I have a PV array and battery and a EV charger but I dont have any form of EV and am contuning to run two ICE vehicles whose overall costs are very little compared to buying a new car of any sort.

But a thought occurred to me.

I presume that with a PHEV you would run it on battery in preference to the ICE, with the ICE starting up only when required - eg fast acceleration from junction

Would the ICE then not be performing multiple cold starts and often not running long enough to reach optimal temperature.

A fast way to knacker an ICE is lots of short trips with a permanently cold engine - is this not what would happen in a PHEV ?

And you should never accelerate hard with a cold engine, unless unavoidable. Jules

I think it depends on the PHEV set up, normally the EV side gives the quick acceleration, some will run on electric for short runs, you don't need the ICE unless you run out of battery but not all PHEV's allow you to charge at home, some only charge from the ICE when the battery is low, research is the answer and get it in writing that it will do what the sales person says it will, you tell them what you want and get them to verify it. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

My wife has an Audi A3 e-tron hybrid (2015 model) - it all depends on what mode you use in that one - it has several:

• "EV" - just uses EV engine, but is limited to 80mph - once battery is depleted, switches to "Hybrid Hold" mode
  
• "Hybrid Auto" - EV and ICE together, switches depending on driving (ie, slow urban is EV, motorway and A-road is both together)
  
• "Hybrid Hold" - Keeps the EV battery level constant, mostly ICE but uses EV too in certain cases (ie, post-regen)
  
• "Hybrid Charge" - Uses the ICE to charge the EV, I assume by having regen on constantly
  

Some 14 years back the Volvo hybrid bus chassis we had in our fleet had an assembly called an I-SAM.
Integrated-Starter - Alternator - Motor this was mounted in-between the engine and a 7 speed gearbox which had 7 forward gears and if it wasn't inhibited, in theory 7 reverse gears. As mentioned above when restarting the engine it would bump start it if the vehicle was moving.

Regards keep stopping and starting when driving, it would bump start it but not deliver fuel until a certain level of oil pressure was detected. Having said that it was in the service scheduled at a certain milage (can't remember what) that crankshaft bearings be replaced. I've been retired for 12 years now and I would imagine the technology has moved on a lot. 2007 TD4 XS The work horse that earns its up keep
2013 SD4 HSE The posh one for towing the caravan
1973 Triumph Stag I bought in 2009 and restored.

EV & hybrid technology is changing all the time it seems - its hard to keep pace with it. Jules

Thought I would post these for anyone who is interested. The pictures are the two types of battery that were used on the hybrid vehicles in our fleet. the Square one was the Volvo unit, about 650V, can't remember the Amps but it was huge. this unit was mounted behind the front wheel and before the exit doors on the N/S.

The Flat unit was used in Alexander-Dennis vehicles, it was mounted in a void at the back of the vehicle in between the lower and upper decks, as the pictures show its made up of about 1400 individual 1.5volt cells connected in a combination of series and parallel. these were mounted in what were called Blades, and a number of blades were mounted in the battery case.





















[/img] 2007 TD4 XS The work horse that earns its up keep
2013 SD4 HSE The posh one for towing the caravan
1973 Triumph Stag I bought in 2009 and restored.

In the second photo, on the left you can see a glove and on the pallet is a small pump. this was part of the kit we had to use when working on Live batteries. Part of the procedure for H&S was to test the gloves before use, this involved inflating them with the pump and placing them in a bucket of water to check for leaks which could compromise them. they were rated at 1000 volts and those of us worked on the battery units had to do a B-tec qualification allowing us to work on batteries up to 1000 Volts DC. 2007 TD4 XS The work horse that earns its up keep
2013 SD4 HSE The posh one for towing the caravan
1973 Triumph Stag I bought in 2009 and restored.

Thanks for the pics - interesting.

1000v DC ! - rather you than me  Jules

My wifes car is a VW Golf GTE which is a PHEV. The range on battery is pretty poor, starts off at 20 miles or so and lucky to get half of that this time of the year. We generally do the same as CDFH and use it in Hybrid Mode all the time unless I feel like a bit of fun and stick it in GTE mode.

The engine comes on a fair bit once speed is over 40 so it gets up to temperature fine and there is no starter motor. Once you get used to it you don't really notice the engine coming on at all its seamless.

It's a nice car ad if I keep it charged it returns around 70mpg on fairly short journeys. I'm not sure we'll keep it when the VW warranty runs out though as they are so complex.

Although I like the concept of PHEVs, the complexity of ICE/electric system are a bit daunting - the worst of both worlds; ICE and EV.

Another factor to consider is the very variable depreciation on EVs and hybrids - it can be huge (30% in 1st year) or small depending upon the model.




What I want is a "Freelander 2" hybrid that only needs the ICE for long distances as I dont want to use public charging. Jules