sebastiand.
The Mk 4 has no difficulty with hills. Mine has easily coped with 25% gradients, regardless of whether it is using the Electric drive(EV mode) or the petrol engine or a bit of both. The car monitors High voltage battery charge,the gradient, temperature, headwind, whether its running air conditioning etc etc , and automatically decides what is needed. Sometimes it keeps the petrol engine running for longer than you might expect . I used to wonder why it might go into EV mode travelling uphill with 4 bars on the High Voltage battery, yet not always go into EV mode travelling downhill with 7 bars. (often you can only tell the difference because the EV light comes on) I concluded the car is smarter than me (
) and takes account of many factors such as recent high levels of demand to try and keep ahead of any sudden demand.
I find it one of the cars many clever tricks that can be fascinating if the technicalities interests you, but need not concern those who prefer things simple.
I do keep an eye on the EV light as it can helps encourage a more economical driving style .
But I only looked at the power flow gauge graphics when I first bought the car,. I found it a bit of a novelty Gimmick, , with a risk of becoming fixated and maybe not paying enough attention to road hazards . You dont really need to know that much detail. Just let the car do its own stuff. Which it does quite well.
Those who only do a short daily trip ,from a cold engine do not get the best fuel consumption for those trips, and sometimes the small 12v battery doesnt have enough run time to keep it fully charged. But with a trip of 10 minutes each way you shouldnt have any problems and will probably be pleased with its performance and fuel consumption.
