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2017 Chrysler Pacifica (Minivan) PHEV 30 mile AER
- Thread starter RobStark
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- Electric Vehicles
I wanted to follow up with MPG performance now that I've had a few more months of driving.
For normal city commuting I've been hovering in between 27 mpg, and 45 mpg. Most of the time I'm averaging around 32-36 mpg. This may not seem like a lot, but the reason is because of our Colorado weather. When it's cold outside, and I turn the heater on, the car jumps immediately to the gas engine. This annoys me, but it makes sense I guess. The most efficient way to get heat is to burn gas. That's what's been dropping my mpg numbers (it's been freaking cold the last two months!). What I've noticed though is when I'm driving on our 60 degree days, and I'm not using the heater, my numbers start jumping into the low 40s for mpg.
So from my observations it looks like if you live in a cold climate in winter, then you're going to take a mpg hit to heat the car. What I'm looking forward to though is spring, summer, and early fall numbers. If I'm not using the heater, or using the AC in the summer (I'm really hoping it's an electrically powered AC compressor), then I anticipate my rolling MPG average to improve dramatically. I'm thinking 50s to 60s mpg range. If that's the case then I think this purchase is well worth it. Where else can you get a seven passenger, three row vehicle with those kind of city mpg numbers without it costing the price of a small house?
I'll keep yall updated as time goes by. Have a good one.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
Thanks for the information. This is exactly what I was worried about when we were looking at them at launch. There wasn't a lot of information on how the system would work in the cold. Seeing as how we have short drives to get the kids to school, it looks like we'd be burning a considerable amount of gas during the 5 months of winter here in MN.
You didn't get the 1st and 2nd row heated seats package?
Or you have a whole basketball team to haul around that needs to be warm in the 3rd row?
Or the heated seats are not effective?
Heating the seats in most cars is effective and much more efficient than heating all the air inside the car.
I did not. I got the more basic model. I wouldn't have gotten those features if I were buying a gas version of a van, and I wanted my incentives (federal/Colorado) to get be below $30k for the cost of the van. If I got those options it would have basically cancelled out my Colorado incentive.
Plus the kids I have now are all in car seats, so heated seats wouldn't be effective for them anyway
Plus the kids I have now are all in car seats, so heated seats wouldn't be effective for them anyway
I see new market for electrically heated cloth diapers. Oh wait there might be a problem with that ... Seriously, has anyone ever created heated car seats?
Same reason I didn't buy a Model X (other than it's too cramped). I'd rather not spend over $60k for a family hauler.
As I suspected a couple of weeks of warm weather, and my MPG numbers passed above 50 MPG for the first time (this is average MPG that's now a few thousand miles). So yeah I'm definitely not complaining. 50 mpg for a full size seven passenger car for $29k? I'll take that any day of the week.
What is your town:highway miles ratio, would you guess? Your number makes sense as the Mitsubishi is getting 60+ in the UK reportedly.
It's been almost all city driving. When I drove the van cross country on I-40 I was in the mid to high 20's for MPG.
That stands to reason. You don't get a lot of benefit from a hybrid on the highway, it's stop and go regen/electric drive that delivers the mileage. I owned Toyota's first hybrid minivan, the Estima Hybrid, from 2003-2010 when we lived in Japan. We mostly did city miles, but unfortunately my wife was the primary driver and her hard gas / hard brake driving didn't give us as much of the benefit either.
Another follow up. Right before we hit the highway, the van had been essentially driving all city for over a month and a half. It was hitting 70 mpg average. That to me is awesomesauce.
Follow up from over a year later.
Late last winter (February) I finally had the time to knock out installing my EVSE. I had it previously installed at our home in New Mexico, but when we moved, the EVSE found itself in the back corner of the garage for the last couple of years while bigger projects took prioritiy.
Up to that point the Pacifica (and my Leaf) had been utilizing the 120V EVSE which came with the cars. Obviously this doesn't allow for quick replenishiment of the battery packs for multiple trips during the day.
I installed the 240v EVSE in the garage, and told my wife (who primarily drives the Pacifica) to plug it in all the time, instead of just at night.
This caused a dramatic boost in the Pacifica's MPG average over the summer. Before my wife would usually run the battery out commuting from work and back. Which meant by the end of the day if the Pacifica needed to be used for hauling the kids to soccer, ect, she'd be buring gas.
Now when she gets home, even plugging in the Pacifica (due the 6.6kw charger) for 10 minutes can get the van battery back up to do quick jots around the neighborhood.
Last summer the van was averaging around 72 MPG (the winter MPG nosedives. See previous posts why). So far this year the van has been averaging 90 MPG! I've seriously only had to fill the tank up once since June, which is pretty crazy!
So if you're looking for a 7 passanger car which doesn't cost $100k to be (nearly) gas free, check out the Pacifica Hybrids. Defintely work the price if you can get the federal and state incentives like we do here in Colorado.
Late last winter (February) I finally had the time to knock out installing my EVSE. I had it previously installed at our home in New Mexico, but when we moved, the EVSE found itself in the back corner of the garage for the last couple of years while bigger projects took prioritiy.
Up to that point the Pacifica (and my Leaf) had been utilizing the 120V EVSE which came with the cars. Obviously this doesn't allow for quick replenishiment of the battery packs for multiple trips during the day.
I installed the 240v EVSE in the garage, and told my wife (who primarily drives the Pacifica) to plug it in all the time, instead of just at night.
This caused a dramatic boost in the Pacifica's MPG average over the summer. Before my wife would usually run the battery out commuting from work and back. Which meant by the end of the day if the Pacifica needed to be used for hauling the kids to soccer, ect, she'd be buring gas.
Now when she gets home, even plugging in the Pacifica (due the 6.6kw charger) for 10 minutes can get the van battery back up to do quick jots around the neighborhood.
Last summer the van was averaging around 72 MPG (the winter MPG nosedives. See previous posts why). So far this year the van has been averaging 90 MPG! I've seriously only had to fill the tank up once since June, which is pretty crazy!
So if you're looking for a 7 passanger car which doesn't cost $100k to be (nearly) gas free, check out the Pacifica Hybrids. Defintely work the price if you can get the federal and state incentives like we do here in Colorado.
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