Ever since I got my Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plug-in hybrid delivered in December, me and the workshop did not succeed in getting the Outlander Remote App to work with my car. It is used to start the heat/AC in the car via Wifi. I’ve managed to get it to work with my old cell phone Sony Xperia Z1 but I do not want to run around with two phones. That is why I have now acquired the Outlander PHEV SMS remote app. With the app installed, I can start the heat/cold with a text message instead. It provides several benefits. The range to start the pre heater has increased from 10-50 meters to unlimited as long you have reception. With wifi you can´t be too far away from the car. You can also set the heating on for longer than 30 minutes, which is the limit of the Outlander Remote App. Then there’s an addition to the app (SMS Utility) where you can track where the car is and a function that sends a text message if the car is moving. This is whats needed for the SMS feature to work :

• An additional smartphone that is always in the car.
  It must have the Outlander Remote App and Outlander PHEV SMS remote installed
  An old smartphone is something that most people have at home, otherwise you can buy it very cheap. Your phone must be able to send and receive SMS. I have therefore acquired a prepaid phone card to it. I have it connected to a charger, and it is located in the center console of the car. The app costs 27 Euro and is available in Google play.
• Your regular cell phone.
  It just needs to be able to send SMS. No other app is needed.

The interface to the Outlander PHEV SMS remote is not the prettiest but it doesn’t matter, the phone stays in the car and you don´t have to look at it after it has been set up.
You can acheive the same thing with theTasker app and a script but I don´t mind paying to get a working solution. I got a tip about this from one of my blog readers Johan. The script comes originally from this forum: http://insideoutlander.boards.net/thread/478/tasker-programs-remote-control-phev.

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Photographer Hudiksvall, Photographer Söderhamn

Mitsubishi Remote App does not work with Samsung Galaxy S6 and S5 mini

It is now completely confirmed that Mitsubishi Remote App is not compatible with Samsung S6 and S5 mini. It is certainly more phones that don’t work but these are the two I tried with no success. Ever since I could pick up my Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV in december and then the seller failed to match the car with my phone, I have repeatedly tried to get it to work. I got some time at the workshop in order to check it, and yesterday I got the vehicle back with the answer that Mitsubishi has not yet done the phone compatible because it is too new (released in april 2015). Mitsubishi Sweden had no help or a good answer to give. Dealer Thunbergs car is obviously distraught that they were unable to solve it and that they have not been informed that some phones do not work. I have managed to match the car with my Ipad Air 1 and my old mobile phone Sony Xperia Z1 without problems.

Mitsubishi Remote App is, at least in Sweden, a very important part of the operation and ownership of the car. It is with the app and ONLY with it you can start for the heater in the car. It starts the heating system in your car and warming up the car so that you have a hot car to get to winter time. In the summer the AC started using the app. It is incredibly poorly by Mitsubishi that does not have a working solution for one of the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. The app was updated the other day (13 January 2016) for the first time in a year, it shows how often Mitsubishi is working on updates to the app. They should inform their dealers about the limitation it poses for the buyer if they have a Samsung or any other model that does not work. Should you buy a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, make sure you get the test to register the phone with the car before purchase. You can just reset the pairing after it succeeded.

Cannot the plug-in hybrid handle  the winter cold ?

Yesterday I noticed something interesting and at the same time worrying. The EV drive mode did not work properly at -20 degrees celsius (-4 F). Lets start from the beginning …
To heat the interior of the car in winter and cold temperatures the petrol engine has to generate the heat. Now it can feel like a loss to have an electric car that needs to use the gasoline engine in winter. You can then use the pre-heater to heat the cabin before leaving. The heater is using the car’s driving battery to power the heater, therefore it is best to do this during charging so as not to jeopardise the range on EV drive If you have a 16A charger it will charge at the same rate as the pre-heater uses battery. If you have a 10A charger it will not keep up with the required charging.
I usually pre-heat for 30 min and the heat produced lasts for 15 minutes, depending on outside temperature, without additional heat from the petrol engine, especially when using the seat heaters and steering wheel heating.

To ensure that the petrol engine is not enabled you can put the ventilation and heating system in the OFF position.

Yesterday, for the first time this winter the temperature was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 F). I had had my Outlander in garage overnight where the temperature was -6 degrees C (21 F). I used the pre-heat for 30 minutes just before departure. With EV drive only I drove toward Soderhamn, 25 km south and started the ventilation and heating system when I got half way to bring up the heat in the car again. At that time the petrol engine started, as it should. When I reached the desired temperature I turned the ventilation and heating system off again and the petrol engine was shut down and I ran only on EV drive.

During the day the car is parked in Soderhamn in -20 degrees temperatures (-4 F). When I´m, about to leave for home the car is fully charged and before leaving I pre-heated the car in 30 minutes. HOWEVER when I try using the same procedure as before with the ventilation and heating system switched off I didn’t manage to get the petrol engine to stop. The entire trip is made with the engine running and the only time it shuts off for a short period is in a steep downhill. The battery meter shows full but the meter for the estimated range for EV drive shows just three strokes. No numbers. When I get home the battery meter is full. The route I run, I run at a speeds of 40-65 mph. The symbols for energy flow displays the arrows between the gasoline engine and battery and battery to wheel the whole trip. I don’t get why it’s like this, the battery is full so the petrol engine should not have to charge the battery and I have the ventilation off. It has something to do with the battery capacity degradation in severe cold I believe.

This morning it was -10 degrees  (14 deg F) outside and I had the car parked in the garage overnight. The battery was not fully charged and I wasn’t running for the heater because I got an error message when I tried to do it. I put a car heater in for 10 min instead. Also this time I was able to make the whole journey in pure EV mode without starting the petrol engine.

UPDATE!

When I was leaving for home in the evening, it was -15 degrees (5 deg F), I had preheated the car for 30 min and it was almost fully charged. The petrol engine started in the beginning but after a few minutes I was able to turn off the fan and therefore the petrol engine. It seems that -20 degrees  (-4 F) is the limit for the batteries . It says something in the manual that at temperatures below -15 C, there might be a problem with starting and limited power. I also noticed that brake regeneration effect didn´t work as well. The car didn´t slow down as much at B5 like before.

Luckily we don’t have these low temperatures that often.

If you want to leave comments on my posts, there is a comment box below each post. The comments field is not listed on the home page, but you have to go into each post. You get to it by clicking on the title of the post.

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Photographer Photographer Hudiksvall, Söderhamn