Hi if you turn the key to the first system check click, then when the checks complete turn key again the EV banner pops on the binnacle for a sec and will display ev under the left hand dial in green - when in HEV the green ev goes off and a white box displaying HEV shows near top right of same dial just under ev milage remaining - Im sure others have better insight into issues running with no energy in battery apart from it not being good for battery (it will still have some residual charge in reserve) it will try and charge with regenerative braking etc. However, having the battery charged will aid the electric motor assist the engine for more power and performance....

 

Thanks Sausalito - so which mode does it default to on startup? Is it always HEV or EV?If I use the EV/HEVmanualswitchthepaneldisplays the HEV or EV message, but neither is displayed on startup.Confused. Thanks!

 

Thanks Sausalito - so which mode does it default to on startup? Is it always HEV or EV?If I use the EV/HEVmanualswitchthepaneldisplays the HEV or EV message, but neither is displayed on startup.Confused. Thanks!

Hi, I'm also brand new to the NIRO, just 4 days ago, actually. Love the car after shopping them all. Anyway, I have the same question/s: On start-up, is the car defaulting to EV & requiring me to manually switch it to AUTO? (In other words, does it remain in the last mode you set, or do you have to reset it each time you drive?)
We plan to use EV around town, but AUTO for the longer trips.

 

EV is default but heater/cimate control when on will initially revert to HEV until temp reached - would suggest seeing other threads here as your questions may already be answered

 

Thanks again Sausalito - I will continue to scour the forum though I've found nothing specifically on this point yet...

I live in the middle of nowhere and my nearest town is about 10 miles away. If it defaults to EV, given the 36ish mile capacity, almost every journey I do, I'll have to recharge but I'll keep a full tank of petrol - right? If running on a flat battery is not good for the battery, why is that the default? I can't get my head around this.

 

I had thought I was buying a petrol car with occasional electrical cut-in that would boost mpg and help my eco contribution. Now, I feel that I have an electric car with awful range that needs constant rechargingsupplemented by a largely redundant petrol engine. I must have this wrong somewhere...?

The driving I do is largely rural. When I take the car out, I never do less than a 20-30 mile trip, so I'll be constantly recharging?


Maybe it defaults to 'city mode' ie EV when I need it to default to 'in the sticks mode' ie HEV? Can the default be changed?


Edited by: grtc23

 

Hi As far as I know the Niro PHEV always defaults to EV mode and there is no option to change that. Having said that, unless you have no hills in your area and do not use the heater it's unlikely to be permanently in EV mode as the petrol engine will cut in as necessary.

When the EV miles get to zero the car becomes a petrol hybrid and I believe that the battery still has 15% charge remaining so the electric motor can support the petrol engine for power and economy. This will be topped up as you drive but without a proper recharge it is unlikely to go much above the 15% especially on short journeys.

In your circumstances you will need to re-charge after each trip if you want the benefit of EV mode. What you have is a hybrid car that can do some miles in EV mode but is not a full electric vehicle.

My circumstances are similar, I live about 8 miles from the nearest town but at least once per week have a round trip of around 150 miles. For the local journeys I use EV mode as much as I can and HEV for the longer trips so I get best of both worlds and an overall economy much better than my previous diesel car.

Charging is no big deal once you get into the habit, bit like charging your phone. It takes around 3.5 hours on the 13A charger but I have a dedicated one on order so hopefully that will bring it down to a couple of hours.

Brian

 

My circumstances are similar, I live about 8 miles from the nearest town but at least once per week have a round trip of around 150 miles. For the local journeys I use EV mode as much as I can and HEV for the longer trips so I get best of both worlds and an overall economy much better than my previous diesel car.

We too live 7-8 miles from the nearest towns so use EV mode all the time then charge up the next night.
On a recent trip to London we changed to HEV mode immediately on departure and arrived at the city outskirts after around 170 miles with an almost full battery. That meant we could go into the centre and back out again in EV mode all the time. Overall our 350 mile journey was recorded at c.60mpg, better than the diesel Golf we used to have.

 

Brian - many thanks for a clear and concise explanation. Very much appreciated. The answer is that I do a manual switch to HEV when I'm doing a long trip and leave it to manage itself on shorter runs. I think I can manage that!

 

For what it's worth in the recent cold weather I have always switched HEV on in order to get the heater going quicker. I think the engine only ticks over to provide hot water in EV mode. I switch EV on once the car is warm. Remembering that in rough terms the cost/mile is 3p in EV mode and 12p in HEV.
The Atkinson Cycle engine is very efficient but lacks low speed torque so HEV needs the electric motor to help it out at times. Which is why when the electric range reads zero there is still 12-20% charge saved to assist the engine.
I have wondered what happens when the battery is all used up, do you lose all torque assistance suddenly or does the car computer phase the change gradually?

 

I travel roughly 15-20 miles a day only use EV mode, only occasionally does the petrol motor kick in for demisting the windscreen etc, I use electric seats for heat so warm, had car now for 7 weeks and still got the original full tank of petrol in, I just charge up daily with the free Kia wall charger 7kw that they gave me, its fantastic

 

grtc23 - you don't need to manually switch to HEV. If you start off in EV mode it will automatically switch to HEV mode when the EV miles get to zero. That way you will get the optimum mpg for the overall journey.

MerlinXT - I doubt you could completely empty the battery in normal driving conditions. Like a standard hybrid Niro the petrol engine and braking recharge the battery as you drive.

Brian

 

The only other things you should take into consideration are a) if you are likely to have a lot of stop start city driving at the end of your journey you may want to switch to hev earlier to preserve battery for that part of the journey and b) if you are nearly home and you have excess battery level, you may want to switch to ev mode as there is no value in keeping charge in the battery when you will be able to charge up

 

If the battery is sufficiently charged to show > 0 miles electric range, then it will start in EV mode, unless you switch the heater on in winter or the aircon on on a really hot summer's day like we had a couple of weeks ago (c. 30C).
Personally I charge up at night after nearly every journey as it works out so much cheaper on EV mode (c. 1.5/mile on the Octopus Go tariff).