I was really impressed that Jeep did the 7.2kW onboard charger. Makes it actually possible to charge while running errands, when home for a bit, etc and have it actually be useful.
Should do a 60 mph test. I have a prius c (hydrid only). When I first got it I did a SF to LA test (700~mi). One round trip @ 70mph and another round trip couple months later @ 60mph. I almost made the full round trip (700~ miles) on one tank @ 60. Had to fill up 45mins before getting home, didn't want to test out the last gallon to the finish line. Think my avg mph was 65. @70 mph it was 45. If you have the patience to arrive at where your going a few minutes later, or one hour with 350mi, you can extend the range of your battery a lot more. This method is called hypermiling. I'm actually looking to trade up from my C to a 4xe soon 🙂
7.6 kW makes it a quiet get around ride to your favorite off-road driving place. The battery inefficiency can be attributed to this off-roading capabilities. So don’t buy it to look the part and keep it on the paved roads but enjoy the reasons it’s built like it is. Great summary Tom‼️
I have the Rubicon 4xe and consistently get 23-26 electric miles per charge. When your in all electric mode, the engine will not kick in as much and i live in the hills. Hills do take a hit on the electric range but you will also gain range by downhill regen. So really depends on where you live and how you drive. I have seen it as much as 29 electric miles but that was max. Perfect for short commuters with a charger but not really for anyone that drive long distances.
The problem I have with plugin hybrids is that the automakers seem to just care about targeting the minimum kWh needed to qualify for government rebates rather than targeting the range sweet spot that would be best for customers to cover a daily commute. They almost all have around a 20-25 mile EPA range (which will be much lower in cold, winter weather), when it would be much more desirable to have a capacity double that (and well worth the price increase). Around 40-50 miles range (in ideal conditions) would be so much more useful.
There's truth to that. But there's also the packaging issue. Most PHEVs are built on chassis that were really just designed for the ICE powertrain, so the OEM needs to find a place to fit the battery. There's only so much space available so the battery cannot be too large.
@@InsideEVsUS True, plugin hybrids have a lot of extra components to cram into the same chassis as an ICE-only counterpart. Also the weight starts to add up with both the battery/motor system and ICE components. Combined with the less efficient aero of a non-EV chassis, the efficiency of both EV and hybrid modes diminish.
@@jonsummers3453 The range loss in winter may only be 15-20%, so it'll drop from 22 miles to about 17.6-18.7 miles. The real question is whether it has a resistance heater onboard, or whether it needs to kick on the gas engine to heat the cabin. I imagine a lot of these will be sold in warmer climates where the state incentives are better. To get 40-50 miles in this vehicle, you'd need to 2x-2.5x the size of the battery, adding significantly more weight, and decreasing the overall efficiency of the vehicle and the payload / towing capacity. Not to mention, it would be less compliant. Double the weight of the battery, and see how it handles while offroading. 22 miles highway and 25-30 miles city is completely fine for this type of vehicle. It's still significantly reducing the amount of gas the vehicle is burning. Versus the 23 mpg combined gas version, if you use the 22 miles of electric range every day of the year, you're replacing 8030 miles, or 350 gallons of gas with electricity. Now multiply that over the life of the vehicle.
@@jonsummers3453 The interesting thing with PHEVs is everyone thinks they need enough electric range to almost completely replace all miles driven with electricity. The solution may just be finding an actual commuter vehicle instead of pretending that's what a Jeep Wrangler with its massive tires and terrible aero is...
So many reviewers seem locked up on 70 mph for unknown reasons. At 65 mph the efficiency increases significantly. From 65 to 70 a vehicle covers a mile FIVE SECONDS faster! That’s all. Are 5 seconds less per mile that critical? Try it America!
At a low SoC the power you can draw from such a small battery is quite limited. It is fairly understandable that even on e-only mode the ICE engine kicks in if more power is needed for the incline. But having said that, any range between 21 and 23 at that speed on flat roads seems plausible. BTW, is 70 the most common highway speed limit in the states?
I got Rubicon 4xe. Frankly, I love it, and I end up using the electric engine like, 90% of the time. Most of my driving is in town, and I font' go too far on the highway, but around town I used to get around 25-27 miles on a single charge, never really measured a highway (if I went on a trip where I was going to be in the highway for a while, I'd go in hybrid mode or esave to recharge, but with hybrid mode, I get like 19-22 mpg on road trips). Since I had those measurements, the car was stock, but has since I've added a winch, (which didn't really affect the MPG /range), but the 2-inch lift and 35-inch tires did make a difference. but those were my stock numbers. SInce new tires/lift, I think I'm not averaging around 22ish miles on twon with some more highway? Need to measure it. NOt sure what highway mpgs are really.
