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

[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.

[brianpaz]

Out the garage I usually have 42-45 miles displaying on the battery. Once I hit the freeway I switch to Mountain Mode. My miles on my battery drop to 22-24. I go about 22-24 miles on pure battery then the car switches to gas. I do this assuming the gas engine is more efficient propelling the car when going over 65-70 miles.
Once I get off the freeway and back to city driving I switch from mountain mode to normal mode. My battery miles pop back up to around 13-17 miles. I do this assuming the battery is used more efficiently when in lower speeds. Also once I get to my destination I can plug in and get up to 25 miles in a couple hours and keep using the car in EV mode longer than if went in normal mode the whole way through the trip.

On mountain mode on the freeway I get about 37 - 40mpg. This is open road not traffic. If there is traffic i stick to EV and can get up to 45+ on EV alone.

Am i correct in my assumptions?

[Arkansas_Volt]

Am i correct in my assumptions?

I have played similar games. sounds close to my experience as well.

[KyleH]

I'm not in a scenario to use much of the MM. But, I am thinking you guys are trying MM the way I would for maximum use. If this is a routine drive, you guys may want to maximize the drive home to try to get the eMiles as close to 0 as possible--so you can get charged up at home at cheap electricity rates.

I am starting to make mental "marks" on exits numbers before my house to see when I should undo the MM in order to maximize my trips to make it down to 0 at home. However, I have 2 freeway options to my house, and no 2 weekends seems to take me along the same paths.

-KyleH

I have played similar games. sounds close to my experience as well.

[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.

[Skotty]

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.

+1

About the second sentence -- I don't know if this is exactly accurate or not, but there is definitely something quirky that can happen in limited cases. It might be when you _disengage_ MM with less than 5 miles, it doesn't revert to electric drive unless you shut the car off and turn it back on. Not sure.

Data Points:
I once engaged MM with no EV range, and it immediately switched back to EV drive when I disengaged MM; on that instance the EV range was 7 miles upon disengage of MM. Another time, same scenario, only when I disengaged MM the engine remained on and it didn't switch back to EV mode. I turned car off and back on, and it came back on in EV mode with 4 miles EV range showing.

MM can definitely recharge the battery at a high rate, assuming you are not heavily taxing the gas engine. The time I tried it in town at low speeds, it recharged to 7 miles estimated range (from nothing) in only 15 minutes. That's pretty fast.

MM is supposed to be set for 45% SOC. I know that when I engage it, estimated range drops about 14 miles, and when I turn it off after a long highway drive, it shows about 14 EV miles left.