wlegro
Active member
I see people here talking about coasting instead of braking to recharge the battery, and people talking about braking instead of coasting to recharge the battery. The way I understand it, regenerative braking occurs when you're coasting while slowing down, like before you have to come to a stop, or going downhill; or it occurs when you're actually stepping on the brake. What I don't get is if one form of regen braking is better for recharging than the other.
And I often read here about avoiding regen braking whenever possible, and I don't understand why you'd want to do that if you want to increase range.
We're averaging only 3.5m/kwh (to me it's "only") in Los Angeles street traffic, all stop and go, no timed signals unless it's by serendipity, so it's just about impossible to drive more than 2-3 blocks without having to come to a complete stop. We're always in Eco. We almost never charge to more than 80-85% and never let it drop to less than 30%. Very little hill driving, no heat/almost never AC (at this time of year). On Carwings we get good marks on regen braking and accessories, not so good on the other scores. We accelerate slowly and gradually. I'm guessing whether we zig-zag through town on side streets to avoid traffic messes is no better or worse than just staying on the miles-long, straight stretches of Wilshire or Beverly Blvds., for example, and stopping and going every 2-3 blocks, because the zig-zagging involves turning into and then accelerating out of a corner.
To recharge the battery more, should we coast as long as possible while slowing for a stop before hitting the brakes? (this is an art, I've discovered, because Eco slows you down so fast that you actually might never even make it to the stop without having to tap the accelerator a bit). Or should we use the brake pedal for as long as we can while coming to a stop? Currently I'm going back and forth on this.
As things stand now, we can leave the house with a predicted 80-mile range, make a 20-mile roundtrip, and get home with a 40-mile predicted range. If possible, I'd like to be able to get home with 60 miles left. Or is that delusional? And I should be happy to be getting 3.5m/kwh?
Another question while I'm at it: From looking at my Carwings data, I'm estimating that the ratio of home charging to regen charging is about 2-2.5:1. Does that sound right? I'm going by the ratio of energy consumed by the traction motor to energy captured by regen braking. The other day, for example, it was 456:186, or about 2.5-1 (much worse if we go on the freeway unless it's slow-and-go). But I'm no techie, no math whiz, no electrical engineer, and frankly a lot of the talk I read here goes zooming right over my little bitty writer's head.
And I often read here about avoiding regen braking whenever possible, and I don't understand why you'd want to do that if you want to increase range.
We're averaging only 3.5m/kwh (to me it's "only") in Los Angeles street traffic, all stop and go, no timed signals unless it's by serendipity, so it's just about impossible to drive more than 2-3 blocks without having to come to a complete stop. We're always in Eco. We almost never charge to more than 80-85% and never let it drop to less than 30%. Very little hill driving, no heat/almost never AC (at this time of year). On Carwings we get good marks on regen braking and accessories, not so good on the other scores. We accelerate slowly and gradually. I'm guessing whether we zig-zag through town on side streets to avoid traffic messes is no better or worse than just staying on the miles-long, straight stretches of Wilshire or Beverly Blvds., for example, and stopping and going every 2-3 blocks, because the zig-zagging involves turning into and then accelerating out of a corner.
To recharge the battery more, should we coast as long as possible while slowing for a stop before hitting the brakes? (this is an art, I've discovered, because Eco slows you down so fast that you actually might never even make it to the stop without having to tap the accelerator a bit). Or should we use the brake pedal for as long as we can while coming to a stop? Currently I'm going back and forth on this.
As things stand now, we can leave the house with a predicted 80-mile range, make a 20-mile roundtrip, and get home with a 40-mile predicted range. If possible, I'd like to be able to get home with 60 miles left. Or is that delusional? And I should be happy to be getting 3.5m/kwh?
Another question while I'm at it: From looking at my Carwings data, I'm estimating that the ratio of home charging to regen charging is about 2-2.5:1. Does that sound right? I'm going by the ratio of energy consumed by the traction motor to energy captured by regen braking. The other day, for example, it was 456:186, or about 2.5-1 (much worse if we go on the freeway unless it's slow-and-go). But I'm no techie, no math whiz, no electrical engineer, and frankly a lot of the talk I read here goes zooming right over my little bitty writer's head.