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Cold climate = no go

Fatboy97

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Just drove through the dealership in sioux falls sd . The only new jeep they have is a black rubicon 4xe on the lot . I hope the buyer does some checking on the cold weather issues this vehicle will have before spending their hard earned Money .
There should be some sort of information about these systems made available to purchasers of these vehicles. Especially at time of sale. Oh what a good lawyer has the potential to do.
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Deleted member 72291

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From the posts I see on this forum and the posts on the 4xe forum I am very glad to not be a owner or soon to be owner of the 4xe . I called to check with the dealer near me as I was driving home today . The response I got was to stay away from this model , that was from the dealer that sells jeep , chrysler , ford , chevy . When a dealership tells me not to buy a specific model from them that tells me there are wide spread problems . I have never had a dealer tell me this . Thinking jeep should put this model on the shelf before the feds make them .
The dealership I bought my 4xe from has nothing but praise for them. Four of the salesman each have a 4xe and two others had bought them for their spouses. To your point, I know salesman for Ford who tell their customers not to buy the Mustang Mach-E or to order the Lightning F-150.

The difference is some dealerships are embracing the electrification of the auto industry and others are not. Why? Well, it's extra work for dealers to handle electric or PHEV vehicles. They have to deal with charging, they need technicians and service advisors to be trained so they have to pay higher salaries for those staff members, they need to train sales staff on questions they get from customers; or they're just biased against the technology and scared of the change.

Is the 4xe a perfect PHEV? No. Is the technology new? Also no. It's been used by FCA in the Pacifica minivan for a few years, so their is knowledge on how the hybrid system works but the difference is in the software for the Jeep. Have their been issues with some 4xe's? Sure. But I also know people who've needed new transmissions in their $140k Porsche's at less than 1k miles, but they don't write off the brand.

It sounds like the 4xe is just not for you and that's perfectly fine. But to just write it off and say they're nothing but trouble and poorly engineered when there are thousand of 4xe owners like myself with zero issues is unfair.

Hope you find the perfect Wrangler for your needs and that you enjoy it as much as I do my 4xe!
 
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Slaw32

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The dealership I bought my 4xe from has nothing but praise for them. Four of the salesman each have a 4xe and two others had bought them for their spouses. To your point, I know salesman for Ford who tell their customers not to buy the Mustang Mach-E or to order the Lightning F-150.

The difference is some dealerships are embracing the electrification of the auto industry and others are not. Why? Well, it's extra work for dealers to handle electric or PHEV vehicles. They have to deal with charging, they need technicians and service advisors to be trained so they have to pay higher salaries for those staff members, they need to train sales staff on questions they get from customers; or they're just biased against the technology and scared of the change.

Is the 4xe a perfect PHEV? No. Is the technology new? Also no. It's been used by FCA in the Pacifica minivan for a few years, so their is knowledge on how the hybrid system works but the difference is in the software for the Jeep. Have their been issues with some 4xe's? Sure. But I also know people who've needed new transmissions in their $140k Porsche's at less than 1k miles, but they don't write off the brand.

It sounds like the 4xe is just not for you and that's perfectly fine. But to just write it off and say they're nothing but trouble and poorly engineered when there are thousand of 4xe owners like myself with zero issues is unfair.

Hope you find the perfect Wrangler for your needs and that you enjoy it as much as I do my 4xe!
What kind of winter climate do you live in?
 

Deleted member 72291

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What kind of winter climate do you live in?
I'm in Louisville, KY in the Ohio River Valley and we have a very continental climate. We get hot summers, cold winters, and four distinct seasons. We've already had several low temp cold fronts come through (very abnormal for this time of year too) where temps were in the teens or low 20's for sustained periods and the 4xe has performed flawlessly. As I expected, on cold mornings the ICE fires up instantly to warm the battery and then electric mode kicks in as normal after a few minutes.

I also have access to an industrial drive-in freezer that's set between -15 and -18 degrees. I ran a test a few weeks ago where I left the 4xe in their for about 10 hours. The ICE fired up instantly and electric mode was available within 10 minutes.
 

