Comfort vs Eco Pro 0-60?

[BLINGMW]

I prefer the Eco Pro pedal feel, and it *seems* like foot to the floor gives the same action in either mode. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[eNate]

I believe you're correct, that pushing it to the firewall basically cancels out the constrained Eco acceleration mapping and gives'er all she got. Never timed it though.

 

[BLINGMW]

I feel pretty confident we're right. I just did 8 runs on the country road near my house, battery 60-65% during the test, outdoor temp at 45 but car had been through it's normal morning warmup and I'd driven for 40 min, tires were up to temp, it was happy. Full "throttle" was giving me repeatable results, traction control was "off"/dynamic mode, climate control off. Not very accurate, but I'd start from a stop at painted line and read the speedo (which lags, and is rounding) when the next mailbox crossed my a-pillar, coast on down the road and come back for another run.

Eco Pro
58 run1 (I may have lined up a little different on the first run)
61 run2
63 run5
61 run6

Comfort
62 run3
61 run4
61 run7
62 run8

 

[eNate]

Just like Mike Tyson famously said, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth," I think everyone plans to drive conservatively until they punch the pedal to the CFRP (whether our of necessity, impatience, or raw lack of restraint, who am I to judge?).

 

[BLINGMW]

....punch the pedal to the CFRP....

Because that's the normal way to drive it! :lol:

 

[SSi3]

The SPORT mode in an i3s is even more fun when you mash the pedal to the CFRP

 

[BLINGMW]

The SPORT mode in an i3s is even more fun when you mash the pedal to the CFRP

Well sure, it's 5% more fasterer. But Sport or Comfort or Eco Pro on the same car is the same at full throttle.

 

[donfede]

Hello (lurker several months, 2019 BEV),

Great question and thanks for sharing the informative test results.

If I understand correctly, the ~61 values listed above were the speeds indicated in the speedometer when passing a fixed point/mailbox. However I wonder if that's only measuring speed and distance, but not total time. We're relatively new i3 drivers, and the Eco Pro mode may have a brief delay before kicking into the same power curve.

Would be interesting to see results If a second person (or possibly some app) could measure time to reach the fixed point/mailbox in addition to speed.

 

[Arm]

The Sport mode in the i3s makes a substantial difference when rolling. There is a considerable difference between modes once the car is on the go. Not from the start. I can easily jump ahead just from the fact that Sport mode responds so quickly.

 

[BLINGMW]

Hello (lurker several months, 2019 BEV),

Great question and thanks for sharing the informative test results.

If I understand correctly, the ~61 values listed above were the speeds indicated in the speedometer when passing a fixed point/mailbox. However I wonder if that's only measuring speed and distance, but not total time. We're relatively new i3 drivers, and the Eco Pro mode may have a brief delay before kicking into the same power curve.

Would be interesting to see results If a second person (or possibly some app) could measure time to reach the fixed point/mailbox in addition to speed.

Yes those are speeds in MPH. And while measuring time would be helpful, I *think* I can assume that if there was a delay, or the car was slower 0-10, then it wouldn't have caught up in the same distance, and would be going slower by the end. I'd be happy to repeat it with people and stopwatches, come on down!

 

[BLINGMW]

The Sport mode in the i3s makes a substantial difference when rolling. There is a considerable difference between modes once the car is on the go. Not from the start. I can easily jump ahead just from the fact that Sport mode responds so quickly.

So I understand the s shows more than 5% at say 60mph. But I bet that if you put it in Comfort, or Eco Pro, or Sport, and floor it at 60mph, the car will accelerate the same. There might be more lag at anything less than full throttle, and in Sport moving your foot a small distance does more, but it's just a difference in feeling, not in max acceleration. (Would need some real timing equipment or G force data logger to test this, not mailboxes :lol: )

 

[SSi3]

Not correct, the SPORT mode in an i3s provides a brief (10-15secs i believe) of extra power, like overboost in a turbo car. Passing power on a rural road is very noticeably stronger in Sport mode vs Comfort/EP.

 

[eNate]

And this is a mode that can be enabled on non-S models. I don't have any first-hand experience with it, but the guy who bought my 2017 enabled it and says it's a hoot.

 

[BLINGMW]

Not correct, the SPORT mode in an i3s provides a brief (10-15secs i believe) of extra power, like overboost in a turbo car. Passing power on a rural road is very noticeably stronger in Sport mode vs Comfort/EP.

