[Elkhunter82]

Do I have been stalking/ reading this forum for a few months. I have a 2022 Rubi 4xe on order. I watched a YouTube video last night and it mentioned something, very vaguely, about driving modes. He said that for long drives, drive in Esave mode to charge/ keep your battery charged. Buy I would think that I would get better fuel mileage in hybrid mode. So what mode does the forum recommend on driving longer distances for best fuel mileage?

 

[john adams]

Do I have been stalking/ reading this forum for a few months. I have a 2022 Rubi 4xe on order. I watched a YouTube video last night and it mentioned something, very vaguely, about driving modes. He said that for long drives, drive in Esave mode to charge/ keep your battery charged. Buy I would think that I would get better fuel mileage in hybrid mode. So what mode does the forum recommend on driving longer distances for best fuel mileage?

Long highway, you'll use hybrid for most of it. But for short distances and stop and go, you'll want EV. The trick is this: Unlike other hybrids, the 4XE uses up all its battery first in hybrid mode. Literally down to 0%.

This is different than other hybrids. So when you go on a long drive with say, a 10-15 mile off-highway segment at the end, you may want to enter e-save move at some point to recharge your battery so it's "full" when you get off the highway.

Or if your commute has 30-45mph roads, then highway, then more 30-45mph roads, like many people, you might want to switch back and forth between modes depending on your distance driven.

In general, hybrid is the brainless choice for most people. If you want to maximize EV range, you will switch back and forth more.

 

[Elkhunter82]

Thank you, that's genius. I want to get the most out of this ev. And will absolutely switch between modes to do so. My dealer isn't the most knowledgeable about this vehicle, so the true experts right now are the people who have learn while owning.

 

[Wrangler4XEFan]

The key word to remember with eSave is SAVE. It is meant for if you want to save your battery until later. There are a lot of people on YouTube that don’t understand how hybrid systems work. They think you have to use eSave to keep the battery charged for normal operation. The Wrangler 4XE is always a hybrid. It will always maintain around 15% of charge for hybrid operation. When the dash says “<1%”, there’s actually about 15% left. Due to the charge curve of litium-ion batteries, that is the most efficient spot to operate on long drives. What people tend to forget is that the 4XE has two motor/generators. One in the transmission and one on the front of the gas engine. So any time that gas engine is running, it can maintain a charge going to the battery.

I’ve done several gas mileage tests and recorded the results in different modes. ESave is the least efficient because it’s asking the system to work harder. It comes down to basic physics and thermodynamics. By the way, in all my tests, I measured gas mileage at the gas pump and not what the dash tells me. That can be off both positive and negative.

 

[BB985]

The only time I’ve used E-Save is when I’ve got a 20+ mile highway drive followed by enough surface streets to consume the charge.

My day-to-day is a 16 mile commute into work (where we have chargers) and it’s 75% highway. I find I need to engage electric-only mode, since the gas engine will always want to come on ~65mph for efficiency reasons. I’m able to make it with 25% charge remaining.

Otherwise, I’m normally in hybrid. The gas engine only kicks on during moderate acceleration.

 

[Elkhunter82]

Wrangler4XEFan
Thanks for the videos. They are great info. We are taking our fifth wheel and 4xe to Yellowstone next year so that is similar info for us. Thanks again.