vRS Octavia iV - Range, Motorway Driving

[Rich_N]

Folks, 

I suspect this has been asked before but I can't seem to find an answer using the search feature of the site. So I apologise if you've seen and answered this before.

I currently have a petrol vRS which is due to be replaced next year (lead times and all that).

I've got quotes for both the petrol and the iV version of the car. I'm aware that the iV is higher (15mm) and not quite as 'sporty' as the petrol, but as I get older that isn't a major issue!!!!!

What about the iV range on longer roads? I live in a rural area and do mostly shorter trips, 6 or 7 miles each way to the shops etc and I will be able to have a charging point on my home, so much of the time it'll be running in electric mode. But, I do travel on the motorway a few times per year and quite a few of my rural trips are on longer straighter roads with less opportunities for regenerative braking.

Does the iV run out of electricity on a longer motorway run when using it in conjunction with the ICE? I head up to the Lakes and Scotland and once north of Manchester, i hardly ever have to slow as I travel when the traffic is most likely to be light.

I'm really torn between another 4 years of petrol or 4 years of PHEV then switching to hopefully cheaper EV when my next lease is due up.

I don't do major miles either, being retired!

Many thanks in advance,

Rich

[SurreyJohn]

The iV is not a pure electric vehicle, it has both 1.4 litre petrol engine and electric motors and battery

 

Therefore on long journeys on motorways going to be mainly using the petrol engine, so range is effectively limited by tank full of fuel (but in practice really ought to be taking a driving break at services, long before you run out of fuel)

 

Regarding lease or buy it, do sums carefully as residuals are quite high currently, and check that whoever you order a new one from can actually deliver it in a sensible timescale.  Ask directly if their delivery estimates are accurate or if cars are arriving later (lying is illegal, choosing to stay quiet on bad news is sales patter)

 

 

 

Edited 7 December, 2021 by SurreyJohn

[Rich_N]

John, yeah, I'm aware of the huge timescales which is why I'm placing an order 12 months out from when I need it. I'm going via who I normally lease from, which is Skoda themselves rather than via a 3rd party broker.

I also assume that unless the car is in sport mode, the pure electric engine is only producing 115bhp? Is that correct?

Cheers.

[Ootohere]

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/499284-hybrid-vrs

 

[MickyD44]

One on my colleagues has the vRS iv (hoping mine will be delivered next week) it has quite a small tank on it, I think he said it takes about £50 worth of Super Unleaded from empty and with motorway running (M25, M1) he said he's getting about 400 miles from a tank. The battery normally shows empty after around 80/90 miles on the motorway.

 

I believe you can set it to hold a certain amount of battery for the end of your journey, and you can set it to charge while driving (but this uses more fuel).

 

If you are doing mostly motorway driving I can't see that much benefit tbh over the petrol. Its when you are round towns, or local trips using full EV modes for the 25 ish miles it allows is when you save the money.

 

He said he's long term mpg is sitting at 85mpg which is pretty good, but nowhere near the claimed mpg.

 

He has enjoyed the performance of the car, mid range is good fun, and the handling is on the comfortable side of sporty apparently.

 

I'll let you know more when I get mine.

[Ootohere]

£50 of super unleaded at current prices would be less than 33 litres. which is only 7 and a bit gallon. 

[Jim2015]

We have the iV Estate. Our home town is very hilly and we are next to the N Yorkshire Moors, so on e-power we can get about 30 - 35 miles on the flat, but 25-ish over the Moors. A full charge costs £2.16 but when we get a smart meter, at 5p/kWhr, a full charge will cost 65 pence. (Octopus Go, if you are interested). Our motoring is a mix of local and longer distance drives (about a 50 - 50 split) so for shopping etc we use e-power. Now the weather is colder, our range is about 25 miles. Today we travelled 26 miles - for 13 miles on e-power, the battery used 70% of its charge, but the heater was on, together with wipers and lights. and it was 4 degrees outside. The return was in Hybrid mode and the total mpg was 126. In June I did a 126 mile each way journey, mainly dual carriage way and motorways and on the forward journey we achieved 70mpg. The battery always retains an indicated 1% charge and so far always starts on e-power.  I was able to fully charge the battery (which was down to 1%) during our visit and on the return achieved 74mpg (this was based on the in-car data). Based on real data (brimming tank) our overall mpg is 90mpg after 3427 miles. Therefore the fuel tank capacity of 40 litres in not an issue: I estimate IC alone we get 46mpg. Overall cost for petrol and electricity is 9p/ mile. This compares favourably with our Karoq. For several months I was only doing 8 miles a week during lockdown, so this would skew the results, but it cost 18p/mile for the time we owned it when the average cost of fuel was £1.22 per litre.

[Rich_N]

Jim, am I right in assuming that when you did the motorway trip, the car was running on ICE only? So effectively a 1.4TSI motor or did the battery continue to boost to 245 for the whole journey? Plus, on battery only, is the power output 115bhp?

Cheers.

[timster]

37 minutes ago, Rich_N said:

Jim, am I right in assuming that when you did the motorway trip, the car was running on ICE only? So effectively a 1.4TSI motor or did the battery continue to boost to 245 for the whole journey? Plus, on battery only, is the power output 115bhp?

Cheers.

Battery/electric boost is always there. Even if the battery is "empty", it still has some power. You can get the same 0-100km time with the battery "empty". 
It's there to boost it always. Max power might be only in sport mode. Empty battery is still best on city, when you break and start often, since braking charges. 

