Hybrid Charge Confusion

[Smarsde]

Hi, I’m not convinced I sufficiently understand how the charging works, the manual isn’t that easy to fathom.

I charge overnight using a standard domestic UK socket, I have cheaper electricity between midnight and 5pm, so I enter these settings into the app as well as a setting of 0730 for departure time. I think it takes longer than 5 hrs to fully charge from empty, so I guess if it does then charge time will go over 5pm and cost a bit more for the remaining charge time needed.

It always charges to 100% but I have no idea when it actually starts and finishes charging and whether my settings are optimal, I.e. should I set the departure time earlier to force an earlier start after 12 or could that mean I don’t get it fully charged?
I am assuming it won’t attempt to charge before 12 because of the reduced rate settings for electricity I entered But I don’t know for sure?

I prefer to use all electric mode and run this out then let it switch to hybrid as this usually gets most short trips covered and to be fair some days never get into Hybrid. i Have no idea if I should be using the confusing minimum battery charge settings or what value these have so leave at. Likewise the regeneration settings.

I’d like to heat up the car interior too but when I once did it whilst still connected to the electricity, it drained some of the battery charge?

so I’m not convinced I’m getting the best out of this brilliant car out of lack of clear understanding of the charging settings.

Any advice on all of this Much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Fergoo]

I'm on a similar electric tariff but I've separated the charging (Departure Time 1) and the pre-heat (Departure Time 2).

Time 1 is enabled every day for 08:00 and charging only, with the off peak time parameters entered. The car starts charging at 23:30 every night and is always fully charged before the off peak rate finishes. 5 hours might not be enough if fully empty, but I assume yours will continue to charge until it's full to meet the departure time....

It would be interesting to hear whether it does? If you have a Smart Meter you could check your providers app and look at your usage times.

Time 2 is Mon - Fri only (as I don't leave at a specific time at weekends) but also 08:00 and this time heat only. Off peak times are disabled and the car always pre-heats from the mains.

Regen, just leave in Auto unless you have a specific reason. You could set it to High if you're going down a steep hill, but the car will generally recognise this anyway and increase the regen.

Minimum charge level will supersede any departure times until it reaches the set level. Mines set to 0% to maximise off peak charging. If you set it to 20% for example, the car will charge immediately when plugged in and then stop at that level. Any departure times will then deal with the remaining charging.

Hope that helps.

 

[dashnine]

Regen, just leave in Auto unless you have a specific reason. You could set it to High if you're going down a steep hill, but the car will generally recognise this anyway and increase the regen.

Watch the regen if you leave it it Auto or High as the rear brakes sometimes don't get enough of a work out (as the regen is doing most of the braking) and can corrode through lack of use. Took me a while to clean my discs up once I'd spotted the problem.

If (back on topic) you set a departure time I believe the car charges upto that time (so the car / battery is ready to go), so with a cheap rate I'd set departure time to the time the rate ended. I have a WiFi switch in-line on my granny charger so Alexa turns that on at the start of the cheap rate, or I use the Intelligemt Octopus Smart charge to define when it charges.

 

[Fergoo]

Watch the regen if you leave it it Auto or High as the rear brakes sometimes don't get enough of a work out (as the regen is doing most of the braking) and can corrode through lack of use. Took me a while to clean my discs up once I'd spotted the problem.

If (back on topic) you set a departure time I believe the car charges upto that time (so the car / battery is ready to go), so with a cheap rate I'd set departure time to the time the rate ended. I have a WiFi switch in-line on my granny charger so Alexa turns that on at the start of the cheap rate, or I use the Intelligemt Octopus Smart charge to define when it charges.

Valid point about the rear discs, mine have some surface corrosion on the outer diameter as a result.

I assume you set it to low and it's slowly worn the rust off? The size of the brakes on the Cupra hybrid really are overkill given the baking force of the regen.

 

[dashnine]

Valid point about the rear discs, mine have some surface corrosion on the outer diameter as a result.

I assume you set it to low and it's slowly worn the rust off? The size of the brakes on the Cupra hybrid really are overkill given the baking force of the regen.

Yes, regen is now set to low but they only really cleaned up with a few low speed applications of the handbrake. It’s a shame as with high regen it was almost one pedal driving.

Most cars don’t need rear disc brakes, but the marketing people love them. They’re terrible hand brakes (discs contract away from pads as they cool whereas a drum brake clamps harder as the drum cools). Drum brakes aren’t ‘sexy’, but are cheap and I noticed a friends Born has rear drums due to the low brake effort requirement on the back of the car.

 

[CupForm]

Most cars don’t need rear disc brakes, but the marketing people love them

I know some cars that have rear drums for the non-hybrid versions, but have rear brake discs for the PHEV - see Renault Captur for example.
The technical justification is that the former has a lower mass and more forward center of gravity, while the latter is heavier and the CoG is shifted backwards compared to the ICE model.
Imagine that you have your battery at 100% or close - there's almost NO regenerative braking, so all the effort goes into the classical brakes. If you add an emergency situation on top of this scenario, the driver will be more than happy to have brake discs on all 4...
Technically speaking, a car is designed to handle the worst case scenario, not the best

 

[Smarsde]

I'm on a similar electric tariff but I've separated the charging (Departure Time 1) and the pre-heat (Departure Time 2).

Time 1 is enabled every day for 08:00 and charging only, with the off peak time parameters entered. The car starts charging at 23:30 every night and is always fully charged before the off peak rate finishes. 5 hours might not be enough if fully empty, but I assume yours will continue to charge until it's full to meet the departure time....

It would be interesting to hear whether it does? If you have a Smart Meter you could check your providers app and look at your usage times.

Time 2 is Mon - Fri only (as I don't leave at a specific time at weekends) but also 08:00 and this time heat only. Off peak times are disabled and the car always pre-heats from the mains.

Regen, just leave in Auto unless you have a specific reason. You could set it to High if you're going down a steep hill, but the car will generally recognise this anyway and increase the regen.

Minimum charge level will supersede any departure times until it reaches the set level. Mines set to 0% to maximise off peak charging. If you set it to 20% for example, the car will charge immediately when plugged in and then stop at that level. Any departure times will then deal with the remaining charging.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for input, this is helpful. yes it usually charges to 100% no problems but whilst I have a smart meter and provider app because I am now on a split elec tarrif it can’t cope with giving me the historic kWh/cost info by hr/day/week etc, that would enable me to see what was happening when. So all I get is how many kwhrs used per day at each tariff in my bill now.

 

[dashnine]

I know some cars that have rear drums for the non-hybrid versions, but have rear brake discs for the PHEV - see Renault Captur for example.
The technical justification is that the former has a lower mass and more forward center of gravity, while the latter is heavier and the CoG is shifted backwards compared to the ICE model.
Imagine that you have your battery at 100% or close - there's almost NO regenerative braking, so all the effort goes into the classical brakes. If you add an emergency situation on top of this scenario, the driver will be more than happy to have brake discs on all 4...
Technically speaking, a car is designed to handle the worst case scenario, not the best

Rear disc brakes only came to be in vogue when fitted to high performance cars and fitting them to lesser cars just gave them greater appeal. They're not fitted for the duty requirement of most cars - otherwise why would the Born have rear drums when its 300kg heavier than the Formentor hybrid. Discs just offer better heat dissipation, typically from repeated high speed stops.