Newbie questions

[kin]

Hi all,
I recently took a test drive in the i3, I was well impressed, so impressed that I am actually seriously considering it as my main family car, as I spend probably 99% of my driving within the Greater Manchester area!

One question I wanted to ask though, I noticed the regeneration was very strong that the car would stop itself.
On my way back from work, I have a mile downhill run, if I just lift off my throttle, would the car keep on rolling downhill while regenerating, or would it come to a halt?

Appreciate any advise or suggestions.

 

[Stevei3]

Hi,

I've experimented on a 10% slope. The car did come to a complete stop on regen alone from ~50 km/h when releasing the throttle.
Keep in mind that the regen is speed dependent. So if you go faster, the braking/regen effect is less. It could be that a some point, your speed is high enough and the slope steep enough to trump the regen braking effect.

Steven

 

[kin]

Thank you Steve, I thought that might be the case, guess the hill would have to have a steep gradient before it could overcome its regen effect.
Shame they don't have another mode for less severe regen, so it enables the car to roll downhill while regenerating, I previously had a Prius, going down the same hill, it managed to charged the battery one bar up.

 

[amateurish]

Just to clarify, you can modulate the level of regen using the accelerator. So it is perfectly possible to maintain speed on a downhill slope and still be regenerating.

 

[RJSATLBA]

I have a similar situation, the last mile or so of my usual journey home is downhill, I guess that if left in top gear on overrun my current ICE car would work up to about 50mph but that's hypothetical because it becomes a 30mph limit half way down.

I'm assuming that in the i3 at a power setting that maintains my speed, I will be on regen rather than power as that position will have to be lower than the 'coasting' point to stop me from gaining speed.

Won't that be the same as the Prius in effect except that instead of it being 'foot off' you will have the accelerator slightly depressed to moderate the regen braking?

 

[Stevei3]

Won't that be the same as the Prius in effect except that instead of it being 'foot off' you will have the accelerator slightly depressed to moderate the regen braking?

and @ amateurish as well: yep, that's right. You just back off the throttle until the desired regen effect is reached. This works very 'naturaly' in practice (for me at least).
Or one could use the cruise control, it goes down to 30 km/h

Steven

 

[fdl1409]

Cruise control is a very good idea, thanx Steven! You can do that with your foot alone, but cruise control is more comfortable if that downhill road goes for a longer distance. Will keep that in mind and try when I get my i3 in early June. Have a lot of rather steep mountains here.

Frank
Germany