You do not need max regenera tion on the highway with the 4×e there is only hybrid...the 4×e is always in a hybrid mode. You cannot just drive in a gas mode. That's the point about a phev jeep wrangler jl unlimited.
Thanks Tom. To me, these PHEVs with less than 30 miles of range are kind of a waste of batteries. It just seems like a hassle to try and find charging that frequently, to the point you just wouldn't want to use it unless you're home. I'd probably prefer they just do a traditional hybrid for efficiency or go full BEV with a dedicated power train.
The intent of PHEVs isn't to completely replace your miles with electricity. If that were the case, then there'd be no gas engine. The goal is to use a very small battery to significantly reduce the amount of gasoline you're consuming daily. The only place you need to charge is at home; and you'll start every day with 22 miles of electric range. Multiply that by 365 days and you're replacing 8030 miles worth of gas miles with electricity. The most efficient gas version of the Wrangler (not including diesel) gets 23 mpg, so that 8030 miles of electricity is saving you from burning 350 gallons of gasoline every year. Over 10 years, it's saving 3500 gallons of gas, or reducing gasoline based emissions by 70,000 lbs before including emissions from drilling / refining / transporting the oil and transporting the gasoline . Of course, charging has emissions of its own, but much less. If you're able to charge during the day between driving then that electric range can be expanded. With workplace charging, a person with a 44 mile round trip could conceivably make the entire trip on electricity. Jeep Wranglers aren't exactly efficient vehicles. The 4xe is rated at 49 mpge versus the gas/diesel versions' 14-25 mpg. The 4xe doubles the mpg of the gas versions. It also benefits by operating as a hybrid when the battery can no longer sustain electric only mode. That means when you're stopped or coasting, the engine may shut off completely. When you come to a stop, you get regenerative braking, and that energy can be used to assist in the re-acceleration of the vehicle. PHEVs are an effective way to reduce emissions, given that the entire auto industry is battery supply constrained and are struggling to increase their output of full electric vehicles. That said, people that are buying the Wrangler for style points knowing full well how terrible it is for the environment, I'd rather they buy something else, but if they're going to buy a wrangler anyways, they're better off with the 4xe.
Another big reason for this powertrain is the power. It cranks out 375hp and 470 lb ft of torque, no matter what battery level is available. The system retains about 15% of the battery range even when the gauge indicates
I have a RAV4 Prime and it never kicks on the gas engine in EV mode. After having so much EV range now I couldn’t cut that in half… nice rig though… I do wonder about long term reliability.
I have to say, I LOVE my 4xe Rubicon. I like the bronco's look, but would not trade the jeep b/c hybrid. SOunds lik the Grand Cherokee 4xe has similar range? (surprised since that car is more erodynamic than the bbrick shapped Wrangler.
I would have left maxregen off during a highway test and used maxregen in city driving. The hybrid ICE boost on the hill could have been due to maxregen.
Max regen won’t cause the engine to start because it’s only at work on deceleration. It really doesn’t get used on the highway. So like you said, that could have been turned off.
That isnt much electric range. My daily commute is 30 miles, there and back. If the jeep had at least that, I could drive every day on only electric mode and use the gas engine when going further than that.
Putt more air in the weels i do this in my plugin to so i have driven a lest 15 miles longer and dray it with the crouise control maybe your engin will not kick in, top story👍
When we do the range tests we set all of the vehicles to the manufacturer's specified tire pressure. Yes, they will go farther with overinflated tires, but for our testing purposes, we need to use the recommended PSI so we can fairly compare the vehicles.
The solid level 2 charge rate of this Jeep is very good. I'd always like to see higher, but that's a given. I had a 2017 Volt for a few years and it charged very slowly. It took 5 hours or more to fully charge it. Many times we didn't use it because it was still charging, while the old Leaf would add significant miles in much less time. My feeling was that the smaller the battery the more important it was to charge quicker. I think any plug-in should take at least 11kw. I found the Volt engine would run completely outside of any control. Several times in cold weather it would run, even if there was no heat on the HVAC was completely shut off. Once I was stopped at a light, no heat, nothing running and at a nearly full state of charge and the gas engine kicked on. It was cold outside, but the sun was bright and the car was warm inside and there was no reason the run the gas engine. That was very annoying. That was only one of many annoying things about that car and it was sent back even before the lease was up. Just paid the remaining months to dump the POS.
