[Ebo]

Something I've seen in many other PHEVs is the option for the driver to select an electric only mode so that the vehicle is forced to use it's rechargeable batteries until it's depleted. I've expected that to be an update for the 2021 model year but it doesn't seem like that's the case.
I just don't see any reason why Chrysler can't implement such an option into the uConnect interface (if not a physical button).
I currently own an Odyssey, and as reliable as she is, I would definitely hop on the Chrysler bandwagon if I could guarantee a certain amount of electric only driving on my numerous short trips.
I've extensively researched and love the idea of the PacHy, but with so many folks complaining that it unnecessarily fires up the ICE even with significant charge remaining, I'm skeptical.
The bottom line is: If the vehicle is a PHEV then the driver should be able to toggle that electric only driving, otherwise it's just no different from a regular hybrid.
Agree? Disagree? Am I asking for too much?

 

[Frig]

I would love a switch, but it's never going to happen. The mantra by the design team was "seamless and automatic" or something to that effect. Switches and overrides aren't seamless nor automatic.

With that being said, for numerous short trips it does default to electric only mode until it's depleted. The only times the engine kicks in is if you gun the accelerator, go fast on the highway, go up real steep hills or if it's cold out, which all required the extra oomph of the engine. It does a good job at being seamless; set it and forget it.

Would love for them to come out with a special Pacifica E edition or something for geeks, where you could toggle engine vs battery, which would be useful when going on the highway in gas, then getting onto local roads with electric. Other things to add would be one pedal driving, shutoff charging after certain percentage, settable regen braking, settable cruise acceleration, settable automatic stopping distance, etc, but none of those are seamless nor automatic and would probably wreak havoc with the typical owners.

 

[MLambert]

Not likely to happen. The Pacifica Hybrid was designed to appeal to the masses, not to appeal to EV drivers, so it operates a lot like a standard hybrid vehicle.

However, mine generally stays in electric mode until the battery is depleted on short daily trips. I exceed the EV range twice a week on average, so a tank of gasoline lasts around 6-8 weeks. I usually find that I've got about 3 times as many "electric" miles as I have "hybrid" miles... until I take a very long trip with no opportunity to charge.

 

[stop-eject]

The Electric motors can deliver less than 130HP- enough for everyday driving, but not for emergencies or other corner cases. This is the reason why the gas engine can't be manually disabled.
If you are careful with the gas pedal you can drive for thousands of miles in the pure electric mode, (in the mild weather).

 

[Freedom_1976]

In cold weather area, the gaz engine always start (when temperature fall under 32dF or 0dC) to heat the cabin. It's take around 5-10min to have the coolant hot enough to turn off ICE. An EV mode would be usefull for short trip (going to grocery or job)

 

[stop-eject]

The threshold seems to be around 37F, lower if the heat is off. It could be done to protect the battery. Cold hurts its performance, and adding a 7kw extra draw doesn't help.

 

[lutorm]

Compared to their poor efficiency for propulsion, ICEs are very efficient heaters. It makes sense to me that they would elect to use gas for heating rather than the much more limited battery energy which is more useful for moving the vehicle.

 

[Ebo]

Not likely to happen. The Pacifica Hybrid was designed to appeal to the masses, not to appeal to EV drivers, so it operates a lot like a standard hybrid vehicle.

However, mine generally stays in electric mode until the battery is depleted on short daily trips. I exceed the EV range twice a week on average, so a tank of gasoline lasts around 6-8 weeks. I usually find that I've got about 3 times as many "electric" miles as I have "hybrid" miles... until I take a very long trip with no opportunity to charge.

"The Pacifica Hybrid was designed to appeal to the masses" - Not gonna lie, that was the loudest laugh I've had all week! =D
But on a serious note, about how much miles of driving do you do in those 6-8 weeks?

 

[MLambert]

Okay... maybe not "the masses" but they did not design it for EV enthusiasts. My husband's car is a BEV, and I use mainly electric except for long trips. I don't have steep hills or extreme cold in my area, so the gas engine usually doesn't kick on until I've exhausted the battery. But we do take the Pacifica on road trips because we can load up everything we need and make minimal stops for fuel. (I've done the same trips in a Tesla and although I probably ought to get out of the car for the 20-30 minutes that charging takes instead of driving straight through, I rarely want to be on the road an extra hour or two for those stops.)