Echo4papa

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IMO if you live in a very cold climate in the winter, you really should not be buying a PHEV.

also PHEVs are more limited in range - you can expect about a 40% decrease in range in colder weather (resistance driving in snow, heater, heated seats, etc.). This isn't as much of an issue with BEVs since their range is significantly higher, but a PHEV takes a hit.
What am I missing here? Most of the 4xe's range is based on the ICE, not electric. So a 40% reduction on the electric side is a very minor hit to it's overall range where a BEV taking a 40% hit is a large reduction to it's range.

Admittedly, the 4xe is my first hybrid and I don't deal with cold climates (FL here).
 

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The_Irish_Weaver

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that sucks! I get the niche for EVs - but I honestly dont understand the huge (government) push to make it the standard. Its supposedly "clean" but:

step #1: you need to use fossil fuel heavy machinery to strip-mine the earth for precious metals (creating toxic wash to the environment)

step #2: you need to ship those precious metals around the planet on cargo ships that use fossil fuels

Step #3: you need to use fossil fuels to build batteries

Step #4: you need to use fossil fuels to transport the batteries to the vehicles

Step #5: as you drive this clean vehicle, you need to upgrade the use of fossil fuels to generate the power in the grid to recharge the plugged in vehicles every day.

......but its clean energy....right????
 

Avocado

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I’ve been running my 4xe in Alberta, so far we’ve had a mild winter but still getting temps as low as 12F, over the next few weeks that will drop into the negatives.

Battery range took a bit of a hit but I can still drive to work, plug in and then drive home and plug in again, so my daily commute is fine.

I put a winter front on and saw a minor improvement.

I noticed that just running the heater with the fan on full will use 7kw… so today I tried something really rather obvious but I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere (sorry if I missed it) but..

Set the climate control to recirculate the cabin air.

When I did this after a couple of minutes the energy consumption dropped to 4kw, it got hot and I turned the fan down to the second setting and the kw use dropped to 2kw’s…

Makes sense, instead of trying to heat cold external air (large delta T) the Jeep only had to heat the already warmer cabin air (smaller delta T).

So, one way to extend range is to just recirculate the cabin air.
 

BXFXJeep

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The 4xe is my 6th Wrangler, gas is about $1.45 a litre in Toronto, most of my round trips are under 20km

The US and Canadian administration is completely anti fossil, gas prices will just keep rising.

My gas savings is easily covering my 4xe payments, with money left over.

Like every Wrangler before the 4xe, they are all quirky niche vehicles, they are not suitable for the masses, so it's up to the consumer to know what works for them and don't.
 

GETLAF

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Here I have driven mine for 10K miles now and this jeep as been flawless. no issue since day one. Happy with range and how the truck behave in general as an hybrid. Live in canada and we have temperature around 15f since a couple a days / weeks when leaving for work in the morning. The jeep perform as I would expect from an intelligent PHEV... ICE kick at startup for couples of minutes to warm things up and goes back to complete EV after so the hit on range look to be less than what I experienced on other vehicule. I would have loved to have my BMW I3 REX to kick in to warm thing up and switch to EV afterward... But it wasn't designed that way...

jeep 4xem.jpg
 

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mllcb42

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Look at response #4 and #23. Disingenuous responses ?
What about my responses? Identifying the proper usage of the vehicle is a very different statement than saying it doesn't function under 50 degrees.

Most of the complaints regarding cold weather "issues" seem to stem from the vehicle not behaving how people think it should work rather than the vehicle not behaving how it is supposed to work.
 
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Slaw32

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What about my responses? Identifying the proper usage of the vehicle is a very different statement than saying it doesn't function under 50 degrees.

Most of the complaints regarding cold weather "issues" seem to stem from the vehicle not behaving how people think it should work rather than the vehicle not behaving how it is supposed to work.
No , not your responses . I was responding to a post that this thread is
What about my responses? Identifying the proper usage of the vehicle is a very different statement than saying it doesn't function under 50 degrees.

Most of the complaints regarding cold weather "issues" seem to stem from the vehicle not behaving how people think it should work rather than the vehicle not behaving how it is supposed to work.
Not your responses , I was referring to wranglerbro's response .
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