Sweet spot for consumption…

[Diggsy]

Finally found the sweet spot for consumption in my MG4…Sport mode with Adaptive Regen.

Regardless of the type of roads driven - town, B roads, A roads and motorways that combo delivers by far the best returns for me. Easily getting over 4m/kwh in most situations (with the better weather of course), and not far off that on motorways at an average speed of 70 or very close to it.

I find I don’t need to try to drive economically in order to see good returns with that combo.

I always have the AC on, set to either 23, 24, 25 or 26 on Auto, depending on the ambient temperature.

What has everyone else found to be their particular sweet spot?

 

[webhiker]

I agree, pretty impressive and I'm impressed that it's with Sport mode.
Converted, I get about 14-17kWh/100km in Normal mode and Regen 3, this time of year.
For reference, your figures is about 15,625 kWh/100km

 

[Diggsy]

I agree, pretty impressive and I'm impressed that it's with Sport mode.
Converted, I get about 14-17kWh/100km in Normal mode and Regen 3, this time of year.
For reference, your figures is about 15,625 kWh/100km

I was somewhat surprised that Sport mode was the best to be honest. Plus side is the car feels so much nicer to drive in that mode.

Wondering if perhaps it’s a result of the car using less energy to get up to a particular speed, as it can do so quicker, and with the Adaptive regen it can retain that speed with less effort too…

 

[Rolfe]

I need to try that. I was beginning to wonder about my battery SoH, even though my dealer (whom I do not trust) said it was 100% at the one-year service. Or maybe because they said that, because I would have expected some degradation. We're into summer and while last summer I was seeing 200 miles+ fairly regularly on a 100% charge, I've been lucky to see 180 miles this year. Yes I do drive a bit quick, but that was the same last year.

But then the temperatures have been poor for summer. I've been driving around in 14 degrees a lot of the time, whereas last summer there was a lot of 20+ going on. So there's that. But then last week I decided to ease off a bit. I had a total of about 160 miles to do over two days, and I didn't want to charge overnight. (Still on this OCD kick to use as much solar as possible until the bastards at Scottish Power finally give me the paperwork to get my export tariff.) So, to make sure I had enough not to be a concern on the Friday, I did the Thursday evening 195 mile run with a relatively light right foot. Got to my destination on 79% charge, as opposed to a regular 75% every time I did it last year. Got home on 55% and 107 miles range (as opposed to, usually, 47-48%), so that was absolutely fine. Ended up with a whole 23% left after the three trips.

Recharged, and the app then showed 204 miles range. That's looking better. Went to the supermarket yesterday (about 30 miles round trip) and recharged again to use these sunbeams, and now showing 206 miles. I think temperature has as much to do with it as my driving, because to be honest I didn't calm it down that much - I still had the ACC set to 70 on the motorway. But the ambient temperature is up at 19-20 degrees this week.

Sport mode, adaptive regen. I think @siteguru said the same thing at one point, talking about motorway driving. Though maybe regen 1 is better on the motorway, where I tend to use ACC a lot. I have to do a 35-mile round trip tomorrow to take a couple of old ladies for their hospital appointments (I volunteer as a driver for a village lifts-to-medical-appointments scheme) so I won't be gunning it anyway, but I'll see how it does.

 

[Vaasref]

What I would really like is to get (mod I guess) a neutral/clutch/freewheel momentary button.

I haven checked the efficiency of adaptive regen yet, and don't bother changing from the default Normal mode + Level 3 regen.


I like heavy regen without going to one pedal (as I charge my SR to 100%) but it always bother me that the car doesn't coast at all and it is pretty much impossible for me to keep at 0% power use.

So lately when I got up a mountain and back, when the road is not too windy (more than 5 seconds between turns I would say) I have been using the ger select knob to "declutch" putting the car in neutral to accelerate and use the Drive Level 3 regen to decelerate before turns.