I drive my Pacifica 200-250 miles in a typical week and fill up somewhere between 1200-1600 miles (I stopped tracking after the first year). I charge late at night (time-of-use rates) and stay within the EV range on most weekdays. However, 2-3 days a week I have a 50+ mile round trip with no charging at my destination so I'm driving home on the ICE.

 

[stop-eject]

"The Pacifica Hybrid was designed to appeal to the masses" - Not gonna lie, that was the loudest laugh I've had all week! =D
But on a serious note, about how much miles of driving do you do in those 6-8 weeks?

In a sense that the design target was a typical minivan owner, who doesn't want to be concerned with the way the vehicle operates and wouldn't notice differences between the gas and PHEV versions.
MyR/T commute is 38 miles. In the mild weather I can make it on a single charge, I have to charge a bit at work when its cold. In theory, I could do this 200 miles weeks forever.

 

[Ebo]

Some excellent responses, for the most part, I agree. Though, if I may, I wouldn't exactly call myself the "typical minivan owner" or "EV enthusiast" (being 26, single, with no kids) but I do have a very busy and active lifestyle. Besides school, work and gym, I do carpool a lot. So naturally I'm hauling lots of stuff and people on a regular basis, a minivan is perfect for that. One of the fundamental marketing strategy fails a company can make is assuming potential customers belong to a single demographic.
So to be clear the suggestion I posed is not a change in how the PacHy currently operates but rather an additional option(s) that more align with what one expects from a PHEV eg:
Hybrid modes:

• Auto (How it currently operates)
• Hybrid (For best fuel economy/performance)
• EV (Battery only)
• Gas (Conserve battery)

There are many PHEVs of similar size with smaller batteries that accomplishes just this (Ford Explorer, Volvo XC90, Lincoln Aviator)...
And yeah, I know what naysayers will say "but those vehicles are three row SUVs with higher price points". True, but apples to apples: Toyota is coming with their hybrid Sienna soon, and they already got AWD. So if they implement a hybrid powertrain on top of that and do it properly, (something Chrysler is still yet to offer) you best believe myself and many others will flock to them.
Chrysler, make your next move wisely.

 

[HyNowOrLater]

Some excellent responses, for the most part, I agree. Though, if I may, I wouldn't exactly call myself the "typical minivan owner" or "EV enthusiast" (being 26, single, with no kids) but I do have a very busy and active lifestyle. Besides school, work and gym, I do carpool a lot. So naturally I'm hauling lots of stuff and people on a regular basis, a minivan is perfect for that. One of the fundamental marketing strategy fails a company can make is assuming potential customers belong to a single demographic.
So to be clear the suggestion I posed is not a change in how the PacHy currently operates but rather an additional option(s) that more align with what one expects from a PHEV eg:
Hybrid modes:

• Auto (How it currently operates)
• Hybrid (For best fuel economy/performance)
• EV (Battery only)
• Gas (Conserve battery)

There are many PHEVs of similar size with smaller batteries that accomplishes just this (Ford Explorer, Volvo XC90, Lincoln Aviator)...
And yeah, I know what naysayers will say "but those vehicles are three row SUVs with higher price points". True, but apples to apples: Toyota is coming with their hybrid Sienna soon, and they already got AWD. So if they implement a hybrid powertrain on top of that and do it properly, (something Chrysler is still yet to offer) you best believe myself and many others will flock to them.
Chrysler, make your next move wisely.

I am curious to know what you want AWD for in a minivan. It is not really an off-road vehicle. I had AWD in my first Dodge Caravan (1990) and found it a bit helpful 1 or 2 times a year in snow, but are there other benefits that I am not aware of?

 

[Vantastic]

I am curious to know what you want AWD for in a minivan. It is not really an off-road vehicle. I had AWD in my first Dodge Caravan (1990) and found it a bit helpful 1 or 2 times a year in snow, but are there other benefits that I am not aware of?

If you live in an area where only one or 2 times a year in snow is a thing, maybe you don't want it. I'm in upstate NY. We get 9ft of snow a year on average. I would welcome it.

