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Regenerative braking when 100% charged.


cegarbage
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I live up a hill.  When I leave my house, I have to drive 100% of the time downhill. If I leave my home with an 80% charge, by the time I'm on the freeway it's normally up to 85% from all the downhill braking I do.

 

So, I'm curious if I leave my home at a 100% charge, is there a spot to capture all that energy, or am I better served by only charging my car up to 95%?

Edited by jeff_h
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If the HVB is full the engine will be used to provide the back pressure.  It will operate like an air compressor.  No fuel will be used.  Since you had to expend energy to climb the hill you might want to leave room in the HVB to recover some of it on the way down.

 

Quick note:  It'll only do the above if you're driving downhill in L, or it may do this if you have Hill Assist enabled (the button on your shifter) while in D.  If you stay in D without hill assist, the friction brakes are used instead.

 

If the battery is full, there is no place for additional regenerated energy to go, so either the ICE will spin up to burn off the additional kinetic energy, or the friction brakes will engage.

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Another newbie question...In regards to my original post about capturing energy..If the plug portion is exhausted (or I forget to plug in), will regular hybrid mode capture energy and store it in the same manner as the plug in portion. I was pleasantly surprised to go 30 miles today in EV with 71MPG. I do live at the 1800 level and drop down to sealevel in the first 6 miles of the 30 mile ride.

 

When the car is in plug in mode, I can flip over to EV later and see energy recaptured as the percentage goes up. However, in EV only mode the EV later is not active so I can't see how energy is recaptured.

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Another newbie question...In regards to my original post about capturing energy..If the plug portion is exhausted (or I forget to plug in), will regular hybrid mode capture energy and store it in the same manner as the plug in portion. I was pleasantly surprised to go 30 miles today in EV with 71MPG. I do live at the 1800 level and drop down to sealevel in the first 6 miles of the 30 mile ride.

 

When the car is in plug in mode, I can flip over to EV later and see energy recaptured as the percentage goes up. However, in EV only mode the EV later is not active so I can't see how energy is recaptured.

The MFT display has the HVB percentage. It is on the screen with the "GO" times.

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From my understanding, when you hit 0% and it turns into hybrid mode, it wont charge the plug in portion, it will only charge the hybrid side.

 

If you are driving on flat ground, this is true.  The ICE itself will not bring the car back out of hybrid mode.  However, if you travel downhill to the point where you're regenerating constantly (using hill assist, coasting, driving in L), the car actually will continue to regenerate past the hybrid level and start putting miles back on the battery.  You will then have access to EV Later again, EV now, etc.

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If you are driving on flat ground, this is true.  The ICE itself will not bring the car back out of hybrid mode.  However, if you travel downhill to the point where you're regenerating constantly (using hill assist, coasting, driving in L), the car actually will continue to regenerate past the hybrid level and start putting miles back on the battery.  You will then have access to EV Later again, EV now, etc.

Exactly! We experienced this during our road trip. The 2D hybrid battery icon was full and the car continued charging. It did not automatically change back to EV Auto or EV Now, but it allowed me to do so. We had 3 or 4 miles of range showing once I switched back to EV Auto. I expected it to change itself so that's why I went so long with it showing the full 2D hybrid battery icon before deciding to press the button and see what happens.

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If you are driving on flat ground, this is true.  The ICE itself will not bring the car back out of hybrid mode.  However, if you travel downhill to the point where you're regenerating constantly (using hill assist, coasting, driving in L), the car actually will continue to regenerate past the hybrid level and start putting miles back on the battery.  You will then have access to EV Later again, EV now, etc.

 

Glad to know, but living near the DC area doesnt provide me with enough downhill to know that :)

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Since I start driving downhill, it was suggested here to only charge my car up to 95%. I started observing the leaf icon on the touchscreen. The battery percentage on the leaf icon on the touch is always the same as the number that shows when I toggle the EV button and view the percentage remaining on the left dash..unless it's greater than 95%.

 

It appears when the car is fully charged, the leaf icon on the touchscreen will say 100%. However, on the left side of the dash it never goes above 95%.

Anyone know why?

