Gravity efficiency is low for me

[RandomDesign]

I've complained a few times recently that my efficiency dropped pretty significantly after one of the 3.5.x updates, even to the point that I asked service to look at it when I had the window regulator replaced last month. I've always used the high regen setting but on my road trip I was playing around with standard and none on different roads (especially in New Mexico/Arizona when coming down some long stretches of 6 or 7% grades downhill). I noticed I was getting much better efficiency in standard regen than my usual high.

Now that I'm home and driving my usual routes again I've been trying it out with standard regen here and my efficiency has jumped back from the 2.5 range to the 2.9-3 again. Not sure what changed or why but at least it's a bit better for now.

 

[037]

I've complained a few times recently that my efficiency dropped pretty significantly after one of the 3.5.x updates, even to the point that I asked service to look at it when I had the window regulator replaced last month. I've always used the high regen setting but on my road trip I was playing around with standard and none on different roads (especially in New Mexico/Arizona when coming down some long stretches of 6 or 7% grades downhill). I noticed I was getting much better efficiency in standard regen than my usual high.

Now that I'm home and driving my usual routes again I've been trying it out with standard regen here and my efficiency has jumped back from the 2.5 range to the 2.9-3 again. Not sure what changed or why but at least it's a bit better for now.

Did you find your self decelerating too much in high which forced you to accelerate again?

 

[RandomDesign]

Did you find your self decelerating too much in high which forced you to accelerate again?

Yes. I don't often do many downhill grades like that here in SoCal but going from Cloudcroft, NM (elev ~8500ft) to Alamogordo, NM (elev ~4000) is where I first changed it. With standard I was able coast down the mostly 6% grade easily, at the start in high I was having to keep using the accelerator to overcome the braking.

Going from Show Low, AZ to Globe, AZ on the US-60 through Salt River Canyon (an amazing and beautiful drive!) and then continuing on to Casa Grande, AZ is a very long stretch of sections of 6 and 7% grades going down. I did almost all of that on standard but turned on high and none at a few points to compare it.

As far as my driving around home I use DDPro a lot. Almost exclusively really and my efficiency doing 75 mostly had gone down to sit around 2.58 or so. Now with changing to standard regen it's back up to 2.89-2.92. I did a usual drive of mine with it set to 65 and hit 3.00, the last time I tested that I was in the 2.8s.

Definitely seems to make a difference, at least for me when using DD. Manual driving is another matter altogether as I know I will never be efficient.

A note too that I hadn't thought about before. DD always uses regen even if you have it set to none. You can see the difference on the power/regen bar above the speed. It resets to the regen bar as soon as you activate DD vs the dotted line you have when regen is off. Makes sense honestly but I hadn't really thought about that before.

 

[RandomDesign]

The two big chunks of driving on that Show Low > Casa Grande leg of the trip (the middle section is broken up a lot because I stopped to take pictures in a bunch of places) thanks to the great LucidTracker+ trips feature:

 

[RandomDesign]

This particular stretch from Carlsbad > Alamogordo includes the Cloudtop > Alamogordo section from 8600 ft down to 4000 ft that is almost all a 6% grade.

 

[raleighone]

Interesting about standard regen. I recently stripped my car of all camping equipment (except the crossbars and Yakima platform) and drove to Atlanta from NC, 4 hour drive. The car was still only showing 2.6/kwh. I've been told directly by a SC tech that "there is nothing we can do to the car to impact or improve efficiency." So, I guess all about weight, wind, speed, and stuff on my car...

 

[RandomDesign]

Interesting about standard regen. I recently stripped my car of all camping equipment (except the crossbars and Yakima platform) and drove to Atlanta from NC, 4 hour drive. The car was still only showing 2.6/kwh. I've been told directly by a SC tech that "there is nothing we can do to the car to impact or improve efficiency." So, I guess all about weight, wind, speed, and stuff on my car...

I did just over 2500 miles across 10 days from San Diego to New Mexico and back. Some of the areas we went through have no chargers so I was trying to be as efficient as possible with the charging stops I was able to do.

For now I'm going to keep it on standard regen to see how the efficiency is over time as I'm doing a lot more of my usual routes but so far it seems like an improvement.

 

[mister_caroline]

If it makes it easier to conceptualize why high regen might be surprisingly inefficient, one way to think about high regen is equating it to making hard braking available. You may already intuitively understand that hard braking is not good for efficiency.

High regen is great because it allows for effective 1PD in that it matches lift-off deceleration to service everyday traffic situations. However, every time you decelerate and reaccelerate to navigate traffic, you are incurring roundtrip energy losses, and high regen 1PD makes it way too easy to incur these losses.

You can gain efficiency by maximizing the time spent coasting by modulating the pedal between accelerate and decelerate, which takes some patience (longer following distances, less "peaky" speeding between lights) and nuanced skill (physically keeping the pedal between accelerate and decelerate).

 

[RandomDesign]

If it makes it easier to conceptualize why high regen might be surprisingly inefficient, one way to think about high regen is equating it to making hard braking available. You may already intuitively understand that hard braking is not good for efficiency.

High regen is great because it allows for effective 1PD in that it matches lift-off deceleration to service everyday traffic situations. However, every time you decelerate and reaccelerate to navigate traffic, you are incurring roundtrip energy losses, and high regen 1PD makes it way too easy to incur these losses.

You can gain efficiency by maximizing the time spent coasting by modulating the pedal between accelerate and decelerate, which takes some patience (longer following distances, less "peaky" speeding between lights) and nuanced skill (physically keeping the pedal between accelerate and decelerate).

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. I'm just not sure why, at least in my case, it changed all of a sudden and high regen seems to have started taking a much bigger hit on efficiency.

 

[mister_caroline]

One efficiency factor worth checking (if you have not already) is tire pressures. When I took delivery in Nov, tire pressures were set to 46. I have not touched them since, 9 months later they are at 39/40.

 

[RandomDesign]

One efficiency factor worth checking (if you have not already) is tire pressures. When I took delivery in Nov, tire pressures were set to 46. I have not touched them since, 9 months later they are at 39/40.

Definitely, I adjusted those too a while back when I first started seeing the efficiency drop.

 

[jasonjs]

If it makes it easier to conceptualize why high regen might be surprisingly inefficient, one way to think about high regen is equating it to making hard braking available. You may already intuitively understand that hard braking is not good for efficiency.

High regen is great because it allows for effective 1PD in that it matches lift-off deceleration to service everyday traffic situations. However, every time you decelerate and reaccelerate to navigate traffic, you are incurring roundtrip energy losses, and high regen 1PD makes it way too easy to incur these losses.

You can gain efficiency by maximizing the time spent coasting by modulating the pedal between accelerate and decelerate, which takes some patience (longer following distances, less "peaky" speeding between lights) and nuanced skill (physically keeping the pedal between accelerate and decelerate).

Indeed, I wish the Gravity had implemented blended regen+friction braking on the brake pedal and allowed a mode for "zero regen", so that I can fully coast if I take my foot off the gas but still recapture energy when using the brake pedal. But I understand they wanted a specific consistent feel for the brake pedal itself and getting the transition from regen to friction braking feeling just right can be tricky.