Mountain mode!

[migmon]

I have seen several posts on here where people claim they can recharge a little by running in mountain mode.. i have a 2012 and was driving down the freeway with no charge left so i drove in mountain mode for 5-10 min or so expecting to see some charge when I switched back to normal mode but this wasnt the case. is this something that doesnt happen anymore with the 2012's or was i doing something wrong or does this just not happen at all?

[emartin00]

I too have a 2012, and it will recharge but it probably will take more than 10 min or so. I've done it twice. After about 45 min of driving, I think I gained about 7 EV miles. I'm not sure if it makes sense efficiency wise, but it is kind of nice to get back to EV mode

[jaksecret]

I have been successful in using mountain mode both to maintain charge at ~35% as well as (i think ) to recharge the battery somewhat when its below that level--never from 0% however. My evidence that its working is that after several minutes, the energy bar has gone up one tic, and I have a point in my drive that I know I can turn off MM and make it home on battery alone, I make it versus if I had not used MM.

I have seen several posts on here where people claim they can recharge a little by running in mountain mode.. i have a 2012 and was driving down the freeway with no charge left so i drove in mountain mode for 5-10 min or so expecting to see some charge when I switched back to normal mode but this wasnt the case. is this something that doesnt happen anymore with the 2012's or was i doing something wrong or does this just not happen at all?

[bobchr]

Mountain mode is more effective when you have about 7 mile of range left on the battery. I believe that is the trigger point in order for the ICE to come on immediately. If you start out in mountain mode with a full charge the ICE will delay you will immediately see a decrease of EV range by about 7 miles. Mountain mode is also not friendly to your ICE mpg and is best used for its intended purpose which s to build charge for steep long grades. I believe this is why they instituted Hold mode in the 2013 models. this mode should allow maximizing ICE mpg while flexibly allowing for judicious use of you EV rande in high traffic and city driving situations.

[SharkVolt]

MM Always recharges the battery back up to 14-15 miles of range. (or stops it from dropping below that if engaged above that range)

The only weird thing is that if your range is below about 5 miles when engaging MM, it will not show the battery range when MM is disengaged, unless you shut off the car and restart it.

[rmay635703]

Mountain mode is also not friendly to your ICE mpg and is best used for its intended purpose which s to build charge for steep long grades. I believe this is why they instituted Hold mode in the 2013 models. this mode should allow maximizing ICE mpg while flexibly allowing for judicious use of you EV rande in high traffic and city driving situations.

That statement isn't true, Mountain mode makes EV range that is not counted toward your fuel economy, I hope chevy fixes this bug so the real gas MPG shows

[tknarr3]

From the Horses (GM's) mouth:
When the vehicle reaches the end of its electric range, it switches to Extended Range Mode. In this mode, electricity is produced by the drive motor, which is driven by the internal combustion engine (ICE). This secondary source of electric power extends the vehicle range. Operation will continue in extended range mode until the vehicle can be plugged in to recharge the hybrid/EV battery pack and restore electric mode.

The hybrid/EV battery pack will continue to provide some power and work together with the ICE to provide peak performance when it is required, such as driving up a steep incline or during high acceleration. The hybrid/EV battery pack will not be recharged while in extended range mode.

[tknarr3]

And you might recoup energy here :When the vehicle is coasting or braking the power inverter module may operate the drive motor as a generator in an Electrical Generation Mode. Operating as an electrical generator, the drive motor exerts a driveline load that helps to slow the vehicle. The electrical energy that the drive motor creates is transferred by the power inverter module to the hybrid/EV battery pack. Constant communication between the power inverter module and the electronic brake control module allows the blending of regenerative braking force with hydraulic braking force.

From the Horses (GM's) mouth:
When the vehicle reaches the end of its electric range, it switches to Extended Range Mode. In this mode, electricity is produced by the drive motor, which is driven by the internal combustion engine (ICE). This secondary source of electric power extends the vehicle range. Operation will continue in extended range mode until the vehicle can be plugged in to recharge the hybrid/EV battery pack and restore electric mode.



The hybrid/EV battery pack will continue to provide some power and work together with the ICE to provide peak performance when it is required, such as driving up a steep incline or during high acceleration. The hybrid/EV battery pack will not be recharged while in extended range mode.

[KyleH]

I paid a little attention to this during my 800 mile drive on gasoline. I set my Cruse Control at 65mpg, and I watch the Energy screen with the tires and battery pack with the animation....

Driving back from FL to TX on I-10, the highway is hilly. In "normal mode", I notice that on the downslide for every couple of hills, the energy animation moves from the tires into the battery. Then, for about 10 seconds, the energy travels from the battery back to wheels for the car to maintain the cruise speed or to accelerate because it is climbing the next hill. This patterns seems to repeat....charge up the downslide of a few hills (5-10), build enough electricity to use it all up in 10 seconds. I never got to see the first bar ever light up green, until....

When I switched over "mountain mode", animation was basically the same, however, I never see it use any electricity. I am assume the incline on the hills were not severe enough that it needs to use more energy. After about 20-25 hills or so, I noticed the first bar of on the battery lit up to be green. When I switched over to "normal" mode, the battery was all used up within 1-2 minutes, and turned to be unlit.

From my observation, the gas engine tries to produce "just" enough electricity for me to drive / maintain my cruise speed of 65 mph. There is no animation that suggest that any energy is being transfered back to the battery. I suspect there is a little, but probably nothing worth noting in the animation compared to the regen braking. Therefore, the battery seems to be primarily charged with regen braking--I do not believe the gasoline generator tries to produce excess electricity to provide the current cruise control and battery storage. I also think the main difference between mountain and normal is that drive will try to use electricity when avilable while mountain will only do that if the reserve is more than 15 miles.

Also, I got about 41.5 mpg with the AC on ECO mode with mostly cruise control (no braking). Those are awesome mileages from a single gallon of gasoline, I cannot imagine that gasoline would be burned into excess electricity, then storing that electricity into the battery at a loss of 30%--if so, GM should have tuned the generator to give me 54 mpg (30% more) on gas alone to be used as "bragging rights".

I am assuming if the car charges like my 110V charger, it would take 1 hour of continuous charges to get the equivalent of 4 miles or 1 bar. I am not sure if the gas motor is as powerful as a 220V charger, but that same equivalence would take a full 30 minutes. Neither scenario is my preference because I believe charging the battery simply takes away from my 41.5mpg (gasoline) miles. Electricity from the plug is 10-20x cheaper than electricity from the gasoline engine. To me, it makes no sense to create inefficient surplus electricity and waste about 30% to convert it into battery storage.

I hope my observation can help in some ways.

-KyleH

[Fulgerite]

I too have a 2012, and it will recharge but it probably will take more than 10 min or so. I've done it twice. After about 45 min of driving, I think I gained about 7 EV miles. I'm not sure if it makes sense efficiency wise, but it is kind of nice to get back to EV mode

Using the gasoline engine to charge the battery (Any amount.) costs 4-10 times more money than plugging it in to charge.