugged his Golf in properly, we set a 70-minute timer which we assumed would then allow me to come back and change over the charging. 

Unfortunately, the unit’s reader still needed the GTE owner’s card to stop the charge and release the charging cable from the car. We never did see him again, which wasn’t his fault. Partly operator error on our part (I got the impression we were both using the public charging network for the first time), we thought the timer would just free-up the unit for the next person once the session had expired. When we started our shopping I had already plugged in the Outlander ready for its swap-over charge, so when we finished our shopping we retuned to it and expected to find it with the plug still in-situ.

However, a dealership-liveried Nissan Leaf was sitting at the GTE’s dormant bay with the CHAdeMO socket on it from the Outlander. I questioned the driver (who rightly pointed out that we weren’t using it), and after explaining we’d been waiting two hours to charge, we then found eight vacant bays at a nearby service station and used one of those – without fault – instead. The experience wasn’t helpful, though, and could have proved very disheartening to an unenlightened first-time EV driver. 

Quickly and easily
Once again I took to Twitter to clarify the two‑bays-one charger situation and Electric Highway (@elechighway) confirmed the one vehicle-charging situation. It also said: ‘There are two bays at most sites because there are two connectors. There are two connectors because there is no standard across all manufacturers.’ A fair point. To give Ecotricity its due, though, the Electric Highway network is free to use (we’ve heard rumours of charges being introduced in April) and providing you’re the first driver at the charging unit’s bays, the yellow and lime green stations work both very quickly and easily.

There were positive outcomes, too, though, as a chat with the Golf GTE owner at IKEA revealed the VW was his company car and that he was going to look at a Tesla, while the Outlander and the GTE attracted many glances as shoppers tried to fathom out how the technology powered the cars. Another bonus was that the bays at the Swedish outlet weren’t taken up with ICE cars like the Loughton bays were, one of the sole times I’ve known them not to be. However, I can quite see ‘charger rage’ becoming an issue, if the infrastructure isn’t drastically improved over time. Or maybe ‘Charging Etiquette’ rules need to be drawn up or some type of queuing system introduced?

Improved fuel economy
Away from the public charging network, life with WV65 YUO has been perfectly enjoyable. While the charging situation at the office is being sorted out, I’ve been reluctant to refill the car’s battery at work, so have only charged the Outlander at home. Overall, that’s less than half the time I did last month. However, even with fewer charges, fuel economy has improved, up from 82.7mpg last month to 91.9 this month. My driving style must be getting more ecologically‑tuned, as energy usage also went down from 3.28 miles/kWh to 3.14. Costs have dipped, too, with only the fuel bill of £36.50 and my Source London subscription being the only expenses during the period between the last report and this one. The car has also been driven for 75.6 per cent of the time this month under electric power.

The big grey Mitsubishi also had its first experience with rear seat passengers recently. Both adult males reported the rear seat a comfortable place to be with ample head and leg room. The remote control charging and climate control app has come into its own, too. The recent minus temperatures cold spell has meant I’ve set the pre-conditioning to come on for ten minutes just before I leave the house in the morning. That’s usually enough to adequately thaw the car, and spares me the cold fingers and ice scraping my neighbour ‘enjoys’. The heated steering wheel and seats are also proving their worth, and add that little bit of luxurious practicality on those frosty early starts. I’m seeing more 2016 MY Outlander PHEVs about, too. Recent reports stated that certain manufacturers were having problems in delivering higher than anticipated volumes of plug-in hybrid models due to increased demand before the government’s Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) halved to £2,500 on 1 March, but Mitsubishi moved quickly to allay any potential customer fears, as the PiCG scheme allows for a nine‑month delivery period.

A surge of interest for Outlander PHEVs was unaffected by the company’s delivery and stock lead times, and the UK arm of the Japanese firm doesn’t expect a brief lull in registrations when the PiCG is halved, as the tax incentives are still there for the taking. Mitsubishi UK is confident that popularity of the Outlander PHEV looks set to continue for a while yet.