Wow, some fun stuff in here - but to stay on track, I see a couple points of confusion common among newer owners:
acensor said:
Wait, wait..
Is that "stock noise" you're talking about the standard synthentic sound it makes when cruizing under 22mph that you're talking about?
If so, I'm probably going to go into my dealer and ask him to turn it off.
No, it wasn't, and no, you're not. Don was referring to the noise made by the
turn signal indicator, not the AVAS, a federally mandated safety feature which you'd be well advised not to tamper with. On the rare occasions that you can even hear it while driving, if you find it irritating perhaps you can soothe your nerves by reminding yourself of the potentially nasty liabilities that could be faced by a driver who bumps into an unwary pedestrian while piloting an EV with an illegally disabled AVAS.
acensor said:
randy3 said:
-- some LEAF drivers put the car into N while driving. ... just move the joystick (or mouse) to R while moving forward. The car will automatically go to N so you can coast. You can get some improvement in miles per kwh using this method.
So, can we do this in the i ?
Don't see why not, Why don't you just try it.
Not sure you'd gain anything at all let alone anything of significance ... and on a long slope of anything other than the very slightest steepness you'd actually lose out as you would lose the regenerative power normally gained back when going downhill.
Perhaps the Leaf drivers doing this are carrying over from ICE driving a technique (variously known as "Georga overdrive" or "Mexican overdrive"
) which can be very significant on long downhills on ICE , but when it's applied to EV driving is useless or even counterproductive?
Alex
Where to begin? In order:
1. I say this only from an abundance of caution, just in case anyone reading misunderstood - you would definitely NOT put the car into R while moving forward, and I'm sure that's not what randy3 was suggesting. The i-MiEV has a much more conventional gear selector than the Leaf, so there's a good old-fashioned N on the selector.
2. You can certainly move the selector to N while in motion, I've done it often, with the intended "free wheel" coasting effect.
3. What you would gain is
range. There are several threads where this has been discussed at length, but the bottom line is that when seeking to maximize range, all things being equal, coasting is best, regen is bad, and friction braking is maximum evil. If what you want to do is slow down quickly, then by all means regen is the best way to do it. But if you're headed down a slight downgrade and don't have to deal with traffic (I have a small segment like this on my daily commute), then true free wheel coasting is NOT useless, and most definitely NOT counterproductive.
Folks new to the concept get all excited about regen, but miss a key point - regen ain't free (Toyota has run some moronic Prius commercials over the years that increased confusion on this). You always lose more in kinetic energy than you gain in charge. Now, when you're nearing the end of that downgrade and approaching an intersection or other stop, you absolutely should put the car in "gear" before applying brakes, or yes, you'll only be using friction brakes, which would be hugely wasteful. Ideally, you want to "coast" in gear toward the stop, preferably in 'E' (the coasting regen in 'D' is pretty modest and probably won't stop you soon enough), or perhaps 'B' if you've waited too late, since you know the tranny's deceleration is pure regen, and only use the brake pedal near the end for the full stop. Lest I generate different confusion, yes of course the brakes start as regen and only apply friction braking with more travel/pressure, but there's really no feedback on that, so it's a little hard to gauge. And to the other question that might arise on that scenario, I say preferably in 'E' because shifting down to 'B' could slow you down too quickly (and having to feather the accelerator at that point may defeat the whole effort), and at first could slam the battery with enough current to hurt.
And again, the main caveat to all this - be mindful of surrounding traffic. Hypermiling is all well and good, but not at the expense of safety or consideration for other travelers.
