DS4 1.6T VS DS4 E-tense Long Journey Consumption

[vagthomas]

Hello everybody and Happy new year.

I own a DS4 1.6T, 180PS, Performance Line and I would like to make a comparison on long journey consumption with the DS4 E-tense.

Personally, I have made a 500 km Journey with an average speed of 120 km/hr on highway and my consumption was at 6.1-6.2 lt/100 km.
Is there any E-Tense owner having made a similar voyage and be so kind to share his feedback? What was your average consumption in total (meaning even after battery was discharged and without charging it externally at a “pit stop”)?
Is there a possibility the e-tense to utilize battery use and consumption on hybrid mode exclusively or it starts on electric power either you like or not?
In case previous is possible, how many km you can do on hybrid mode prior battery is discharged?

Many thanks for the info in advance

[vagthomas]

In order to trigger a little bit further the conversation, based on my documented experience so far, I can comment as follows:

During my ownership I have made 16550 km already. My actual consumption (not as calculated by car ECU - I have kept within an Android App all my refuelings) is 7.44 lt/100, meaning 1280 lt of gasoline. These km have been made in mixed conditions and have cost me 2850 Euros (average price at 2.22 Euro/lt).

If I had bought the E-Tense model, with the exact same equipment and trim level (Performance line), it would have cost me arnd 10,000 Euros more. Assuming same gasoline cost, this means that my average consumption should be at 4.6 lt/100km, if I wanted to cover this price difference within 10 years or 2.3 lt/100km, if I wanted to cover it in 5 years (I have not calculated the cost for re-charging just for ease of reference - if i calculate this also, then the average consumptions should even be less to cover the difference).

Do you believe that something like this is possible in real life conditions? I believe the only way to cover this big cost difference would only be if, at least, 80% of driving to be within the city in electric mode, assuming again a decent price of kwh, since last years kwh cost has increased significantly.

Any comments on my reasoning would be most welcome!

Thank you for spending time reading this

[David_Blasco]

Ds4 performance line + etense here.

Hybrid car should be choosen based on your needs.

I work 13 km away from home, so, on daily basis, my petrol engine is never used. 0.13 €/kW right now (pending upgrading home to sun energy as I live in Spain, then it will be almost free all year long) 20-24 kW/100 km now on winter using heating, including pre-conditioning as I work at night short and it is a pleasure to get in the car at 6:00 being warm.
Ok weekends, usual travel distance is 200 km away, so using hybrid mode is the right choice and I get nice figures (4 to 6 l/100 km) even I am not driving on highway as a nanny all the time, hehe…

For longer journeys, few times per year, i have same petrol engine as you, but car IS heavier, so fuel performance should be worse than tours, but, who cares, I have a big smile on mi face listening engine revving while the rest of the year is cheaper than previous cars (Grandland Puretech 1.2, 8.4 l/100km after 35000km and Zafira 2.0 cdti, 6.5l/100km after 260000km).

I think you are asking how can battery can be used.
Car always starts in electric mode (unless exterior conditions are too cold or i service battery is low or whatever then car considere, then starts petrol engine also, but it is not usual, at least for me)

There is a selector, four choices in my case:
Electric
Comfort
Hybrid
Sport

Comfort an hybrid are the same but comfort uses camera to scan the road and adjust suspension (I hate this mode as it makes me think I am on a boat, i prefer dry and stiff suspension)
Both modes use electric and petrol engine on order to lower consumption.
Sport is, as you should think, both engines looking for performance.

There is an option to save battery to use it when you consider (downtown with restrictions?), in this screen, you can set battery reserve to máximum and electric engine Will not be used at all. If your battery is not at 100% of charge, petrol engine will be used to charge it.

So, after all this info, and excusing myself for my english, in order to consider if etense IS the right option, you have to analyze what are you going to use the car for, there are not unique figures to determinate if it is the right choice.

Keep in contact for any additional question.

[David_Blasco]

I missed a question…
In hybrid mode, electric/petrol is based on road and driving conditions, so again, there is no unique figure, on my experience, 4 to 5 kW/100 km should be considered as average, but again, it can fluctuate if you are going up thw pyrennees or doing flat highway, so, up to 300 km can be done in hybrid mode easily before battery is totally empty and only 1.6T is used (wich is not completly true, as regeneration is always trying to recover and assist petrol engine)

[PragueAddick (Richard Hunt)]

Hi I have an e-Tense Rivoli, similar to @David_Blasco and I chose it for similar reasons to him. I live in a colder winter climate than him, but 90% of my journeys are around the city, and all on electric. However last week i had to go north across the German border and back, on a cold winter day, and the route around the border region is hilly/mountainous. On the way up I got 6.8/100 and on the way back 6.1/100. My car is still new in km terms, has only done 7,500kms.