No offense but who only does 70? 80 seems to be standard here in CO without getting too crazy over speed limit. Real world would be at least at 75 I think. Do Like the content though. Just think it needs to be at real highway speeds. Seems no one does that with evs when doing highway tests
I do. :o I used to drive 80 mph in the fast lane and figured everyone did over the speed limit. You'd be surprised how many people do the speed limit when you actually drive the speed limit to notice. In fact, you'd be amazed at how many people go under the speed limit. Super annoying having to pass people in the right or second from right lane while on 70 mph cruise control.
I think Jeep, out of necessity, had to put the big charger in there because of the Wranglers inefficiencies. A 3.3kW charger got my 2013 Fusion Energi 21-25 miles in 2 hours with half the battery size. Half the efficiency? Double the battery size and charge rate lol. BTW, my 8 year old Energi could go 100% electric under these same conditions, no ICE would kick in.
You can’t compare a fusion to the wrangler. Do you have any idea how much heavier, the parasitic losses due to the unsprung mass of the huge tires and the terrible aerodynamics impact energy efficiency!?
@@SuzukiKid400 Yes, obviously. That's my entire point. You have to pretty much double everything to get the same efficiency. Jeep doubling the internal charger was a necessity, not some amazing thing they did..
@@alexnutcasio936 I guess I'll just copy/paste the above reply since it's not being read... "Yes, obviously. That's my entire point. You have to pretty much double everything to get the same efficiency. Jeep doubling the internal charger was a necessity, not some amazing thing they did.."
@@metal_horses568 you’re still comparing apples to oranges. A Ford Fusion is not a Jeep. If you’re talking efficiency comparison,let’s talk perhaps a Volt v. Fusion or Jeep v. Hummer H2. Even a RAV4 plug in is not in same class as the Jeep. Under those same conditions, your Energi didn’t kick in because it wasn’t an aerodynamic brick trying to advance up an incline.
That’s strange that the Chrysler Pacifica does not do that,Pacifica PHEV will stay on battery going up a hill at 75 I’m pretty sure it’s the same hybrid system or actually I don’t know that! don’t let me start lying ha ha
Pacifica's using a 16 kWh battery. It's possible the Pacifica's motor is more powerful, and the battery discharge rate is higher, but I imagine it's probably due to the difference in weight, aero, and tires. 75 mph uses a lot more energy in the brick with big wheels that is the wrangler, versus the aerodynamic Pacifica with smaller tires and slightly lighter weight.
LOL. Yeah, I meant to say Sahara. I had just finished reading about the 4xe on display at the Easter Jeep Safari promotion, and Safari was in my head. I'm really surprised that nobody else picked up that misfire just yet.
This would be like spending 2 hours to put less than a gallon of gas in the vehicle. This is way too little, way too late. This Jeep exists for 1 reason; so FCA can claim a slightly better fleet MPG for EPA regulations just a bit longer while they try and work out an EV conversion tax-payer funded bailout.
I realy think that jeep,dodge ,and chrysler are in over there heads as for electrification .They need the stellentis group treatmen like real fucking fast.
I think it’s a perfect range. It would get me 3/4 of the way to and from work without burning any gas. Also, they didn’t modify or compromise the chassis, ground clearance or any other aspects of the truck. I’m impressed because at the end of the day you can still drive it long distances and use gasoline like any other truck.
22 Miles wouldn’t even get me from Port Charlotte to Fort Myers, and I do that everyday. So the Jeep is useless.. The minimum needs to be 100 miles for a Battery/Gas version.
The intention of PHEVs isn't to replace all miles driven with electricity. If it was, then they wouldn't have a gas engine. The intent is to significantly reduce the vehicle's gas use and emissions using a small battery. Charging the 4xe only at home reduces your daily gas use by 40% over a gas only wrangler. Charging both at home and your destination would replace 80% of your gas use. Let's be honest though, if you really cared about the environment, you probably wouldn't drive a Wrangler. Just sayin'. If you only charged from home, you'd be doubling the amount of time between gas stops. You'd also be extending your brake life, extending the time between oil and air filter changes, making it possible to pre-air condition the vehicle while parked in a garage and plugged in. And of course you'd be saving money on fuel costs. So you're saving money, and gaining convenience.
