formentor 1.4 hybrid 204 hp fuel consumption very high

[AndyRBL]

Is it me or this hybrid version is very thirsty. It has a very higher petrol consumption and honestly I don't see the hybrid benefit. Keep in mind that I don't drive like crazy. I drive like I want to save fuel / energy. The battery is degrading like crazy and in this weather it's only good for around 25 Km, normal city driving and all of this for 3.5 hours charge time at a higher price than petrol.
Around 60 euro for 400 Km in electric vs 52 euro for 40 liters of petrol which are good for 400 to 500 Km city driving
Took a trip:
- 10 degrees Celsius, temp set on Auto, intensity 1 at 21 Celsius. heated steering wheel and heated seats OFF
- No cargo
- Eco mode, hybrid setting, Adaptive Cruise Control with just lane assist but not automatic pilot.
- Fueled up to full and jumped directly on a highway for 213 Km with an average speed of 105 Km/h
- Battery was at around 65% when I fueled up

Arrived with 2% battery and a 8.4 l/100km consumption
Screenshot attached

 

[adrianator]

Is it me or this hybrid version is very thirsty. It has a very higher petrol consumption and honestly I don't see the hybrid benefit. Keep in mind that I don't drive like crazy. I drive like I want to save fuel / energy. The battery is degrading like crazy and in this weather it's only good for around 25 Km, normal city driving and all of this for 3.5 hours charge time at a higher price than petrol.
Around 60 euro for 400 Km in electric vs 52 euro for 40 liters of petrol which are good for 400 to 500 Km city driving
Took a trip:
- 10 degrees Celsius, temp set on Auto, intensity 1 at 21 Celsius. heated steering wheel and heated seats OFF
- No cargo
- Eco mode, hybrid setting, Adaptive Cruise Control with just lane assist but not automatic pilot.
- Fueled up to full and jumped directly on a highway for 213 Km with an average speed of 105 Km/h
- Battery was at around 65% when I fueled up

Arrived with 2% battery and a 8.4 l/100km consumption
Screenshot attached

I have the Leon with the same engine. On this weather and bad traffic, yes 20 to 25km range.

And when the battery is empty, the petrol engine is used to change the battery so it won't go completely empty. I always keep my eyes on the green part of the speedometer to see when the battery is charged by the petrol engine.

My current fuel consumption is 7.8l / 100km but I'm lucky that I can charge the car for free at my workplace.

My best fuel consumption was on a 2600km trip. I expected it to be way worse. See the image for details.

 

[AndyRBL]

I have the Leon with the same engine. On this weather and bad traffic, yes 20 to 25km range.

And when the battery is empty, the petrol engine is used to change the battery so it won't go completely empty. I always keep my eyes on the green part of the speedometer to see when the battery is charged by the petrol engine.

My current fuel consumption is 7.8l / 100km but I'm lucky that I can charge the car for free at my workplace.

My best fuel consumption was on a 2600km trip. I expected it to be way worse. See the image for details.

Yea, but still the battery did not reach empty until the destination so there was no sense for the engine to charge it.
I had a similar one as you and I didn't even have power in the battery for most of the time since I had to place to charge and the average speed was way low. So I don't know what happened. maybe a faulty update that doesn't manage the battery well?

 

[adrianator]

Yea, but still the battery did not reach empty until the destination so there was no sense for the engine to charge it.
I had a similar one as you and I didn't even have power in the battery for most of the time since I had to place to charge and the average speed was way low. So I don't know what happened. maybe a faulty update that doesn't manage the battery well?

If you look in the settings, you'll see that the minimum amount of battery charge from the petrol engine is 10%. You can't set it lower than that. So whenever it goes lower, it will charge the car.

Not to mention that the battery reading is wrong most of the time. After getting trips that drain my battery completely and arrive to destination with 1-2%, after I leave the car and start it later, the battery will be at 6-8%

 

[AndyRBL]

If you look in the settings, you'll see that the minimum amount of battery charge from the petrol engine is 10%. You can't set it lower than that. So whenever it goes lower, it will charge the car.

