Regen Advice

[robertb]

As a former Zoe owner with no control over regen settings, what do you folks have your regen settings at for both Town / City driving and Motorway driving?
I'm interested in what your set the car to in order to recoup the most energy.
Thanks in advance

 

[drmcw]

Whatever's the most comfortable for you. I like the default of 2 but for efficiency then the lower the better; regen is more efficient than braking but avoiding regen is even better efficiency wise.

 

[jackois]

I just leave it in default unless I'm on a motorway journey (and I remember!) I have it on the weakest setting.
It's one of those things that need to be set at the start of every journey and I tend to forget it's there...

 

[Jomarkh]

I put mine in Eco and kers3 all the time as I like the almost one pedal driving, you just need to control your foot a bit more.

 

[CuriousIslander]

I put mine in Eco and kers3 all the time as I like the almost one pedal driving, you just need to control your foot a bit more.

Ditto - but then 90% of my driving is local, semi-urban so lots of relatively low-speed stop start journeys. On the rare occasions I do a longer (mainland) trip I also leave it on Eco Kers 3, but I do notice that the overall consumption goes up a bit (ie slightly lower overall range) compared to local driving. Perhaps I should try Kers 1 on longer journeys and see what happens.

 

[Gomev]

I'm a constant fiddler. Not sure if it makes any difference but it 'feels' like I have some input. Around town start/stop stuff generally regen 3. However it is quite hilly around here with hills of differing gradients. On long gentlish downhills, slip into regen 1 and coast down all the way. Some say you can achieve the same with careful right foot action, which on steeper slopes is easy but on these slopes I find simplest best regen 1 foot off throttle.
Motorways/fast roads regen 1, occasionally 2 to avoid harsh slowing and then having to accelerate back up to speed using even more power.

 

[5teep]

Default here too. Sport eats power and eco seems to make little difference. Kers 3 is too aggressive, I find I use more power regaining speed than I save with it.

 

[smokie]

If I remember I put it into 3 around town. But given that actual braking also puts energy back into your battery I wonder whether there really is much difference?

I'm guessing of more interest is accelerating - is the fact that harsh acceleration uses more electrons than gentle a fair assumption? Or is it like boiling a kettle - i.e. it takes X kWh to raise a temperate (speed?) by Y amount? I think not, I believe more gentle acceleration is considerably more economic.

And of course there is component economy -[ constantly screaming away from the lights will wear your tyres more quickly, as would always screeching to a halt with late braking.

 

[Tommy]

I put mine in Eco and kers3 all the time as I like the almost one pedal driving, you just need to control your foot a bit more.

Yep, me too. ECO and KERS 3 every time I get in, it's an automatic thing I do now without even thinking. Gives me 4 miles per kWh on my daily commute

 

[rogerco]

The only time not to use kers3 is when the roads are icy or very slippery. If loss of traction is detected with only kers active and no physical braking it knocks off kers causing an acceleration - a bit alarming!!
At all other times there is no point in not having full regen available (kers3), otherwise you are just generating heat in the discs when you could be getting some charge back. If you always drive in kers3 you soon get used to the different response on the pedal.