My previous car was a DS5 hybrid, older mild hybrid tech, and after about 30,000kms I could see it was delivering ever better consumption so I hope a similar effect will be seen on this one over time. But anyway for most of my journeys it is 0.0/100

I also bought it as part of our transition in the house to renewables. Although we do not get the same solar power as David in Spain at least in winter, we wanted to get rid of Putin’s gas and ideally his oil too, so we installed a fast charger in the garage, for which we got some subsidy. I really like the car and the plugin hybrid concept. My wife and I are not convinced by the EV opiton because of the difficulties we’ve had with public charging, especially in Germany! I plan to open a separate thread about that in the hope that there are some Germany-based E-tense owners with us on here.

[vagthomas]

Thank you for the feedback which is very interesting.
One clarification; the 6.8 lt/100km ascending and 6.1 lt/100km descending were in hybrid mode or just the engine working? During your descending, was the battery re-charged and if yes was this notable?
Sorry for my questions, just trying to understand how the hybrid system in these cars has been tuned

[PragueAddick (Richard Hunt)]

It’s a good question, because on this car when the battery has rundown it can only minimally re-charge, even with the regenerate booster button switched on. So on the long downhill stretch into Chomutov after the mountains it had re-charged to 7%, which is not very much at all, but is the best figure I have achieved so far. All this in hybrid mode.

My buddy who has a plug-in Volvo XC60 claims that on longer motorway journeys his car re-charges the battery to 100%, but I frankly don’t believe him. If it’s true it makes the hybrid tech on this car very inferior by comparison.

[David_Blasco]

It doesn’t make any sense (as usual practice) but, e-Save set to MAX will make petrol engine to work as generator for in-built DC charger, so, I beleive that using gasoline would recover complete charge after a long time.
Does anybody thinks it works as I described ?

[David_Blasco]

[David_Blasco]

[PragueAddick (Richard Hunt)]

That’s interesting David! When i read it, it seems reasonable to understand it as you have done - but it also says that doing this leads to excessive fuel consumption.

I suppose that normally in hybrid mode the battery will re-charge a little bit and that recharge will be used by the electric engine to at least support the petrol engine and provide better fuel consumption than if the petrol engine was working on its own. So they are saying its better to stick with the automatic system in hybrid mode than to re-charge the battery from the petrol engine, as overall consumption will be worse if we do that.

[Fredrik_Javerhammar (Fredrik Jäverhammar)]

I can confirm that both the T6 and T8 are able to self charge to 100% during longer motorway trips. The negative part is that the fuel consumption will end up at 1,4-1,8L/10km…
Yep, in a Volvo you also have to choose the “charge battery” option, else you will have to rely on the regenerative braking. I think that the best I’ve seen is something like 10km extra electric range after a 280km trip…
I don’t think that Stellantis hybrid drivetrain is inferior , they all share the same pros and cons.
I’m curious about what speed and what kind of traffic the journey took place in?

[alexm (Alex)]

For maximum economy, I’d always recommend using cruise control and keeping good distance from the vehicle in front, so that the car is kept at a constant speed for as long as possible.

Also note that B mode should only be used for downhill driving, it is more efficient to allow full regenerative braking in D mode, since B mode engages the engine braking, meaning energy is being transferred via the engine, rather than regeneratively by the motors.

[AvatarPL]

@alexm

Also note that B mode should only be used for downhill driving, it is more efficient to allow full regenerative braking in D mode, since B mode engages the engine braking, meaning energy is being transferred via the engine, rather than regeneratively by the motors.

Are You sure about that? My brother has PHEV Peugeout 308 and he’s using “B” mode in town all the time and final meters are assisted by brakepads. In “D” mode car behaves more like normal pure petrol car with little regenerative braking.

[Fredrik_Javerhammar (Fredrik Jäverhammar)]

Just to add a little data for the e-tense to an older thread .

“B” is for Regen braking, no petrol engine braking - same function on almost all hybrids.

Today -mwith temps ranging from -3c to 5c, covering highway, city, traffic and everything in between. Quite spirited driving with some kick down overtakes etc.
All day in comfort mode and started with 34% charge
Really impressed with the fuel economy as it doesn’t differ that much from a similar performance diesel.