Not to mention that the battery reading is wrong most of the time. After getting trips that drain my battery completely and arrive to destination with 1-2%, after I leave the car and start it later, the battery will be at 6-8%

that may be, but in the trip where I had 5.3 l/100km i was on empty all the time. That would mean that the petrol engine will consume more to charge it vs today where I had 65% to 2% by the end.
I have that bug all the time. 1% when I get out the car and 3-4-5-6% the next day. I saw someone saying the same thing about a VW car.
Battery behaves very strange, for me at least. From charging capacity to consumption to degradation to display

 

[andycalvia]

One thing to consider is the car is around 2 tons so with an average drive you may acheive similar or slightly worse consumption to the lighter non hybrid models. To balance it though you do have considerably more power than the nearest equivalent 1.5 petrol engine.

 

[dashnine]

I think the battery charge increasing after being turned off is the reserved part of the battery ‘giving’ some charge back to the useable part of the battery. After all even when the battery is at 0% or 1% the hybrid is still functioning more than you would expect with a flat battery.

The engine only charges the battery when you have it set in the hybrid settings to reserve at a higher level than the current charge. The green band is the regeneration when going downhill or braking, not the engine.

 

[adrianator]

I think the battery charge increasing after being turned off is the reserved part of the battery ‘giving’ some charge back to the useable part of the battery. After all even when the battery is at 0% or 1% the hybrid is still functioning more than you would expect with a flat battery.

The engine only charges the battery when you have it set in the hybrid settings to reserve at a higher level than the current charge. The green band is the regeneration when going downhill or braking, not the engine.

The green bar is on when the petrol engine charges your battery, not only when regenerative braking charges it. It's just that you'll see only a very short bar

 

[AndyRBL]

The green bar is on when the petrol engine charges your battery, not only when regenerative braking charges it. It's just that you'll see only a very short bar

I have 2 green bars. 1 thicker which is shorter or longer and I don't know what the reason is and it never moves and another thin one that moves when I break

 

[andycalvia]

I have 2 green bars. 1 thicker which is shorter or longer and I don't know what the reason is and it never moves and another thin one that moves when I break

The thin green bar shows the potential availability of regenerative charge. As your battery decreases its charge this thin line will get slightly longer.

 

[EdwinV]

Below the consumption of fuel and battery of my Formentor on last Thursday.
Climate control was set to 21 degrees and the steering wheel and driver's seat were heated for the entire ride.
The outside temperature was between 0 and 4 degrees. 90 percent was highway and the rest 80km/h roads.

When I drive in the city limits, it is on electric (default after starting) and as soon as I go on the highway, I manually switch it to hybrid. And vice versa when I leave the highway again. Sometimes I leave it on hybrid when I have 80km/h roads. It depends on the remaining load of the battery. Battery charging is disabled while driving. I tried this once just to see how it works. I can charge the battery both at home and at the customers.

 

[AndyRBL]

Below the consumption of fuel and battery of my Formentor on last Thursday.
Climate control was set to 21 degrees and the steering wheel and driver's seat were heated for the entire ride.
The outside temperature was between 0 and 4 degrees. 90 percent was highway and the rest 80km/h roads.

When I drive in the city limits, it is on electric (default after starting) and as soon as I go on the highway, I manually switch it to hybrid. And vice versa when I leave the highway again. Sometimes I leave it on hybrid when I have 80km/h roads. It depends on the remaining load of the battery. Battery charging is disabled while driving. I tried this once just to see how it works. I can charge the battery both at home and at the customers.

View attachment 34746


View attachment 34744

i had that in the summer. but now, I'm starting to believe there is something wrong with something.. idk..

 

[Ninjakebab]

I'm still getting around 40 km electric range in 0°C temperature, simply by not using climate control. Heated steering wheel and seats don't use a lot of electricity, so those can be kept on, no problem. But general heating uses around 10x more electricity than those 2.

