TimLee said:
Thanks Stoaty for this excellent set of guidelines and your phenomenal effort on the battery degradation model.
Unfortunately I missed this topic back in September, was very busy then.
Glad your thread was quoted in a response to a new comer question.
I was initially a bit confused by your use of the word "coast" in the thread.
But after reading through the whole thread, is clear that the word "coast" kind of has two alternatives.
"Coast" with LEAF in neutral as long as there isn't any braking needed to control speed, or "Coast" with LEAF in Eco but minimizing the use of the accelerator to hold the energy use extremely low or allowing Regenerative braking if that is needed to hold speed to what you've set in Cruise Control.
Tim the term should not be interchangeable. In Prius-speak, using no power while in gear is referred to as "deadbanding" or the desire to hit the zone where there is no measurable power being transferred to the wheels or to the battery.
in reality, this is VERY difficult and the meter only shows no power transfer due to its shortcomings. Use a meter that reads CAN BUS and you will see a constant fluctuation with changes in polarity. This can realistically never be as efficient as neutral. But then again, with practice the differences can be negligible.
+1! I challenge anyone to get higher m/kW h using 'feathering' instead of 'N'.
i for one, choose not to devote that much attention to the meter especially when a quick shift to reverse gets me to neutral.
because there is no touching of anything in the motor, shifting gears really causes no extra strain. The shifter knob is a different story but no knowledge of how long those switches are expected to last.