2040 mile trip…22mpg
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We just completed our first long distance trip in our Sahara 4xe and had similar results. 2,158 miles from Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama to Pawleys Island, South Carolina and back to Michigan. Once the battery was depleted, we averaged a little over 22 mpg. We also switched from hybrid to esave mode and turned off max regen and then changed settings from recharge brake and coasting to engine recharge. Thus the battery was slowly recharged to 95% by the gasoline engine. We could then revert to hybrid again once the battery was recharged. Very happy with our Jeep hybrid.
I haven't had a 1000 mile run yet but will be escaping IL to Charleston, SC and Asheville, NC soon and am curious how the 4xe Rubi will do with the mountains compared to my other Wranglers and Hemi Grand Cherokee. As weird as it sounds, I find the Rubi 4xe more comfortable than either of our newer Grand Cherokees for lengthy seat time.😎
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I believe that's the best way to use it. That'll be the only time I'll use it, as I'll purposefully recharge up in the mountains to play and will accept the poor efficiency.
I am not understanding what you meant by “and then changed settings from recharge brake and coasting to engine recharge.” I am doing a similarly long trip soon and want to understand. Thanks!
On a long 1K mile highway speed trip, to maximize mileage once the battery is depleted is it better to just keep it in hybrid mode and try to use the “coaching” gauge to get the engine braking to recharge the battery, or as suggested above put it into esave and use the same engine braking method to recharge?
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Just keep in hybrid. There is likely no difference in e-save once your electric only range has depleted.
It's just there to hold your battery where it is to get somewhere with electric range left. The primary reason is to drive to a trail and then be able to enjoy the nature in electric mode.
It's just there to hold your battery where it is to get somewhere with electric range left. The primary reason is to drive to a trail and then be able to enjoy the nature in electric mode.
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Okay, maybe I'm not understanding.
Why does the battery go from 100% to <1% if driving in Hybrid mode? If the battery always has 15% reserve on it, in theory it's because the ICE and other systems can always maintain at least that much? But if the vehicle uses that reserve to say, 10%, and the charging systems brings it back up to 15%, then why don't those systems just always work and keep it at 100%?
I'm sure it's just early and I'm missing something critical.
Why does the battery go from 100% to <1% if driving in Hybrid mode? If the battery always has 15% reserve on it, in theory it's because the ICE and other systems can always maintain at least that much? But if the vehicle uses that reserve to say, 10%, and the charging systems brings it back up to 15%, then why don't those systems just always work and keep it at 100%?
I'm sure it's just early and I'm missing something critical.
Thanks, that what I thought!
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It is horribly inefficiency to use the gas motor to run the generator to produce power. Your NET mileage result is worse than the ~20 MPG that the car would get. In other words, the kW of energy (gasoline burnt) to create kW into the battery, would result in such a loss, that the net MPG/power/energy-per-mile used would be worse than just propulsion on purely gasoline. Only advantage would be that you could go back into EV mode. This is why the "E-SAVE" has the option to charge the battery. Mainly for benefit of European city centers, where you are soon not legally allowed to drive a petrol car and would be forced into EV mode (so adding more energy "in a pinch" might be needed). But overall, generating electricity off the gas motor is a horrible, inefficient use of petrol. Hence why it works the way it does. Does that answer your question?
PS: That bottom 10-15% of battery allows the car in hybrid mode to still go forward a few feet from a stop before firing up the gas motor, and/or going in reverse in electric mode. Slow crawling even when <1% remains works. Purposefully.
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We discovered that in hybrid mode on a long trip, when the battery is depleted, you’re using the gas engine and max regen isn’t recharging the electric motor by much. Therefore, we clicked on “U APPS” and then “HYBRID ELECTRIC” and then “E-SAVE” and then click on “BATTERY CHARGE” this will change the default setting from ”BATTERY SAVE”. This setting change allowed the gas engine to recharge the battery. Once the battery was recharged, we would switch from e-save to hybrid and max regen. Regardless of which setting we used when the battery was depleted (hybrid or e-save), we never saw less than 22 mpg.
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Any other gear in the rig?
Follow Up:
Just returned from a 2800 mile round trip in the Rubi 4xe to SC with several excursions en route and on the leg home. Overall trip mpg was 20.1mpg (hand calc vs 20.3mpg computer) with zero plug-in charging other than starting with a full battery. About half of the trip was hectic interstate travel at 70-80mph, but the other half was at rural/local highway speeds which greatly skewed the overall trip mpg upward (see below).
Not scientific, but on relatively "flat" terrain in our loaded down Rubi 4xe I did 4x ~15 mile stretches w/cruise control:
Interstate 70mph into 15-20mph headwinds: 15-16mpg (computer "instant mpg")
Interstate 65mph into 15-20mph headwinds: 18-19mpg (computer "instant mpg")
Interstate 70mph, no noticeable winds: 22-23mpg (computer "instant mpg")
Interstate 65mph, no noticeable winds: 24-26mpg (computer "instant mpg")
Headwinds just plain suck and every year on our SE trip I swear I get the same damn headwinds😡.
In the mountains going uphill at 70+ mph with headwinds/crosswinds, 9-11mpg "instant mpg" was horrifyingly typical. Also, going downhill, the headwinds were still so severe that the engine stayed on to maintain 70mph which surprised me even though the "instant mpg" was now showing 30-40mpg for those downhill stints. The good thing about this is when I needed to pass a slowpoke, the power was always there on demand; it launches at speed like a bull and on-ramps were very entertaining and stress free.
Where I made up the mpg average was on the 35-55mph rural highways, local streets and the non-interstate Appalachian highways. The downhill leg into Gatlinburg when heading home was impressive; the engine stayed OFF for 45+min while we had the stereo cranked, HVAC heat, butt warmers, headlights and foglights all ON and the battery got recharged to 9% from regenerative braking.
Driving a lot around Columbia,SC, Charleston, SC, Charlotte, NC and Asheville, NC, I saw the overall trip average mpg climb up to over 23mpg only to drop when hitting the high speed interstates with crosswinds. The battery was definitely assisting while pegged at <1% and enabled driving around parking lots on just the battery. Coming home with time being the essence, fuel economy took a back seat, so the overall 20.1 was definitely surprising.
Comparing this to our WK2 Hemi Grand Cherokee on almost the exact same trip last year in similar headwinds/weather, the Rubi 4xe average trip mpg was only 1mpg lower than the Hemi GC. The seating position was more comfortable for me in the Rubi 4xe and the cargo loading with the Diabolical cover in place made things so much better; that makes up for the mpg hit. It's a win.
A 4xe Wrangler on a highway trip is no comparison to a sleek sedan or CUV bubble car for fuel economy, but all the stops and diversions along the way, the comfort level and cargo capacity/organizing made it a terrific choice for us.
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