Calling yourself “a proper petrol-head” these days almost makes you feel like you should belong to some clandestine “secret society” of fossil-fuel appreciating hedonists. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that significant research into climate change has brought about innovations across all sorts of industries and the automotive world is no exception.
The current consumer buying trend often seems like a repeat of the reaction to the ’70s oil crisis whereby the solution was “small, fuel-efficient vehicles.” Nowadays, in order to achieve the same kind of impact, manufacturers have turned to electricity as their primary alternative fuel source. This is not to say that engineers have been sitting idly by for the last 40+ years; there were prototypes and advancements in the areas of hydrogen, clean natural gas (CNG), turbo diesels and small displacement forced-induction gas motors, as well as gas/electric hybrids.
Over the last year, I’ve gotten opportunities to engage with and review what I consider are the 3 mainstays in available alternative power-trains: Gas/Electric “in-motion” hybrid, Plug-in Hybrids and all-electric vehicles. As many of you know we reviewed the Ford Fusion Hybrid as part of it’s swan song, so we won’t spend too much time talking about that technology, but I do encourage you to review that article as we focus on the plug-in and all-electric cars.
🎵 Plug it in… Plug it in! 🎵
I never thought I’d see the day we’d own a Hybrid. My wife has been through two VW TDI’s and was very much a fan of the mileage and the torque that the TDIs afforded her. But as our family grew and needs changed, not to mention #dieselgate, my wife was forced to give up her cherished “mom mobile” (a 2013 Jetta SportWagon TDI) in favor of a SUV. To say that she is picky about her cars is probably an understatement. I’ll just say that nothing is off the table but there are many columns and tabs in her spreadsheet.
For the longest time she thought she was going to be stuck with the gas guzzling Cadillac SRX she’d chosen to replace her wagon, until a glimmer of hope arose in the guise of the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. Not one to be an early adopter, she wanted to wait and do her research and talk to some Pacifica owners about their experiences. She learned that with any new technology: never buy during the first year (because of bugs and recalls). Plus, I think she delayed her purchase in part because she was still coming to terms with #vanlife.
Making a long story short, earlier this year she pulled the trigger on trading in her Caddy for a 2019 Pacifica S Hybrid and is now one of a growing number of Pacifica owners where she works. What most people don’t realize is that the Pacifica (more affectionately called “the Space Ship” in our house, mostly because of the way it sounds) is currently the ONLY hybrid mini-van for sale in America. Without getting into a long description of the history of hybrids, one thing you have to remember is that Toyota owns the majority share of patents when it comes to this type of technology, and most hybrids are licensed “forks” of Toyota’s designs. #appliedphysics
The Pacifica Hybrid is a bit of a sleeper, and most people can’t differentiate it from other Pacifica trim packages, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Despite it’s size, the Pacifica can only travel about 33-35 miles on a full charge without assist from the venerable 3.6-litre Penta-star 6-cylinder gas engine. From a stop light, the Pacifica will put a lot of vehicles in their place and you have to be careful not to drop the hammer too hard as it will break the wheels loose (it’s only FWD #brokenaxles). But there is nothing quite like a proper burnout in a mom-mobile.
On paper, Chrysler claims the Pacifica can achieve 84 eMPG (combined gas/electric). But after almost 10k miles with ours, we’ve learned that plug-in hybrids like the Pacifica often suffer on a long trip. Even though “pure electric” mode isn’t possible after reaching <1% it is capable of “regen” on long downhills as high as 8% (as we saw on Rt.68 going to Ohio). This type of system is always being fed electricity but not in the same way as an in-motion hybrid (Prius, Fusion, etc), and it’s actually more like a Tesla in that respect. Which means the the added boost from regen under braking makes the Pacifica feel like it’s equipped with 6-piston Brembo’s from an SRT-8 Jeep. #antigravitiybrakes #dropsanchor
One of the least noticeable things about this type of vehicle is the transition between full Electric and Gas modes. Because the hybrid system drives the transmission, the engine is already spinning, which means the oil and water pumps are circulating fluids and the coils/injectors remain in the “ready state” – there is no starter involved in the switch-over. The ECU turns on the fuel/spark, which takes milliseconds and the engine is already “up to speed” since crank/cam sensors are being monitored while the motor is “off”. The only indication of a switch-over outside of a slight hum from the V6 is when the dashboard changes from a Teal to Indigo color indicating which type of propulsion you’re using.