On a 14km trip with the way up being +566m and -125m, I don't even look at the efficiency as it is well past 23kWh/100km. Plus starting at 100% mind you, so a big part of the down slope are with practically no regen.
But on the return trip, I can go in the negative until the last 2 km.
The difficulty to go in the negative on slow trips (even more at night) is the baseline power usage is significant so you need to still be fast enough to not have that baseload eat up all the regen you do on the bends. With a momentary button to free wheel instead of using the knob, I'm sure I would feel comfortable using on more twisty roads as I wouldn't need to leave myself a margin to fumble and still have time brake and waste the energy as the knob is not the most reliable control for a moving car.

Here is a picture taken right after the 5.7km 287m down stretch of road where I can unclutch and go in the negative (before that the constant acceleration and regen is good but stays positive), before the last 2.2km after which the last 2 pictures are taken :

Spoiler

A speed limiter mode for the governor would also work well, speed limiter + no auto regen would probably works well too, but the regen and brakes are well blended so to never waste energy one would need to ride the brake pedal carefully enough to not engage it.


Having and driving an electric car makes me think that economy measurement should not be output based but input based. What good does it do if drivers waste the efficiency of a car that could be efficient ? I would love it if on Eco mode my car could remove all the guesswork and skill to squeeze all the efficiency out of it. It might just drive the innovation toward the improving the speed governor/limiter side from the "how to optimize and screw with that particular test" side.

 

[Steve Kaye]

I agree, pretty impressive and I'm impressed that it's with Sport mode.
Converted, I get about 14-17kWh/100km in Normal mode and Regen 3, this time of year.
For reference, your figures is about 15,625 kWh/100km

I use eco mode, regen 3.
Life to date ( 18000 km) I've used 15 kWh per 100 km.

 

[Diggsy]

Thank you all for your input.

The adaptive regen almost allows for some freewheeling, so doesn’t feel like you always have to accelerate slightly. Not all the time, but only needs the slightest amount of acceleration to keep moving on flat and slightly downhill roads, and if the gradient is enough, it doesn’t need anything, will pretty much coast and regenerate some energy too.

Whether it’s merely the better summer temperatures helping overall I can’t say for certain, but the car feels nicer to drive and I don’t have to try to drive slower in order to get decent returns from it, which is the main reason that combo suits me, as I don’t like crawling around or not using AC to save energy.

I haven’t tried using ACC on the motorway with it, so can’t comment on what effect that has on the figures, although I suspect they would be a little lower.

 

[decrep]

I haven’t tried using ACC on the motorway with it, so can’t comment on what effect that has on the figures, although I suspect they would be a little lower.

From my brief experiment with ACC, I suspect it would be higher, slows and accelerates markedly.
Basically in my car possibly with old firmware, It leaves it much too late to slow.
If I was in control, I'd be slowing earlier and accelerating slower.

 

[Rolfe]

Back to really cool temperatures again. I don't think I'm going to stay in that sweet 200+ miles spot, somehow.

 

[NLMGSAN]

My ER does not need sports mode to be quick enough. Over the last 7 months an 14k km, the average consumption is 15.8 kWh/100 km.
I do not get above 100kmh very often because of daytime speed limits and lots of traffic.
Settings:
-Mostly OPD, although on highways I now tend to turn it off and change to adaptive for slightly smoother ACC.

• Brakes and steering in sports mode, motor in eco
• A/C automatically in Eco mode, though started this just this month after tips in this forum. It definitively takes the overshoot effect away and it still works properly quick. Also, I do not feel like I have to set a difference of 5 degrees anymore. It basically 'cured' the airco disease'.

-ACC is on, but I agree with Decrep it is not adaptive enough. It fails to drop some speed when I would do it to prevent harsh braking. And it forgets to accelate when it is possible (delay about 2 seconds). Moreover, in medium crowded highways the miminum distance is too long to allow for smooth overtaking. Trying to live with ACC. Just for convenience, not for energy saving. I do a better job myself but it isn't earth shattering....