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The car won't let you go into EV Later until you discharge a certain percent. We noticed this on our road trip when we wanted to switch to EV Later almost immediately after starting the car since we only had to drive 1 block from the hotel to the freeway. Unfortunately the car wouldn't allow this and wasted electricity on the freeway. On subsequent days I solved this by taking the city route for a mile or so and then getting on the freeway and switching to EV Later.

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The car won't let you go into EV Later until you discharge a certain percent. We noticed this on our road trip when we wanted to switch to EV Later almost immediately after starting the car since we only had to drive 1 block from the hotel to the freeway. Unfortunately the car wouldn't allow this and wasted electricity on the freeway. On subsequent days I solved this by taking the city route for a mile or so and then getting on the freeway and switching to EV Later.

I have my car plugin in the mornings, have go times on, ect and when I get in, i switch it to EV later and it allows me. That 5% is the hybrid part of the battery, i believe and that is why in the car, it'll say 95% even though its fully charged and the MFM, ect  will say its 100%

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I have my car plugin in the mornings, have go times on, ect and when I get in, i switch it to EV later and it allows me. That 5% is the hybrid part of the battery, i believe and that is why in the car, it'll say 95% even though its fully charged and the MFM, ect  will say its 100%

Huh?  ^^^

 

You can switch to EV later at any time, if the battery is fuller than 95%, it will only reserve 95% max as the car needs some working room in the battery to run in hybrid mode -- being able to regen and charge down hills for example.  So any charge level above 95% will be drained down before the car will start the engine and switch to hybrid mode operation (EV later selected).

 

The hybrid part of the battery is actually about 7%, from 21.5% charge level of the main battery down to 14.5%, but can be used at any time by selecting EV later at any charge level.

 

-=>Raja.

Edited by rbort
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Since I drive downhill and have the ability to regenerate 5% by driving, I decided to set an alert to notify me when the car is 90% full. I did it a few times, but each time I walked out to my car, it was already 100% full. Today, I dropped the alert down to 80%. I immediately walked out to my car and it was 91% charged.

 

Is this normal?

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In my experience the text message alert system is very flaky.  I've received an alert that charging has started and never received the charging complete alert.  I've received the charging complete alert three times in a row.  I've received the charging complete alert as much as 4 hours late. 

 

The car has to notify the website.  If it has a weak cell signal that can be delayed.  The web site then has to process the alert and create a text message and send it.  My garage has steel doors and is covered with stucco.  Stucco is installed on a wire mesh.  The only way for the cell signal to get into my garage is through the windows.

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From what I have seen, when I initially plug in with a depleted battery, it will give me a time notification in the @5.5 hour range. Normally, the ETC time to complete on the app will shorten by about 20 minutes or so over the course of the charge.

 

What I am noticing is it's normally finishing an hour earlier. Based on that, I don't believe it's a weak signal notification at the end of a charge causing the issue.

 

One day when I'm home I'm going to setup 10% increment notifications and see if I can figure out how it's getting so far off.

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Huh?  ^^^

 

You can switch to EV later at any time, if the battery is fuller than 95%, it will only reserve 95% max as the car needs some working room in the battery to run in hybrid mode -- being able to regen and charge down hills for example.  So any charge level above 95% will be drained down before the car will start the engine and switch to hybrid mode operation (EV later selected).

 

The hybrid part of the battery is actually about 7%, from 21.5% charge level of the main battery down to 14.5%, but can be used at any time by selecting EV later at any charge level.

 

-=>Raja.

Have you ever seen the car say 100% when switching? I havent, and thats what I was saying, is when you switch modes, the car will not say 100%, even though it is fully charged. Its about wording...

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Huh?  ^^^

 

You can switch to EV later at any time, if the battery is fuller than 95%, it will only reserve 95% max as the car needs some working room in the battery to run in hybrid mode -- being able to regen and charge down hills for example.  So any charge level above 95% will be drained down before the car will start the engine and switch to hybrid mode operation (EV later selected).

 

The hybrid part of the battery is actually about 7%, from 21.5% charge level of the main battery down to 14.5%, but can be used at any time by selecting EV later at any charge level.

 

-=>Raja.

This is what I was trying to say. Thanks Raja for wording it so clearly.

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