Our 5000# van reached a comfortable 32mpg combined average over our 450 mile trip. I was pleased with this number because it included straight through travel, and “idle time” as we kept the van running during stops to keep the kids entertained with movies and such. But during a normal week, 33 miles of all-electric range covers most of the trip to school/work and part of the way back on a single charge. Would we prefer a 50 or 100 mile range? Sure… but even 33 miles plays heavily in our overall cost savings. Compared to the Cadillac which averaged a combined city/hwy 24 mpg (on a good week), the plug-in lowers the overall trips to the pump and ups the combined average closer to 65+ eMPG. Filling up on petrol only costs about $38 for mid-grade.
While in Ohio, we found a compatible JR-1772 charging station that allowed us to run around Columbus on 100% electric power for a couple of days. Overall it cost us $2.71 to charge the Pacifica in 3.5 hrs. So our total trip cost was about $41 “in fuel”. But what about the cost of charging at home? At first we were worried that charging up daily was going to equal out to the cost of fuel. The reality is (and results will vary based on your region, utility company and KW/h rates) we’re only seeing an up-tick of about $30/month to charge the Pacifica every night. Comparing that to the Caddy, our overall “fuel bill” is down about $350/month. And that’s a huge savings!
The All-electric Experience.
I’ll admit, I’ve had a really hard time coming to grips with the idea of a Tesla. At first I viewed them as merely a fad, a fashion statement, the new high tech attention getter. #bling. But with the introduction of the long awaited “cheaper Tesla” (aka the Model 3) its hard not to go just about anywhere and not see one, including on track at Road Atlanta last year and Summer Bash 5 – they seem to be multiplying like feral cats.
That being said, I got the chance to drive (and ride in) a Tesla 3. And I have opinions. First impressions are everything, especially with cars. There is no denying the Tesla is quick, that is something you can’t fake. I’d like to think that after many years of racing and coaching, I have a pretty well-tuned “butt dyno,” so I can say even in standard mode, the Tesla 3 pulls, and pulls hard. And unlike the all-electric go-karts we ran in an enduro last year, the Tesla doesn’t run out of go, until the batteries are drained. Jokingly, I’ve recently been caught saying we should use a new unit of measure for rating engines by “X no. of Teslas.” – 350 bhp (aka 261 kw) nah… that’s like 1 Tesla – which all kidding aside, is very close approximation since converting the electric output of the Tesla 3 to horsepower puts it just shy of 300 bhp. More importantly, it’s very difficult to have a conversation around fuel economy when there is no fuel involved… so let’s not, and say we did.
The lack of sound, other than a substantial amount of road noise was off-putting, especially since I drove my VR6-powered #wookiewagon earlier that morning. The Tesla 3 has a surprisingly STIFF ride, which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I assumed it would be much more “floaty” because of the expectation that Tesla is competing with the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes. The owner of the Tesla I was riding in mentioned that his previous car was a Mercedes. We talked about how he made the transition, but I still wasn’t convinced, the math works out but in my head we were comparing apples to chainsaws.
Back to the ride-comfort… the other reason I wasn’t a fan of the Tesla’s harsh ride, had to do a lot with the roads we were on. Our route took us down some heavily trafficked and construction-riddled paths. Trying to avoid the “accelerate and aim when a pothole is visible” that some drivers seem to employ, I used it as an opportunity to test out the handling #slalom. Using my “butt dyno” again I would say that the Tesla’s suspension is as rough a ride as my #wookiewagon on its FK coil-overs, maybe not nearly as much #stancebro hopping, but you’d have sworn a bomb went off under the car if you did hit something. I was also impressed with how Tesla made the pedal and steering “feel heavy” but I found it to be more of an illusion to distract you from how disconnected you are from the road and the power-train compared to a traditional vehicle.
