Regenerative braking OFF

[Ledmi]

Regenerative braking OFF

I usually drive my Air Touring for a while after washing my car and wheels to remove some rust from the brakes disc, while turning off the regenerative braking.

My question is:

I notice that as soon as I disable the regenerative braking, the accelerator becomes more sensitive and responsive. The accelerations are more immediate and striking. The driving suddenly feels sportier. Am I the only one noticing this?

Has anyone done a road test to check if a long-distance drive (on the highway) without the Regenerative braking at OFF position will results in greater distance traveled without it or the opposite???
Thank you.

 

[borski]

Regen on high definitely increases range. Also, it’s definitely more responsive, in that it aggressively starts braking as soon as you lift your foot off the throttle at all…

 

[Ledmi]

Regen on high definitely increases range. Also, it’s definitely more responsive, in that it aggressively starts braking as soon as you lift your foot off the throttle at all…

My comments was totally the opposite. When you drive and remove the regen and turn it off….the accelerator become more sensitive and feels sportier.

 

[RamShashi]

Will turning off regenerative, reduce mileage a lot? I would love to try that. May be that is equivalent to Gas cars in the amount of pressure you need to apply. At least it is good to know that is an option. I run it always on Smooth. But the problem with too much response for acceleration may still be there(hope not). I will try it out.

 

[coma24]

I notice that as soon as I disable the regenerative braking, the accelerator becomes more sensitive and responsive. The accelerations are more immediate and striking. The driving suddenly feels sportier. Am I the only one noticing this?

I haven't tried it but if you consider how the accelerator works when regen mode is enabled, vs disabled...it stands to reason that it will feel more responsive in the early stages of depressing the pedal if regen is off.

Consider the case of regen being on. The first x% of pedal travel is reserved for regen operations. Anything short of x% depression is all braking zone. Reaching x%, you are neutral, effectively, and anything above x% is the START of ANY sort of acceleration.

Now consider regen being off....there is no braking zone with the accelerator. Any depression at all is an indication that you'd like to be moving.

 

[Ledmi]

I haven't tried it but if you consider how the accelerator works when regen mode is enabled, vs disabled...it stands to reason that it will feel more responsive in the early stages of depressing the pedal if regen is off.

Consider the case of regen being on. The first x% of pedal travel is reserved for regen operations. Anything short of x% depression is all braking zone. Reaching x%, you are neutral, effectively, and anything above x% is the START of ANY sort of acceleration.

Now consider regen being off....there is no braking zone with the accelerator. Any depression at all is an indication that you'd like to be moving.

This is a great explanation to my question. For my second portion I will try to make the same trip twice with and without regen and see the results on electricity consumption.

 

[DeaneG]

Regeneration helps efficiency in stop-and go driving, but generally reduces efficiency slightly for most drivers at steady freeway speeds.

 

[coma24]

This is a great explanation to my question. For my second portion I will try to make the same trip twice with and without regen and see the results on electricity consumption.

The application of regen braking involves losses. If you'd like to slow down from speed A to speed B and can achieve that by coasting (ie, no regen, and without the use of the physical brakes,) then you will see more efficiency than if you had used regen braking. In any sort of regular suburban driving, it's highly unlikely that you can achieve all stops by coasting, it's just not practical (or fair to the people behind you), so as DeaneG pointed out, you're going to do better in 'average' conditions (non highway/freeway) by allowing regen to happen. To the extent than you can minimize the deflection of the needle in either direction (hard acceleration or hard regen) and allow more gentle acceleration/deceleration over a longer period without annoying people around you, or frustrating yourself, you will see higher efficiency than more aggressive stop and go.

On the freeway, if you can achieve your desired speed changes through coasting (regen disabled), that's great, but other than rapid speed changes, decelerating from 80 to 75 should not generally require you to enter the coasting or regen realm. The car already has quite a bit of drag at that point, as evidenced by the needle being deflecting to the right despite your speed being steady. As such, you can decelerate by just applying less power. The car will slow down, despite you not coasting our being anywhere near regen range.

Once you think of it in those terms, my guess is you'll be able to minimize how hard you use regen while still keeping it enabled. I would hazard a guess that disabling regen while on the freeway doesn't achieve much, other than INCREASING the chance that you'll need to hit your brake pedal during somewhat unexpected traffic conditions where coasting isn't going to cut it.

 

[DeaneG]

...I would hazard a guess that disabling regen while on the freeway doesn't achieve much, other than INCREASING the chance that you'll need to hit your brake pedal during somewhat unexpected traffic conditions where coasting isn't going to cut it.

Many drivers seem to be constantly easing on and off the accelerator on the freeway to maintain speed. Some in this forum have even called the power/charge indicator dial a "metronome" because it is always moving back and forth. It's these people that will notice an efficiency decrease with regen turned on.

I just leave regen set to max all the time, and aim to keep that "metronome" steady when driving on the freeway.

 

[Celeras]

I just leave regen set to max all the time, and aim to keep that "metronome" steady when driving on the freeway.

Me too but mainly because I didn't like the differing levels of Regen on Smooth/Swift/Sprint when they're all set to normal. I hated that it was a completely different feel if I forgot to switch off Smooth, I think 'High' is the same for all 3.

 

[coma24]

Many drivers seem to be constantly easing on and off the accelerator on the freeway to maintain speed. Some in this forum have even called the power/charge indicator dial a "metronome" because it is always moving back and forth. It's these people that will notice an efficiency decrease with regen turned on.

I just leave regen set to max all the time, and aim to keep that "metronome" steady when driving on the freeway.

Agreed 100%. A little self-awareness and focus goes a long way towards stopping that. I've been a passenger in cars being operated like that...frequently accelerating or slowing down.