If you're driving in hybrid mode, make sure to wait until the coolant is at 90°C before turning on heating, that will get you some more battery range.

But I agree, from the image in your first post, that's a bad consumption. If the battery only drops to 10% or below just as you arrive, you should be able to get closer til 5 L/100 km. Here is my latest long trip, full battery, 5°C weather, 120 km/h for the most part, climate control turned ON. Battery hit 10% after about 250km, then starting charging so consumption went up a lot:

8 L/100 km is alot, that looks more like city/sports driving. Is this general for many trips, or just 1? Because I believe it might regenerate the particle filter sometimes, resulting in a trip with insanely high consumption.

 

[AndyRBL]

I'm still getting around 40 km electric range in 0°C temperature, simply by not using climate control. Heated steering wheel and seats don't use a lot of electricity, so those can be kept on, no problem. But general heating uses around 10x more electricity than those 2.

If you're driving in hybrid mode, make sure to wait until the coolant is at 90°C before turning on heating, that will get you some more battery range.

But I agree, from the image in your first post, that's a bad consumption. If the battery only drops to 10% or below just as you arrive, you should be able to get closer til 5 L/100 km. Here is my latest long trip, full battery, 5°C weather, 120 km/h for the most part, climate control turned ON. Battery hit 10% after about 250km, then starting charging so consumption went up a lot:
View attachment 34779

8 L/100 km is alot, that looks more like city/sports driving. Is this general for many trips, or just 1? Because I believe it might regenerate the particle filter sometimes, resulting in a trip with insanely high consumption.

That's the strange part. it wasn't this bad in the past.
In this case temp was 9 Celsius so it's "warm". But I always keep climate control at 21 C, speed 1 so that hasn't changed.
The trip was one strip of highway.
Attached more examples of consumption from the app.
Some of them are on short trips which have 15-16 consumption, around the city, no power in the battery and cold engine which kind of make sense. On the other hand, today I did a short trip, 9 Km with 8.8 l/100km.
Best one and the norm was on the 26th of November. Since then it's all downhill.

 

[Ninjakebab]

Damn, those numbers really aren't too good.

However, it could be the internal sensors that are a bit off. Have you calculated actual mileage on one of these trips by filling up the tank at start and stop? If not, I would recommend that as the next step on one of your 100+km trips.

 

[AndyRBL]

That's the strange part. it wasn't this bad in the past. Temp was 9Celsius so it's a lot. I always keep climate control at 21 C speed 1 so that hasn't changed. The trip was one strip of highway. Attached more examples of consumption from the app. Some of them are on short trips which have 15-16 consumption, around the city, no power and cold engine which kind of make sense but today for example short trip but only 8.8

Damn, those numbers really aren't too good.

However, it could be the internal sensors that are a bit off. Have you calculated actual mileage on one of these trips by filling up the tank at start and stop? If not, I would recommend that as the next step on one of your 100+km trips.

I did. They are accurate. After the last trip 220km I was missing 2 lines out of the 4, so around 20 liters out of 40. I'll monitor it more and go to the service after the holidays. I don't know what else to do.

 

[Ninjakebab]

I did. They are accurate. After the last trip 220km I was missing 2 lines out of the 4, so around 20 liters out of 40. I'll monitor it more and go to the service after the holidays. I don't know what else to do.

I wouldn't trust the tank level sensor for something so important either. Try filling up the tank, do one of these drives and then refill the tank when done, the volume you fill in will be the actual consumption.

 

[ES_Formentor]

Maybe teaching Grannies to suck eggs but is the minimum maintained battery state set high? We saw consumptions like this after we moved house and didn't have any charging available so we set the minimum state as 40-50% so engine would try to keep that charge. This is different from the minimum charge state under the charging/departure times section, it is under settings wheel on hybrid selection widget. Our consumption went back to normal when we reduced it back down once we had charging available.