We support many types of electric vehicles, including popular plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models. It’s our recommendation, however, that PHEV owners keep in mind a few differences with their monthly reports from Recurrent.
Expected Range in a PHEV
The expected range for your vehicle is a combined total of battery and gasoline range and it is not unusual to see projected ranges upwards of 400 or 500 miles in the comparative range section! For some PHEVs, there is no electric-only mode, so there is no way to display battery-only range. For other PHEVs, electric-only mode is a selling point – and a feature used by many people who utilize PHEV flexibility to minimize gas use for in-town driving. Our team is conceptualizing a way to display these metrics in a way that will enhance Dashboard utility for PHEVs with battery-only mode.
Charging Insights
In the “How am I charging?” section, you will notice many data points for your battery’s state of charge will be at or around 100%. On a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), we normally suggest keeping batteries charged to between 30 and 80 percent in order to minimize battery degradation. However, many PHEVs do not allow drivers to set a charge limit for the battery since they use a completely different paradigm for battery management. They charge in two ways: first, you can charge them by plugging them in, but they also self-charge the onboard battery pack while driving. Not to worry, though – all PHEVs have a large buffer built into the batteries that prevent the individual cells from being charged beyond a safe limit. In other words, 100% is not truly 100%. While this is also true for BEVs, the buffer, or reserve, for PHEVs is much larger, meaning you can safely ignore the 30-80% band on the “How am I charging?” section.
If you have ideas or recommendations for how you can better utilize Recurrent reports for your PHEV, please feel free to send them to support@recurrentauto.com.