I'll just have to take your word for it, everything I've read says it makes the steering stiffer and further sharpens the throttle response.

 

[Arm]

The Sport mode in the i3s makes a substantial difference when rolling. There is a considerable difference between modes once the car is on the go. Not from the start. I can easily jump ahead just from the fact that Sport mode responds so quickly.

So I understand the s shows more than 5% at say 60mph. But I bet that if you put it in Comfort, or Eco Pro, or Sport, and floor it at 60mph, the car will accelerate the same. There might be more lag at anything less than full throttle, and in Sport moving your foot a small distance does more, but it's just a difference in feeling, not in max acceleration. (Would need some real timing equipment or G force data logger to test this, not mailboxes :lol: )

There is no difference in acceleration if you full throttle. I imagine that due to liability issues, automakers will not prevent you from using full throttle in case you need to use it. What I'm saying is the throttle response on the S in Sport mode is vastly sharper and produces quicker reaction hence will jump ahead of a car that is in other modes. Once full throttle is applied, the power level applied is the same regardless of mode. It's not a difference in feeling up to that point...you are essentially going to react more quickly and apply more power per distance of pedal applied up to full throttle.

 

[Arm]

Not correct, the SPORT mode in an i3s provides a brief (10-15secs i believe) of extra power, like overboost in a turbo car. Passing power on a rural road is very noticeably stronger in Sport mode vs Comfort/EP.

As far as I know, there is no boost of power....it's the mapping of the power that makes a difference. Essentially you are accessing the vehicle's torque and power earlier on hence the producing a quicker acceleration given a particular throttle position.

However, if you are starting off the line in side by side S vehicles and one is on Eco and one is on Sport and you smash the throttle, other than a split second of quicker reaction time due to the S mode throttle mapping, the acceleration and power at full throttle will be the same.

But in every day situations where you need to overtake, zip in and out of traffic, etc. Sport mode makes a VAST difference in driveability.

 

[eNate]

There's a lot of contrary info out there on the differences between the two, and I think BMW purposely muddied the waters in the i3S press announcements talking about new bearing technology (which undoubtedly got passed down to all 2018+ i3 cars since there is no i3S motor or i3S gearbox. But there's no hiding that the i3S is 0.5 s faster 0 to 60 than the base i3, and that's got to come from somewhere.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/03/29/what-is-the-difference-between-the-bmw-i3-and-the-i3s/

"To gain more horsepower, BMW changed the programming of the regular i3 motor and was able to have it make 11 more horsepower and 15 lb-ft more of torque. The BMW i3s also has a higher top speed of 99 mph compared to 93 mph."

 

[Arm]

There's a lot of contrary info out there on the differences between the two, and I think BMW purposely muddied the waters in the i3S press announcements talking about new bearing technology (which undoubtedly got passed down to all 2018+ i3 cars since there is no i3S motor or i3S gearbox. But there's no hiding that the i3S is 0.5 s faster 0 to 60 than the base i3, and that's got to come from somewhere.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/03/29/what-is-the-difference-between-the-bmw-i3-and-the-i3s/

"To gain more horsepower, BMW changed the programming of the regular i3 motor and was able to have it make 11 more horsepower and 15 lb-ft more of torque. The BMW i3s also has a higher top speed of 99 mph compared to 93 mph."

I don't think that's the issue. We know the i3s has more power than the regular i3 and hence better performance. I think the different modes are what are in question and whether they affect performance.

 

[BLINGMW]

But in every day situations where you need to overtake, zip in and out of traffic, etc. Sport mode makes a VAST difference in driveability.

Thanks for validating what I expected the theoretical drag race would look like! But on this part, why a "vast" difference in driveability? You just have to put your foot at a different angle to get the same response. Drive around in any mode for a week and you'll probably get used to it, no? Now that I've got mine booting up in Eco Pro, I intend to autocross it that way because it makes better use of the full range of the pedal.

 

[eNate]

Thanks for validating what I expected the theoretical drag race would look like! But on this part, why a "vast" difference in driveability?

In essence, yes -- it's BMW intelligently conducting psychological warfare against our brains and feet in a convincing way to make our i3s feel slow. We respond accordingly -- at least, it works on me! Besides the throttle position remapping, there's probably also a flattened out acceleration curve that only gets overridden after the pedal passes a certain point. And of course the reduced HVAC.