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Battery better then I thought!

Asterix2112

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One of the pleasant surprises with my 4xe is how well the electric hybrid part of the car works when the battery is 'drained' (< 1%). Even though you still can't use the battery for normal driving, it is still there for two very important situations:

1) It uses that reserve battery power for when you floor it, either off the line or high speed passing. There is no loss I can tell in acceleration after the battery is at < 1%, so you still get that 6 sec 0-60 and quick and instant acceleration for passing (compared to my old v6 Cherokee which had a good second wait before the lower gear kicked in for passing this car is awesome)

2) When stopped at a light where the engine turns off (to save gas) you do not have to wait for the engine to turn back on to accelerate. I drove a BMW once that had that and I found it annoying that you had to wait that half sec after you hit the gas for the engine to turn back on before you move. With the 4xe it's instantaneous because it's using the battery reserve to get you going immediately while the engine starts back up. (I notice in a regular gas Jeep you can turn that off, you can't in the 4xe, but no big deal because you don't loose anything, and it does save a little gas)

Now I supposed you could use it enough that it would drain the battery to a point that is really too low (and it would revert to a real gas engine). But I doubt that would happen in most instances, as the car is constantly putting a little back in with the regen braking, which probably evens out the little bit it uses for the above situations. Plus since the engine can charge the battery itself I wonder if even when not in the battery save mode if the engine charges the battery when it gets under a certain real amount (as the < 1% is really about 15% battery left).

Either way I am really impressed. Even though I only get 24 miles or so of electric driving, I get the acceleration and torque benefits ALL the time, even when the battery is technically 'depleted' (< 1%).
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Sboden

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From an interview with a Jeep engineer for this project, once it is below 1% the little e torque motor will work to charge the battery, so it always has a charge for the things you mentioned along with regen.
 

SnB4xe

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Has Jeep published how much of the 17 kWh is made available to us in EV and hybrid modes and how much they hold in reserve? I presume (but don't know for certain) that Jeep's calibrations don't allow us to fully charge or fully discharge the HVB. When we see 100% S.O.C. on the display then that is the amount made available to us for EV mode.

Am I close or does Jeep have a different charge strategy?
 

Sboden

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Has Jeep published how much of the 17 kWh is made available to us in EV and hybrid modes and how much they hold in reserve? I presume (but don't know for certain) that Jeep's calibrations don't allow us to fully charge or fully discharge the HVB. When we see 100% S.O.C. on the display then that is the amount made available to us for EV mode.

Am I close or does Jeep have a different charge strategy?
They hold 15% in reserve. I have a Rubicon and at full charge I generally show 24 miles of electric even though the EPA says 21 miles.
 

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SnB4xe

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They hold 15% in reserve. I have a Rubicon and at full charge I generally show 24 miles of electric even though the EPA says 21 miles.
Cool thanks!
So if our usable EV only capacity if about 14.5 kWh and we are able to get 25-28 miles of range off the freeway then that works out to about 1.7-1.9 miles/kWh. Not great but then again a Jeep never was designed for maximum fuel economy anyway so why start now? :)
 

Sboden

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Cool thanks!
So if our usable EV only capacity if about 14.5 kWh and we are able to get 25-28 miles of range off the freeway then that works out to about 1.7-1.9 miles/kWh. Not great but then again a Jeep never was designed for maximum fuel economy anyway so why start now? :)
Just like many things with a Wrangler, there are a lot of compromises but people must not care a ton because we buy them.
 

Newbie 4xe

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Cool thanks!
So if our usable EV only capacity if about 14.5 kWh and we are able to get 25-28 miles of range off the freeway then that works out to about 1.7-1.9 miles/kWh. Not great but then again a Jeep never was designed for maximum fuel economy anyway so why start now? :)
$0.13/kWh here in SE PA
$2.97/gal regular gas
Yields 22.8 kWh for the cost of a gallon of gas.

Therefore:
1.7-1.9 miles/kWh = 39-43 mpg on electric for the cost of a gallon of gas.

That works well enough for me during the week that longer weekend road trips running hybrid still only bring me down to about 30 mpg...in a box-on-wheels, fun-mobile.

Add in free battery top-offs at work and soon-to-be doorless/roofless driving, and I’m feeling just fine!
 
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Thill444

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Not to mention the 2.0T motor in the Wrangler (whether 4xe or pure ICE) recommends premium fuel. Closest premium to me is $3.50-3.70 per gallon right now and climbing. By July 4th I fully expect it will be $4 a gallon.
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