 

[PacDave]

Something I've seen in many other PHEVs is the option for the driver to select an electric only mode so that the vehicle is forced to use it's rechargeable batteries until it's depleted. I've expected that to be an update for the 2021 model year but it doesn't seem like that's the case.
I just don't see any reason why Chrysler can't implement such an option into the uConnect interface (if not a physical button).
I currently own an Odyssey, and as reliable as she is, I would definitely hop on the Chrysler bandwagon if I could guarantee a certain amount of electric only driving on my numerous short trips.
I've extensively researched and love the idea of the PacHy, but with so many folks complaining that it unnecessarily fires up the ICE even with significant charge remaining, I'm skeptical.
The bottom line is: If the vehicle is a PHEV then the driver should be able to toggle that electric only driving, otherwise it's just no different from a regular hybrid.
Agree? Disagree? Am I asking for too much?

I wouldn’t worry about it that much. I’ve been driving our PacHy a little less since the pandemic started and since last February the ICE has only run twice as far as I know. Once, when the HV battery was depleted on a trip that was about about 250 miles. And the second time was when it was cold outside and I turned cabin heat on (ICE only ran for a few minutes). Other than those times it runs as expected as an electric only vehicle.

 

[PhillyMonte]

I was initially concerned about not switch for EV Mode, but that was very shortly lived. Coming from a 2014 Toyota Prius v my 2021 Hybrid Pinnacle outperforms the Toyota hands down on running on batteries, even at highway speeds. What is notable is that if you do not adjust your driving habits, heavy on the gas pedal (like my wife), you won't see very much efficiency.

 

[Johnnyma45]

The new Jeep PHEVs all have EV mode toggles. Perhaps it'll make its way to the van.

 

[czervika]

If it were me, a more convenient useful would be to have an additional charging port at the rear of the vehicle.

 

[Vicenac]

Yes a switch would be good. The ICE is efficient at highway speeds and the electric propulsion at in town speeds. But I suppose people would just leave it in ICE mode and forget about it. My neighbor has a plugin Prius and says that it never gets plugged in. Somehow they did the math and it's not worth plugging it in.
Our most trips are under 40 miles, as such we got an average of 44 MPG in the first 2k miles. Then we took and 800 mile trip with not much opportunity to charge. We got 28 MPG for the trip. Since then the lifetime MPG has returned to 38.
I would go for the Sienna if our predicted use was mainly long trips. But with our shorts trip bias, we beat the MPG of the Toyota. And then there is the 7500 Fed credit...

 

[DahDitDahDitDahDahDitDah]

My 2 cents to this convo... It definitely could use one, but NOT for the EV mode, but to force it into hybrid mode. It doesn't have to be confusing either, bury it into a menu option for people who want it. Make it work like on my 2014 Prius Plug-in... Default to EV, which is basically what the Pachy does now, and if someone selects it, switch it to hybrid mode so that it drives like the battery is depleted. It really doesn't have to add a lot of complexity to the operation.

That being said, if you keep the acceleration down below %50 as indicated on the PWR meter in the upper left of the dash gauges behind the sterring wheel, you'll basically be in the same kind of EV mode as my Prius Plug-in until the battery is depleted. My Prius' EV mode will also kick in the gas engine if you give it too much throttle, just like on the Pachy.

So the main reason for it needing an EV/HV button IMO, isn't really to force it into EV mode as it defaults to that(just be easy on the accelerator)... it's so that you can conserve battery charge for destination driving as battery driving on the freeway eats up the charge a lot faster than city driving. At least it does in my experience. It would be nice to be able to conserve that charge and choose where to "spend it", to get the most out of it.

 

[Vantastic]

I get it, and would use it, but it won't always behave like the battery is depleted. It will most of the time. If the battery is full it won't regen brake. I experience this every time I leave my house. And in hybrid mode it bounces between EV and ICE to use any accumulated battery energy over some threshold. So to do what is suggested, that threshold still has to be defined and utilized similarly. That likely means maintaining perhaps a 90% usable battery level instead of 100% So what you are really talking about doing is letting the user define that threshold, in which case it could also be made variable.