Hi Fellow Froggers,
I suppose it is time to reveal that the Queensland Citroen Dealer managed to snare and I managed to purchase the only C5X PHEV that has come into Australia this year. Late last year , Citroen Australia placed an order for 15 of these cars to be used as demonstrators for dealer network but Citroen only managed to ship one car of this order in January. As it was realised that this almost non- supply would cause the release of the PHEV model to be delayed for a second time, Citroen Australia agreed to Brett Cullen’s request that the car be sold to one of his customers.
I picked up the C5X from Brett Cullen in Nambour on a Friday afternoon 15th March and we set out for the Devonport Citin on the following Saturday morning to catch the Spirit of Tasmania from Geelong on the following Monday. We travelled the Pacific Highway to Raymond Terrace then the Hume Highway to Albury and onto Geelong the next day. We were very glad Brett managed to get the Australian navigation maps downloaded just before we picked up the car.
The PHEV version has adaptive dampers that allow a Comfort, Normal and Firm modes. I’m not sure yet what mode it uses in Electric, there is a choice of comfort or normal in Hybrid mode, and Firm is used in Sports mode. The suspension feels quite compliant which makes the car comfortable on the road but using the comfort mode with a bit of a load onboard on some of the older undulating sections of the Hume Highway results in hitting the progressive bump stops at the rear. The electric motor appears to be geared through the 8 speed gearbox and has enough torque to spin the front wheels quite easily. The petrol engine revs out with a nice burble when accelerating out of a service station and up to 110km/hr as my partner found.
It was hit and miss as far as recharging the battery while travelling (unless you have planned for it) and the limited electric range did not really help fuel consumption much on the highway. We managed to get 600km range out of the 40 litre petrol tank by running down into the reserve section of the gauge. If you do manage to get a full charge overnight and you put your destination into the Navigation System the next day, it will use the battery charge to enhance the Hybrid operation to improve fuel consumption and exhaust the battery as you arrive at your destination. I bought a 10m extension lead at Coffs Harbour Bunnings that had 10 amp plugs but thicker 15amp wiring and managed to use that to charge from a couple of motel rooms and our rellies house in Hobart. I also managed to purchase a Type 2 to Type 2 single phase charging cable from Supercheap in Wodonga so I could use commercial chargers where I could access them. I used a Chargefox charger in the Council Carpark in Devonport 3 times which allowed me to cruise into the Show and Shine in Electric mode. On the way home the motel where we stayed in Goulburn had 5 x Tesla chargers spread around the carpark and I used one of them to get a free full charge into the battery. Since we returned home about 4 weeks ago, we have hardly used any petrol from our last fill on the Gold Coast and have been cruising around Brisbane on Electric Mode just recharging it overnight.
When running in hybrid mode with the cruise control on, the car will not speed up down hills but will activate the regenerative braking to feed energy back into the battery and keep the speed at the set level. Without the cruise control set, the default mode for regenerative braking works by feeding a small amount of power back to the battery on overrun in Electric mode and then this is boosted when the brake pedal is depressed and brake lights activated. Power is fed to the battery down to about 10km/hr after which the brakes are then applied. There is also a B mode selectable on the gear mode selector that applies a larger regenerative braking as you lift off the accelerator. The only downside to this one pedal operating mode is that the brake lights are not activated until you complete the stop by applying the brake pedal.
Petrol consumption on the trip to Tasmania and back was 5.5litres/100km and we around town we are getting about 50km out of each full electric charge. Since we returned to Brisbane 4 weeks ago, the car has mainly travelled around town for about 700km in electric mode. I just let if fully charge overnight most nights. I am working on putting a small solar charging system together that I could use during the day for partial top-ups if we need to travel more than 50km a day. When you turn the system off at the completion of a drive, the dash displays a summary of the fuel and electric use during the drive. It reports that we are using a minimum of 17 kWh/100km on a good drive and up to 20 kWhr/100km on a more difficult drive (See pics below). These results compare favourably with other EV cars.
Overall, we are thrilled with the C5X PHEV. It meets all the criteria that we had for the replacement of our C5X7 as our main around town car with a capability to do long trips without range anxiety.
Happy to answer any questions?