Remember how I mentioned “first impressions” earlier? – Outside the impressive speed of the Tesla 3, the interior was like stepping into an IKEA showroom… Very sleek, modern, and clean. At first you’re like “wow, that’s cool, oh man, check that out… how clever!” – then you start to realize, don’t touch anything because it might tarnish or break immediately! There’s no other way to say this: “the Tesla 3 feels cheap” – rental base-model Toyotas have more substance. Call me biased, but I am used to a certain level of “bank vault quality” having been primarily exposed to older German vehicles. Overall the Tesla does a really good job of packing it all in an attractive way and “blinding you with science” with all the gizmos and gadgets.
Outside of the Star Trek-inspired command center… I mean dashboard, err… giant iPad, the interior of the Tesla 3 “doesn’t have much kit” as the Brits would say. Its actually rather spartan. But for everything it lacks compared to a “regular car”, it’s quickly superseded by all the “new apps” being added through the single central console. I did have a #bigbrother moment while inspecting the Tesla’s interior. I asked the owner “what’s with that camera above the rear view, is Tesla watching us?” – He replied “It’s inactive and slated for future use” – I am not convinced. But what was more shocking was the revelation that Tesla’s have active recording road cameras, meaning they are recording other drivers without any sort of permission. I again asked the owner “How does that work?” – He said “I’m not really sure, but I was instructed to install a USB drive here…” pointing to a location low in the center console. Seriously?!?
This Tesla, like a lot of others, did have the auto-pilot feature. I asked the owner to demonstrate its capabilities during our trip. The Tesla uses some 10 cameras and radar to constantly orient itself and detect objects, etc. The auto-pilot does its best to follow the road, but being a coach we always talk about “smooth steering inputs” – and as you can imagine, I wasn’t a fan of the jerkiness in the corrections that the computer was making to the steering as it tried to follow the painted lines. I did fantasize a few times that if the lines suddenly veered off into a lake we’d end up like that episode of “The Office” where they blindly followed the GPS. LOL.
Final thoughts…
Consider me old school… but would I personally prefer a locomotive inspired Diesel-Electric Hybrid? – Absolutely! can you imagine? 100+ eMPG … easily! – But without naming names, we have some folks across the pond to thank for ruining that possibility. That’s not to say that continued advancements in small petrol-engines partnered with forced induction won’t push us close to “diesel-like” levels of efficiency. And I don’t know that I’m entirely sold on the idea of abandoning diesel or gas all together, but I have come to terms with these new possibilities, matured in my thinking, and have made some concessions.
Having experienced all three types of “electric” vehicles first hand: the All-electric, the Plug-in Hybrid and the “Moving Hybrid”. In the end I believe the moving hybrid, consisting of vehicles like the Prius, Fusion-hybrid, Jetta-hybrid, A3 e-tron, etc – makes the most sense for America. Pure electrics are AWESOME in the city… *if* all you ever do is city driving. But breaking up a 400+ mile trip with kids, pets, etc and having to charge-up to continue on would get rather old, quickly. Much like an all-season tire, the plug-in hybrid tries to be the best of all worlds and in some ways fails at all of them. Whereas the moving hybrid is self-contained, takes moments to “refill” (like a traditional petrol-vehicle) and you still have the freedom to roam about the country.
As much as I love petrol cars, I will say that I am starting to feel like the folks that were holding on to and fighting for Gas Lamps to remain in service as the Light Bulb was being invented – which is as near a perfect an analogy as you can make during this transition in automotive history.
#vorsprungdurchtechnik “progress through technology”.
