Driving Modes and Impact on Battery

For me it’s just a bit more relaxed when I click the cruise control cancel button, and I can fully release the accelerator at 70-80 and have a bit of a coast. I guess I would describe it as being in 5th gear vs 3rd gear in a MT vehicle.


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I get it. I don’t do it, but I get it.

ETA: I am now much more conscious of pedal position when I will need to disengage the cruise control, but the first couple of times, I was still in the old “fifth gear” paradigm when I disengaged cruise — and the car basically wanted me to pull over onto the shoulder! Lol

 

That’s why I’ve started using the low regen setting for “mindless” highway driving. I don’t have to be quite as on point for those times when the active cruise control just isn’t cutting it and I have to take control. I’m normally pretty good whatever the regen setting, but the low setting reduces the chances of dropping out of warp like the Millennium Falcon!


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Hehehe yeah that’s the correct analogy.

 

If you come with three pedal driving experience, then engine braking and throttle control is second nature. It's sort of feels like being permanently in first gear due to the permanent magnets in the motors (no true coasting). This may be less of an issue with BMW's 5th generation current-excited synchronous motor in the i4 and iX.

Perhaps those who are accustomed to automatic transmission coasting would certainly find it counter-intuitive to blend in throttle inputs.

 

I see what you’re saying, and I definitely appreciate the more MT driving experience when I’m throwing it around corners, but fuel economy was not the only reason I didn’t drive my MT cars on the highway in 3rd gear as I don’t need that level of throttle/engine braking response when cruising. To each his own.

Edit: I should add that I drive this thing about 30 min daily on I 91 and Rt 9 daily, so I just “upshift” on the on-ramp and “downshift” on the off-ramp.

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I guess each driver has their own unique technique. I almost always drive in Green+ and always in high regen. And I find I only need to use the brake pedal for aggressive stopping. It took me about three blocks to get used to doing this. There's very little movement in the accelerator.

 

And in a temperate climate, I suppose, with Green+? That would not work for me in SC...too hot and humid.

 

For me it's sport mode or bust.

 

I, for one, would welcome a forklift-style pedal:
Depress the toe = forward
Foot off the pedal = it centers and is Neutral
Depress the heel = regen brake

You could even go totally forklift and have that pedal be the forward and reverse, with degrees of regen and braking included, but that might be a little varsity for the unwashed masses.

Finally, the dream would be to have a single joystick that has not only fore-aft directional control, but also left-right steering. If you've ever driven a Cat skid-steer, you know how nice having all the movement controls in one hand is.

 

Best of climate - not too cold (-20F is about as low as it gets) and not too hot (I don't think we broke 100F this summer).
Actually, I cheat a bit in the winter - I use the heated steering about five minutes so I can touch the wheel, and the heated seats on high for about ten minutes. In the summer, I only use the AC a few times.

 

Lol one of the contractors at work — the fuel vendor for all the airlines — uses cab-over pumper trucks with rear hydrostatic drives… and full one-pedal driving. Needless to say, with the normal high-turnover of third-party vendor employees (in general), Fun Things Happen.

 

I do believe our friend in the southern hemisphere is on to something here.

Today I did another of my semi-regular runs down to my US post office box, right around 85 km each way plus a couple of kilometres within the village as I stop by to see a friend. Overcast day, -1.5°C, no wind. Roads mostly bare and dry with a few patches of old snow here and there near the border at slight elevation (they don’t salt along the county road on the US side of the border). About 90% of the drive in Green, with roughly 15 km in each direction on the (~120 km/h) freeway, the rest on suburban and village streets, and back highways and country roads with limits ranging from 50 to 90 km/h. Apart from occasional matted-pedal blasts to get around the usual dawdling blue-hairs, I used a fairly light right foot and the speed LIMiter set to 3 km above the posted limit. Left with a full charge from my 10° garage, arrived at my PO box with 57% and a Guess of 110 km remaining, and got home with 10% and 20 km estimated range after a total of 175 km.

So I guess the LIMiter really does help save electrons, because I never imagined I could best the EPA-estimated range in below-freezing temperatures.

 

When my foot is on my SE's accelerator, I always recall the seminal post by @F14Scott where he proved absolutely--with a graph--that accelerating quickly to a given speed isn't less efficient than accelerating slowly to the same speed.

Am I guilty of believing only the research that produces the results I sought? Perhaps, but I spent 20 years driving a 72-hp/70-mpg gen-1 Honda Hairshirt. I didn't switch to a MINI Cooper SE, thinking it was the most efficient EV available. I switched thinking it was the most fun EV available (presses pedal to metal).

 

i really like the pedal response feel in sport mode, had it default to it with beemercode since owning the car (18 months) when i picked the car up from dealers way back when we had that software recall.. i thought the motor had died it was in normal from the reset they did

 

It's great that MINI chose to offer different options for the accelerator-pedal response of the SE. I stay mostly in Mid and switch to Sport when I feel extra feisty.

 

By "limiter" are we talking about cruise control?

I also thought accelerating slowly was the way to go and felt bad every time I didn't. Maybe I'll get over it now.

I don't use sport mode, but honestly the only reason why is I don't like the red accents on the displays!

 

Well, good news! You can change the theme so it doesn't do that. I also didn't like all the red, because I kept thinking there were error messages.

 

Oh I should look into that. I did follow another member on turning off the checkerboard pattern and the "e-drive" icon but didn't know there was a way to change the color too.

 

yeah turned that coloured ring stuff off from day one too ...its in the mini setting so easy done