Cheers, Ken W
Photos are
1. On Delivery Day
2. Sneaky Motel Room Charging
3. At the Show and Shine with Jack Gibneys C5X Petrol
4. Yes it is a Hybrid
5. At Double Lagoon near the Great Lake
6. Electric Trip Summary: 34 km left in Battery, 14km trip
I suppose it is time to reveal that the Queensland Citroen Dealer managed to snare and I managed to purchase the only C5X PHEV that has come into Australia this year. Late last year , Citroen Australia placed an order for 15 of these cars to be used as demonstrators for dealer network but Citroen only managed to ship one car of this order in January. As it was realised that this almost non- supply would cause the release of the PHEV model to be delayed for a second time, Citroen Australia agreed to Brett Cullen’s request that the car be sold to one of his customers.
I picked up the C5X from Brett Cullen in Nambour on a Friday afternoon 15th March and we set out for the Devonport Citin on the following Saturday morning to catch the Spirit of Tasmania from Geelong on the following Monday. We travelled the Pacific Highway to Raymond Terrace then the Hume Highway to Albury and onto Geelong the next day. We were very glad Brett managed to get the Australian navigation maps downloaded just before we picked up the car.
The PHEV version has adaptive dampers that allow a Comfort, Normal and Firm modes. I’m not sure yet what mode it uses in Electric, there is a choice of comfort or normal in Hybrid mode, and Firm is used in Sports mode. The suspension feels quite compliant which makes the car comfortable on the road but using the comfort mode with a bit of a load onboard on some of the older undulating sections of the Hume Highway results in hitting the progressive bump stops at the rear. The electric motor appears to be geared through the 8 speed gearbox and has enough torque to spin the front wheels quite easily. The petrol engine revs out with a nice burble when accelerating out of a service station and up to 110km/hr as my partner found.
It was hit and miss as far as recharging the battery while travelling (unless you have planned for it) and the limited electric range did not really help fuel consumption much on the highway. We managed to get 600km range out of the 40 litre petrol tank by running down into the reserve section of the gauge. If you do manage to get a full charge overnight and you put your destination into the Navigation System the next day, it will use the battery charge to enhance the Hybrid operation to improve fuel consumption and exhaust the battery as you arrive at your destination. I bought a 10m extension lead at Coffs Harbour Bunnings that had 10 amp plugs but thicker 15amp wiring and managed to use that to charge from a couple of motel rooms and our rellies house in Hobart. I also managed to purchase a Type 2 to Type 2 single phase charging cable from Supercheap in Wodonga so I could use commercial chargers where I could access them. I used a Chargefox charger in the Council Carpark in Devonport 3 times which allowed me to cruise into the Show and Shine in Electric mode. On the way home the motel where we stayed in Goulburn had 5 x Tesla chargers spread around the carpark and I used one of them to get a free full charge into the battery. Since we returned home about 4 weeks ago, we have hardly used any petrol from our last fill on the Gold Coast and have been cruising around Brisbane on Electric Mode just recharging it overnight.
When running in hybrid mode with the cruise control on, the car will not speed up down hills but will activate the regenerative braking to feed energy back into the battery and keep the speed at the set level. Without the cruise control set, the default mode for regenerative braking works by feeding a small amount of power back to the battery on overrun in Electric mode and then this is boosted when the brake pedal is depressed and brake lights activated. Power is fed to the battery down to about 10km/hr after which the brakes are then applied. There is also a B mode selectable on the gear mode selector that applies a larger regenerative braking as you lift off the accelerator. The only downside to this one pedal operating mode is that the brake lights are not activated until you complete the stop by applying the brake pedal.
Petrol consumption on the trip to Tasmania and back was 5.5litres/100km and we around town we are getting about 50km out of each full electric charge. Since we returned to Brisbane 4 weeks ago, the car has mainly travelled around town for about 700km in electric mode. I just let if fully charge overnight most nights. I am working on putting a small solar charging system together that I could use during the day for partial top-ups if we need to travel more than 50km a day. When you turn the system off at the completion of a drive, the dash displays a summary of the fuel and electric use during the drive. It reports that we are using a minimum of 17 kWh/100km on a good drive and up to 20 kWhr/100km on a more difficult drive (See pics below). These results compare favourably with other EV cars.
Overall, we are thrilled with the C5X PHEV. It meets all the criteria that we had for the replacement of our C5X7 as our main around town car with a capability to do long trips without range anxiety.
Happy to answer any questions?
Cheers, Ken W
Photos are
1. On Delivery Day
2. Sneaky Motel Room Charging
3. At the Show and Shine with Jack Gibneys C5X Petrol
4. Yes it is a Hybrid
5. At Double Lagoon near the Great Lake
6. Electric Trip Summary: 34 km left in Battery, 14km trip