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2017 Chrysler Pacifica (Minivan) PHEV 30 mile AER
- Thread starter RobStark
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- Electric Vehicles
EV-lutioin
Active Member
The best green car to buy has a internal combustion engine?? Should we call them the Brown Car Reports?
Breezy
Member
It’s a 7-passenger vehicle with 33 miles of electric range for $42k.
The other contenders were the Leaf and Ioniq, neither of which hold seven people plus luggage.
You should give them a hard time for putting diesel cars in the "green" car category not PHEVs.
Not only does the Pacifica get 33 miles AER but 32 MPG when in hybrid mode.
Not everyone that needs more capacity than a midsize sedan can afford a Model X.
My kids are 21+, and hauling needs are infrequent.......the thing is this car has better mpg and AER than anything close to it in size. I would prefer something a little smaller, but the point is to burn less gas.
EV-lutioin
Active Member
Wow, 32 mpg, that's 4 mpg better than a regular ol' Honda Odyssey,... revolutionary!
Infinite more AER that Honda Odyssey plus 4 MPG after 33 miles.
Many PHEVs do worse than the direct competition when in hybrid mode because of the heavy battery pack.
On average, going from a Honda Odyssey to a Pacifica PHEV, is going to cut gasoline consumption ~2/3.
What would happen to ExxonMobil and OPEC if demand for oil was cut ~2/3 ?That is revolutionary.
dhrivnak
Active Member
I came very close to buying one as they have done quite a good job with it. We love to camp and I thought pulling the camper with the Pacifica would be better than using my Volt. A lot of the areas we go do not have even 110V let alone EV charging. But Chrysler expressively says no towing
. So we punted.Yes I know it uses gas but it is a good stepping stone.
Breezy
Member
28 is the Odyssey's highway MPG rating. It's rated at 22 combined.Wow, 32 mpg, that's 4 mpg better than a regular ol' Honda Odyssey,... revolutionary!
2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Review
So I wish to premise this review by first stating I've never owned, or even drove a hybrid car before. It's always either been pure gas, or pure electric for me. So if I say something that's been standard and obvious in hybrids for years, I apologize. I'll also be using the experience of driving my 2011 Nissan Leaf as the comparison to contrast the Pacifica Hybrid against. With that said, lets get started.
So the point of getting the Pacifica Hybrid is because I need a people hauler (we have two kids, on our way to three). I've been a big fan of electric cars ever since taking an automotive design course back in college. I vowed then I'd always try to have electric cars in some form if the economics made sense. Before the Pacifica Hybrid, the only electric car on the road that could haul more than 5 people was the Model X. I tried the X out, but found it too cramped in the back seats, and didn't have enough cargo space (yes including the frunk) to do what I wanted. (Such as easily load plywood/drywall).
With the electric range of 35 miles for the Pacifica, I found it to be a good compromise. I'd be able to knock out daily driving in (mostly) electric, while still being able to take road trips with ease, and not have to worry about charging places, or times to get there. As far as vans go the Pacifica is great. Very quiet on the road even in highway speeds. The materials in the car look and feel high quality. All in all Chrysler has seriously upped it's game versus Toyota and Honda in the minivan area.
Man, Chrysler wasn't kidding when they said they don't want you to think you have a plug in hybrid. The dearth of information, and features that I've associated with driving my Nissan Leaf is a little disconcerting.
So the most obvious thing you'll notice if you're used to driving electric cars is the weak regen. The read out on the van's screen usually says it's around 5-10 kW of regen when you let your foot off the pedal. It practically feels like you're just cruising, instead of feeling regen like in the Leaf which is usually 15-20 kW of regen while in Eco driving mode. I know the Bolt, and Tesla have even stronger regen, so it seems odd Chrysler doesn't allow you to select a heavier regen setting, especially considering the mass of the van. When you do tap the brake pedal, the regen kicks in fully. The most I've seen it go up to is 80 kW back into the battery. While I'm glad they're capturing most of the energy back into the battery, I'd prefer a stronger regen when you take your foot off the gas, to smooth the energy curve into the battery, instead of having a spike of high energy back into it.
The next thing I've found annoying is the van doesn't have any readout of energy usage. (Miles/kWh, Watts/mile, ect.) So you have no idea how well or not you're driving on electrical power. The closest thing you have is how many miles were driven in electric, how many on gas, and if you reset the trip counter, what the overall mpg was.
