5 ms·

I rented a PHEV Chrysler Pacifica and I was disappointed that whenever it thought I was giving it too much throttle, it would kick itself out of EV mode and sta

I rented a PHEV Chrysler Pacifica and I was disappointed that whenever it thought I was giving it too much throttle, it would kick itself out of EV mode and start the engine. There was no way to force it to use only the battery until depleted.

tshaddox 3y ago
Why is that a bad thing? Was the transition clunky, leading to a bad driving experience? Or were you just strongly preferring to stay in battery-only mode at the time?
- nsxwolf 3y ago
  I was strongly preferring to stay in battery mode. The car is advertised with a strong implication that it works this way. If it's not going to work that way, it's just a hybrid with a few configuration tweaks.
  - tshaddox 3y ago
    I’m not at all a car guy, but it’s possible that I follow EV-related tech more than the average car buyer. I thought it was fairly common knowledge that PHEVs will often engage the combustion engine, particularly at high speeds or under high acceleration (or even to prevent the gas in the tank from getting too old). I’ve never owned a PHEV but I always conceptualized it as an exaggerated version of the auto stop/start that most modern gas cars have, where you don’t really have direct control over the gas engine usage.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      I have a Ford PHEV, and it never kicks on simply due to speed. If you accelerate very sharply it will turn on, but that almost never happens in my experience. And there is nothing that I'm aware of that causes it to use gasoline in order to prevent it from going stale. It is not remotely like an exaggerated version of auto stop/start. You have control over EV-now, EV-later, and automatic settings. Some PHEVs are stingier on the EV-limited top speed, but in my Ford I can go with the flow of traffic on 280 without triggering the ICE.
kqr 3y ago
The PHEVs I've driven have had a mode setting for that. Some people I know virtually never use the combustion engine in theirs.
- flashback2199 3y ago
  The Pacifica is a bit different from other PHEVs in this way because the goal of its design was apparently for it to be super simple for soccer moms etc, and as such it doesn't have any modes, you can't say only use the battery or only use the engine, etc.

tshaddox 3y ago

Why is that a bad thing? Was the transition clunky, leading to a bad driving experience? Or were you just strongly preferring to stay in battery-only mode at the time?

nsxwolf 3y ago
I was strongly preferring to stay in battery mode. The car is advertised with a strong implication that it works this way. If it's not going to work that way, it's just a hybrid with a few configuration tweaks.
- tshaddox 3y ago
  I’m not at all a car guy, but it’s possible that I follow EV-related tech more than the average car buyer. I thought it was fairly common knowledge that PHEVs will often engage the combustion engine, particularly at high speeds or under high acceleration (or even to prevent the gas in the tank from getting too old). I’ve never owned a PHEV but I always conceptualized it as an exaggerated version of the auto stop/start that most modern gas cars have, where you don’t really have direct control over the gas engine usage.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    I have a Ford PHEV, and it never kicks on simply due to speed. If you accelerate very sharply it will turn on, but that almost never happens in my experience. And there is nothing that I'm aware of that causes it to use gasoline in order to prevent it from going stale. It is not remotely like an exaggerated version of auto stop/start. You have control over EV-now, EV-later, and automatic settings. Some PHEVs are stingier on the EV-limited top speed, but in my Ford I can go with the flow of traffic on 280 without triggering the ICE.

kqr 3y ago

The PHEVs I've driven have had a mode setting for that. Some people I know virtually never use the combustion engine in theirs.

flashback2199 3y ago
The Pacifica is a bit different from other PHEVs in this way because the goal of its design was apparently for it to be super simple for soccer moms etc, and as such it doesn't have any modes, you can't say only use the battery or only use the engine, etc.