Eco vs. Normal

Does Eco really give you that many more miles if i don't really have a heavy foot on the gas? I notice driving without eco, i get to where i'm going a bit faster and the regenerative charging green buttons increase more when my foot is off the accelerator. Is this true? Is it better to drive ECO on freeways and Normal driving on streets? I'm confused.

Thanks

George

ECO only does 3 things:
1) change the power curve of the accelerator pedal, so you need to push it further to get the same effect as you do without ECO. Its not less power at WOT, its just less touchy, so you can more easily control the power.
2) ECO mode INCREASES the amount of REGEN, when compared to DRIVE. The car will slow down much faster when you let your foot off the gas in ECO than in DRIVE.
3) ECO reduces the A/C power, limiting it to no more than 1.5kW draw, if I recall.
So, basically, if most of your driving is on the highway, steady speed, not much braking, you won't see much difference in range with ECO.

if you really want to increase your range, learn to use neutral instead.

use neutral when you want to maintain speed or greatly reduce your coast down rate approaching lights.

use neutral to gain or maintain speeds on downslopes.

now, neutral requires you to know your route. There were a few spots in my area that had enough slope for me to coast that I was not aware of. the LEAF rolls very well so it does not need a lot.

a few things to consider;

regen is not 100% efficient and does add to the "cycling" of your battery which is one ingredient of degradation

brakes should never be used unless absolutely necessary. use your max regen mode instead.

artope said:

Does Eco really give you that many more miles if i don't really have a heavy foot on the gas? I notice driving without eco, i get to where i'm going a bit faster and the regenerative charging green buttons increase more when my foot is off the accelerator. Is this true? Is it better to drive ECO on freeways and Normal driving on streets? I'm confused.

Thanks

George

Click to expand...

Basic answer in terms of efficiency - the more lead-footed and heedless of efficiency you are, the better off you are with Eco. Hypermilers can do slightly better in D. So it depends on your driving style, and conditions (terrain).

There are other reasons to use Eco mode. For me, the throttle-mapping in Eco feels much better and easier to control. To me this is normally far more important than the efficiency issue. I can hypermile if necessary, regardless of the setting. I can also have 100% power any time I want, by pushing the pedal down. The car is not "faster" in D mode, despite peoples' butt-dyno conclusions.

Eco also puts limits on power consumption for climate control. So about the only time I turn it off is when I need a fast warm-up or cool-down of the cabin. And, VERY RARELY, I'll use D if I am trying to squeeze every watt-hour for all it's worth.

Also, don't know what model year you have. In newer ones, the regeneration effect is separated from the Eco mode and now controlled with "B-mode". I like higher regen because it makes for better one-pedal driving. So basically my normal setting is B-Eco.

keydiver said:

...2) ECO mode INCREASES the amount of REGEN, when compared to DRIVE. The car will slow down much faster when you let your foot off the gas in ECO than in DRIVE...

Click to expand...

This is not true with newer LEAFs that have B mode, I believe. B mode allows the higher regen to be used with D or Eco.

[The OP has "green buttons" regen, so I'm guessing he has a new LEAF with B mode.]

Nubo said:

Basic answer in terms of efficiency - the more lead-footed and heedless of efficiency you are, the better off you are with Eco. Hypermilers can do slightly better in D. So it depends on your driving style, and conditions (terrain).

There are other reasons to use Eco mode. For me, the throttle-mapping in Eco feels much better and easier to control. To me this is normally far more important than the efficiency issue. I can hypermile if necessary, regardless of the setting. I can also have 100% power any time I want, by pushing the pedal down. The car is not "faster" in D mode, despite peoples' butt-dyno conclusions.

Eco also puts limits on power consumption for climate control. So about the only time I turn it off is when I need a fast warm-up or cool-down of the cabin. And, VERY RARELY, I'll use D if I am trying to squeeze every watt-hour for all it's worth...

Click to expand...

Much the same for me. I do use D when on cruise control because the highway undulates and D uses less regen braking on the downgrade portions. (For the OP: regen is inefficient and a waste unless one needs to slow down quickly, coasting is usually more efficient, where safe to do so.)

Also, when going downhill on varying grades I shift between D and Eco to adjust my speed by adjusting regen braking (foot off the accelerator). [On the LEAFs with B mode I suppose that would be the same as turning it on or off and leaving the car in Eco; that would be nice.]

Thanks guys this is very helpful as i just purchased a 2015 Leaf. I will test out options

dgpcolorado said:

keydiver said:

...2) ECO mode INCREASES the amount of REGEN, when compared to DRIVE. The car will slow down much faster when you let your foot off the gas in ECO than in DRIVE...

Click to expand...

This is not true with newer LEAFs that have B mode, I believe. B mode allows the higher regen to be used with D or Eco.

[The OP has "green buttons" regen, so I'm guessing he has a new LEAF with B mode.]

Click to expand...

Eco increases the amount of Regen over Normal Mode. B mode increases it further. I'm not sure that B mode selected with Eco provides any more regen than B mode with Normal (Drive) mode, though...

LeftieBiker said:

I'm not sure that B mode selected with Eco provides any more regen than B mode with Normal (Drive) mode, though...

Click to expand...

My experience is that B mode only controls amount of regen so it would feel same when slowing down.

For me, to make it simple, B or D mode controls amount of regen. B has more regen than D. Eco controls amount of acceleration.

So I come up with this table..

With B, D, B+Echo and D+Echo, we have 4 modes of combination for driving.

B - Max. acceleration, Max. Regen.
D - Max. acceleration, Min. Regen.
B+Echo - Min. acceleration, Max Regen.
D+Echo - Min. acceleration, Min. Regen.

LightningLeaf said:

...For me, to make it simple, B or D mode controls amount of regen. B has more regen than D. Eco controls amount of acceleration...

Click to expand...

As Nubo and others have said, here and elsewhere, D does NOT have more acceleration than Eco. It just changes the power mapping of the accelerator pedal. If you floor the pedal you will get maximum acceleration in Eco, just as with D.

In Eco mode the accelerator is power-mapped: if you hold the pedal in a constant position you will get the same power, whether 25 kW, 10 kW, zero kW (the equivalent of neutral), or negative kW (regen)*.

In D mode the accelerator seems to be acceleration mapped: if you hold the accelerator in a fixed position while accelerating it will continue to accelerate (within limits), meaning that the power will be increasing. This is very different from the power mapping in Eco. The mapping in D is more aggressive and gives a peppy feel but makes it harder to drive efficiently (very gentle acceleration, coasting or gentle deceleration, followed by braking).

Aggressive acceleration is much less efficient than gentle acceleration and that is more likely to happen in D than Eco, due to the pedal mapping. It is also easier to exceed the optimum speed in D (because of the acceleration mapping) and speed kills efficiency and range. It is possible to drive efficiently in D, it is just much more difficult and less likely to happen, except under special conditions.


* In the S model it is harder to tell that Eco is power-mapped but in the SV/SL models one can put up the energy screen and see quite clearly what I am talking about.

I'll only say it once more: Eco mode increases the amount of regen, compared to D mode. B mode provides maximum regen: more than both D and Eco.