 

 Nice video of the range and consumption.

[SkOmk4]

27 minutes ago, Rich_N said:

did the battery continue to boost to 245 for the whole journey?

Sorry, I fail to really understand this question.
Once you're on the motorway at constant cruising speed a car is not using all the engine power (be it IC or EV). Unless you're on the German Autobahn (on a limitless section) "cruising" flat out at the upper speed limit of you car, fighting the air resistance.

Just think about it: two different engines (but the same shape and masses - let's say Octavia mk4) doing 130km/h on the same highway, same conditions (wind, slope etc), one having 100hp and the other 245hp - they will need the same amount of power to keep that speed constant. And that power is far below those 100hp, I'm guessing somewhere around 25hp. Now if you ask that IC engine (using the hybrid control system) to also charge the battery while cruising at the same constant speed, it will add several HP to do that and this will probably increase the consumption by about 1-2 liters/100km (or decrease the mileage equivalently).
Ideally you would want to always have some juice left in the batteries, just to be able to use all the combined power (IC+EC) when you need it.

[Ootohere]

Re Off Peak low Tariff charging in the UK.

 

If you are mot already with Octopus or some others with EV Tariffs for charging then you best check if you can now get on a plan with them as there are Schemes only open to their current customers. 

You might have to charge at your usual Electric Tariff until the cost of energy drops which could be long enough. 

If you are 20 pence a kWh then that £2.16 @ 5 pence a kWh becomes £8.64

  (Using a gallon of petrol will take you 45 miles for less cost.)

 

Edited 7 December, 2021 by roottoot

[Jim2015]

23 hours ago, Rich_N said:

Jim, am I right in assuming that when you did the motorway trip, the car was running on ICE only? So effectively a 1.4TSI motor or did the battery continue to boost to 245 for the whole journey? Plus, on battery only, is the power output 115bhp?

Cheers.

Hello Rich. You are correct. On the left hand virtual instrument display is a 'bar' showing the amount of e-power being used and a rev counter on the other segment when the IC is being used. The battery only comes in either at low speeds in town or if accelerating hard. I also find in hybrid mode that it takes a couple of miles to 'settle down' as the IC takes precedence, than the battery kicks in.

[Jim2015]

22 hours ago, roottoot said:

Re Off Peak low Tariff charging in the UK.

 

If you are mot already with Octopus or some others with EV Tariffs for charging then you best check if you can now get on a plan with them as there are Schemes only open to their current customers. 

You might have to charge at your usual Electric Tariff until the cost of energy drops which could be long enough. 

If you are 20 pence a kWh then that £2.16 @ 5 pence a kWh becomes £8.64

  (Using a gallon of petrol will take you 45 miles for less cost.)

 

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, but the figure of £2.16 I quoted is for electricity at 16.66 pence per kWhr. The iV battery is 13kWhr, so even at 20p/kWhr it would still only cost £2.60 for up to 35 miles of motoring. Of course, if you go to ALDI or Tesco, plug into a PodPoint and can hang around for 5 hours, the charge is free. I've frequently seen the same Tesla at ALDI which the owner plugs in, then walks away, either to work for the day or to catch a bus home. So 7kW output  for several hours in the day or even longer overnight is very useful, even for a Tesla. (I live in Yorkshire so the Tesla owner may just be a canny Yorkshireman!)

[Ootohere]

Thanks,

i missed reading correctly the 5 pence and full cost 65 pence bit.

 

I am tight. 

 

When not away and using from Charge Place Scotland charging i charge my EV free at Tesco on the 7kw.

That is 7 kWh in 1 hour, so 14 in 2 hours.

Getting 3 miles per kWh that is 42 miles from a free charge.     

At home on my 3 pin that would be a rather pathetic 10 hours to get 30 kWh so 90 miles worth and my current tariff is 18 pence a kWh.

£5.90

 

Edited 8 December, 2021 by roottoot

[Ootohere]

Bump for @Glade

[OldBoyScout]

We have had a couple of periods here where supplies of petrol and diesel have been limited: once apparently due to panic buying, and once due to action by stop oil protesters blocking the fuel depots, and it can be a bit worrying driving round on empty looking for a filling station that has fuel available. In times like this I have been thinking that a PHEV would be useful, so at least I wouldn't get stranded while I was looking for fuel. This may be worth a thought when considering a replacement vehicle, though refuelling before the tank gets really low may be sufficient to safeguard against this potential problem. 

[Gerrycan]

If you are in the market for a new vehicle then a PHEV is definitely worth considering, especially if you do a lot of local driving and you can easily charge at home and can afford the extra purchase price.

Otherwise buy a  20 litre jerrycan for cheap peace of mind. Most fuel shortages are pretty short lived.

 

The only inconvenience with the jerrycan approach is that you should renew the fuel in the jerrycan every couple of months, although I have gone longer without noticeable effects on the engine when eventually used.

[Ootohere]

Hybrids can easily have fuel bought months before in the tank.   But then Fuel is sitting in used cars on garage forecourts in the UK  from last year maybe with E10 or E5 or Derv in.  So last year's summer spec and there has been a winter since and we are back to summer formulation. Then there are brand new cars sitting bunkered all over Europe and around the world with some liquid fuel in while they wait to be completed when parts are available.  The oil and brake fluid and those with AdBlue might be a year sitting before they are on the road. 

 

Edited 29 May, 2022 by roottoot