Rented a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV minivan. I’ve been charging up daily to drive family around town. Battery drains insanely fasts like 20% within a mile. Wondering if it’s this specific vehicle/brand, overused rental car or reality of EVs. It says 31 miles of range but in no way is that realistic. What do you think?
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Thanks everyone! Lots of great comments. I definitely want to get into a full EV soon once our finances get straightened out. The weathers colder around 30-40 degrees but not horrible. I’ll def trying warming up the car first. I really don’t expect this to rep EVs but definitely stirred up my curiosity since I was seeing inconsistent performance. It’s definitely gotten me more excited about EVs though!
It’s possible to use a Pacifica PHEV such that you get every inch of that ~32 mile all electric range. It’s also possible to use (or abuse) one such that it gets barely even half of that. Weather (outdoor temperature), cabin climate control settings, whether you preheated the cabin before departing while still plugged in for charging, and how heavy your accelerator foot is all have an impact on things.
Most PHEVs actually do get pretty close to their EPA stated all electric range. Or, at the least, they really are capable of it if you’re driving in the right conditions. But that’s not a guarantee.
I have a Kia EV6, RWD. It’s rated for 310 miles of range on a 100% charge. During the winter, when the environmental conditions are the worst they can be for my range and efficiency, I can only get ~240 miles of estimated range at 100%. But during this past summer, driving a more efficient route at warmer temperatures, but otherwise in the same car on the same tires would get me a 340 mile estimated range at 100%. Weather and how it’s being driven matter a lot. Weather and driving style also matter in ICE vehicles, for what it’s worth, but because ICE powertrains are already inherently no better than 40-50% efficient (and usually worse), you don’t notice the further losses to efficiency quite as much.
Something I’ve noticed with my EV and PHEV is that they don’t do that thing gas cars do where you drive the first 20-40 miles of the tank and the range doesn’t drop.
I drive 5 miles and my range drops from 37 to around 32 miles. Or from 105 to around 100.
Chrysler in general has really fumbled their EV transition. I wouldn’t judge the viability of the tech based on anything they build. Try renting a Tesla, EV6/Ioniq, or another highly rated EV.
Also consider if it were your car, you’d have access to the app and be able to preheat while still plugged in.
This is key!!
Does the Pacifica have a remote start button on the key fob which you could use while the vehicle is plugged in? Barring that, couldn’t you just run out to the car, start it while it’s plugged in, and go back inside for a while?
I know a couple people who have one as their primary car and generally like it a lot. I think it’s a rental car that got beat to hell because their range is decent still.
Same. I have three on my block in Texas. All 3 families love it and still get about same max range around 30 miles after 2 years. That’s assuming minimal A/C, not our one week of winter, and not at freeway speed.
I was on a recent road trip and saw a caravan of 6 or 7 Pacificas. Looked like a meetup and cruise across Washington State. They were having fun! Never thought a Pacifica would be an enthusiasts car, but here we are. 🤪
As others have commented and I agree, you probably have the whole cabin heat cranked, maybe some seat heaters in the back on, etc plus the battery it’s self had to warm up.
We have a similar wrangler PHEV, it’s 25-27 miles of range in the summer and about 20 in the winter. It says 25 when we start it but that first mile eats up five. It does help if you remote start while still attached to a Level 2 charger though.
I got a lot better than 18mpg in a rental Pacifica PHEV. I was getting about 30. 18 is more like the wrangler.
Drive a non PHEV Pacifica around the suburbs and report back…
How cold is the winter you’re driving in?
PHEVs or early BEVs (no hybrid) with smaller capacity battery packs will get hit by winter much harder if it’s really cold and you’re spending energy to initially heat up the vehicle after every time it gets “cold-soaked”. The vehicle has a certain amount of material and space it needs to heat up from an ambient cold temperature and that requires a certain amount of energy over a fairly short amount of time.
Arbitrary example: let’s say it takes 5 kWh to heat up the vehicle from 0 F to a comfortable 70 F. In a 16 kWh battery, that’s going to be a massive percentage of the capacity and the miles in that fairly short amount of time and you’re not going to have much usable range if you started at 31 miles and about a third of it is gone to warm up the vehicle. If you have a battery capacity of 60 kWh and normally 250 miles of range though which is more in line with battery electric vehicles sold today, that 5 kWh would be a small dip relative to the overall range and would still be fine for most trips.
Overused rental car is possible as a factor as well.
My wife had one and could commute daily to and from work about 30 miles daily and basically never needed to get gas until we got the warning the fuel was getting old and needed to be used. Cold weather could be the biggest factor in your experience perhaps? Also depends if you are a lead foot and driving fast on the highway.
It’s a reality of plug in hybrids. Not fully electric
I had a rental Pacifica PHEV for 5 weeks this past fall, I liked it! I consistently got around 30-35 miles of pure EV, and 41MPG combined.
With charging at home, I once went 750 miles before having to fill up again.