You can set a charging schedule for the van. It's pretty basic, as in you can set charging times (begin, end charging) you can also set the charging to begin at a certain time, and continue until the battery is full. What they don't have, which the Leaf does is the ability to set to a percentage of battery charge (tell it to charge to 80% versus 100%). They also don't have a setting where you can tell the car to be charged by a certain time. (An example "have the car charged to 80% by 5 am everyday").
One of the things I'm quite surprised Chrysler overlooked, and I think is not only a benefit of electric cars in general, but would be THE feature for a van more than likely hauling kids, is cabin preconditioning. With my Leaf you can either set a schedule to have the cabin warmed or cooled, or you can ping it to do so from your phone app. I'd say at the very least Chrysler should have this feature when the van is plugged in. Nothing better than having a cool car on a hot summer day when you load up the kids in hot car seats.
As for the Hybrid page in the UConnect system, it seems like an afterthought. The first page shows very basic information about what the hybrid system is doing while driving (I'd say along the lines of what a Toyota Prius had back in 2006). The next page is miles driven on gas and electric for each trip. The last page is the charge scheduler page.
While driving on a full battery, for the most part it says in electric mode. During the early part of the drive, the engine comes on for a minute or two. Apparently this is to warm up the engine and catalytic converters so incase/when the engine is needed, it can maintain proper emissions. I'm a little annoyed by that, just because you can't control it. At the same time, it seems when you're at a stand still, the engine is charging the battery while it's warming up. So not a total loss. The engine will also come on if you're blasting the heater. It will turn on when you put the pedal to the metal, but I knew that was the case from the reviews. Every now and then it seems to turn on when you're only minorly accelerating. Not sure what the conditions are to make that happen yet. Going to need more driving time to nail it down.
This review may seem like I'm bashing the Pacifica. In one way I am based off my preferences of what I want to see in an electric car. I'm an engineer who loves data, and I want read outs to show what's going on. At the same time I completely understand where Chrysler is coming from. They're worried about information overloading a soccer mom who doesn't have a technical background, which could ruin the driving experience. Chrysler just wants you to be able to jump in the van, and drive it like normal.
The good thing is, I believe everything I have qualms about can be addressed with a software update. Hopefully as time goes by, and reviews start pouring in, Chrysler will push out an update that adds capability. Would I recommend this van to friends and family? Absolutely, especially to those who don't have experience driving an electric car. It's still a great van built for families. For those I know who have an electric car, I'd warn them about the lack of features.
Hope this review helps.
So I wish to premise this review by first stating I've never owned, or even drove a hybrid car before. It's always either been pure gas, or pure electric for me. So if I say something that's been standard and obvious in hybrids for years, I apologize. I'll also be using the experience of driving my 2011 Nissan Leaf as the comparison to contrast the Pacifica Hybrid against. With that said, lets get started.
So the point of getting the Pacifica Hybrid is because I need a people hauler (we have two kids, on our way to three). I've been a big fan of electric cars ever since taking an automotive design course back in college. I vowed then I'd always try to have electric cars in some form if the economics made sense. Before the Pacifica Hybrid, the only electric car on the road that could haul more than 5 people was the Model X. I tried the X out, but found it too cramped in the back seats, and didn't have enough cargo space (yes including the frunk) to do what I wanted. (Such as easily load plywood/drywall).
With the electric range of 35 miles for the Pacifica, I found it to be a good compromise. I'd be able to knock out daily driving in (mostly) electric, while still being able to take road trips with ease, and not have to worry about charging places, or times to get there. As far as vans go the Pacifica is great. Very quiet on the road even in highway speeds. The materials in the car look and feel high quality. All in all Chrysler has seriously upped it's game versus Toyota and Honda in the minivan area.
Man, Chrysler wasn't kidding when they said they don't want you to think you have a plug in hybrid. The dearth of information, and features that I've associated with driving my Nissan Leaf is a little disconcerting.
So the most obvious thing you'll notice if you're used to driving electric cars is the weak regen. The read out on the van's screen usually says it's around 5-10 kW of regen when you let your foot off the pedal. It practically feels like you're just cruising, instead of feeling regen like in the Leaf which is usually 15-20 kW of regen while in Eco driving mode. I know the Bolt, and Tesla have even stronger regen, so it seems odd Chrysler doesn't allow you to select a heavier regen setting, especially considering the mass of the van. When you do tap the brake pedal, the regen kicks in fully. The most I've seen it go up to is 80 kW back into the battery. While I'm glad they're capturing most of the energy back into the battery, I'd prefer a stronger regen when you take your foot off the gas, to smooth the energy curve into the battery, instead of having a spike of high energy back into it.
The next thing I've found annoying is the van doesn't have any readout of energy usage. (Miles/kWh, Watts/mile, ect.) So you have no idea how well or not you're driving on electrical power. The closest thing you have is how many miles were driven in electric, how many on gas, and if you reset the trip counter, what the overall mpg was.
You can set a charging schedule for the van. It's pretty basic, as in you can set charging times (begin, end charging) you can also set the charging to begin at a certain time, and continue until the battery is full. What they don't have, which the Leaf does is the ability to set to a percentage of battery charge (tell it to charge to 80% versus 100%). They also don't have a setting where you can tell the car to be charged by a certain time. (An example "have the car charged to 80% by 5 am everyday").
One of the things I'm quite surprised Chrysler overlooked, and I think is not only a benefit of electric cars in general, but would be THE feature for a van more than likely hauling kids, is cabin preconditioning. With my Leaf you can either set a schedule to have the cabin warmed or cooled, or you can ping it to do so from your phone app. I'd say at the very least Chrysler should have this feature when the van is plugged in. Nothing better than having a cool car on a hot summer day when you load up the kids in hot car seats.
As for the Hybrid page in the UConnect system, it seems like an afterthought. The first page shows very basic information about what the hybrid system is doing while driving (I'd say along the lines of what a Toyota Prius had back in 2006). The next page is miles driven on gas and electric for each trip. The last page is the charge scheduler page.
While driving on a full battery, for the most part it says in electric mode. During the early part of the drive, the engine comes on for a minute or two. Apparently this is to warm up the engine and catalytic converters so incase/when the engine is needed, it can maintain proper emissions. I'm a little annoyed by that, just because you can't control it. At the same time, it seems when you're at a stand still, the engine is charging the battery while it's warming up. So not a total loss. The engine will also come on if you're blasting the heater. It will turn on when you put the pedal to the metal, but I knew that was the case from the reviews. Every now and then it seems to turn on when you're only minorly accelerating. Not sure what the conditions are to make that happen yet. Going to need more driving time to nail it down.
This review may seem like I'm bashing the Pacifica. In one way I am based off my preferences of what I want to see in an electric car. I'm an engineer who loves data, and I want read outs to show what's going on. At the same time I completely understand where Chrysler is coming from. They're worried about information overloading a soccer mom who doesn't have a technical background, which could ruin the driving experience. Chrysler just wants you to be able to jump in the van, and drive it like normal.
The good thing is, I believe everything I have qualms about can be addressed with a software update. Hopefully as time goes by, and reviews start pouring in, Chrysler will push out an update that adds capability. Would I recommend this van to friends and family? Absolutely, especially to those who don't have experience driving an electric car. It's still a great van built for families. For those I know who have an electric car, I'd warn them about the lack of features.
Hope this review helps.
A friend has a 2016 Dodge Ram truck with all the bells and whistles. When Chrysler had that issue of the Jeep controls getting hacked, they issued a software update. He had the choice of bringing his truck to the dealership, or downloading an update onto a thumb drive and then loading it into the dash somehow. He said it was a lot more complicated and time-consuming than it should have been, but eventually he got it installed. Not exactly OTA.
Here are numbers I've seen so far. Keep in mind Chrysler isn't giving me any data read outs other than MPG.
When I drove the Pacifica from Virginia to Texas during thanksgiving day weekend, I was averaging around 30 mpg pure highway driving.
When I'm driving pure electric, it's averaging out to around 79 mpg.
When the wife blasts the heater to turn the van into the 7th layer of hell, which forces the engine to turn on, the mpg drops to an average of around 42-56 mpg. I haven't driven the van in pure hybrid mode city. I will do that at some point, and report back.
Keep in mind with the last two mpg numbers, it's what my wife has been driving. She's not as concerned with driving efficiently as I am. I can usually do 4.2 miles/kWh in my Leaf. When she drives my Leaf, she averages around 3.2-3.5.
I doubt it does, but maybe? It does have an LTE connection for the UConnect apps, so I'm hopeful they do push occasional updates. I can't imagine Chrysler isn't collecting real world data usage on these vans, considering it's this, and their Fiat 500e being the only two that have batteries in them.
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