Coasting or Regen? When to coast and when to use Regen.

Today I give a brief description of what is Regen and when is it best to use Regen as well as when is it best (for efficiency) to coast.

[Scholzey]

It's just about conservation of energy. So don't slow down for corners :) also slow down early for traffic lights so you can be moving when they go green :)

[tyrussum]

Ideal situation would be always coast and as you hit brakes car shifts from minor regen to full regen plus friction braking depending on how hard you stomp on the brake peddle

[kingbran]

I drove a model y and 3 as I'm debating on getting one and the only thing I didn't like about the drive was that I had to hold my foot on the accelerator the entire time to maintain the speed. The second you let off regen kicks in and starts braking. Driving my Ford Taurus right now, I didn't realize how nice it is to accelerate and then just let off and rest my foot on the floor until I either need the gas or the brake. Its much more comfortable to do that in my view. Maybe I just need to drive one of those two cars again for a little while to test this theory and see if its actually going to be noticeably annoying or not.

[Smart.Potato]

Great video. Just the thing I was looking for. I couldn’t find any video of this topic on YouTube. Thanks mate!

[kjell-akeryden]

On my Outlander PHEV manual braking charged the batteries why I always used coasting, zero regen. Can you set the amount of regen down to zero on the Tesla?

[rwess]

Yup, agree - and coasting is fun, and makes you a better driver/more in tune with your car and conditions.

[DM_Laf]

When you drive in "regen" level your car (Ioniq 5) is regenerating energy even while you driving, but doing so it lose more energy than it produces, obviously. If you drive in level 0, there is no resistance and no energy los.

Best to drive on level 0!
To extende you range you mast plane you driving:
1. left your foot from the throttle and glid as long you are not slowing the trafic bihand, then
2. regen to slow, then
3 brake to stop.

[steve-fypk]

When you use regent, do the break lights come on. I just had a guy tell me I had no break lights when stopped. So when stopped maybevwise to look into the rear view mirror and tap the break pedal so they know you are stopped. Don’t know what to do about regen and break lights. Also if you are on auto drive and you’re set to (x amount of car cushion) if your car adjusts to keep its distance I don’t know if the break lights activate or not.

[teslasnek]

I've had a 2017 Ford Focus Electric for over a year, and I just got a Tesla Model 3 LR RWD (just like yours) for my wife right before they discontinued them (again), and what I've found to be the most efficient way to drive both EVs is to use the cruise control, especially when going downhill. Set the speed you want to go downhill at and it'll *use* the regenerative braking to keep you at that speed. That way you're gaining energy the entire time you're going downhill, you aren't having to constantly adjust the pressure on the accelerator to keep it in that perfect sweet spot, and you save your brakes! It'll automatically adjust the amount of regen in order to keep you at that set speed, it'll even coast itself for any flatter parts. Now here's the part I'm confused about your explanation about the losses: even if the losses are compounded when regen is used, you're still getting something back. I mean, when you coast, you're losing less, but you're also not getting anything back, whereas, when you use regen, I would agree with you if you were *just* losing more, but you're also gaining stuff back, enough for it to not only make up for the losses, but more than that, so that you're in the positive, so isn't regen still better in that sense?

[FutureSystem]

Thanks Matt. 👍 A lot of people don’t understand the points you’ve mentioned.
Whilst I wait for my Model 3, here in Oz 🇦🇺 I drive a PHEV. I can get much further on my very small battery by using little to no regen- assuming of course that I don’t use the brakes (which takes a lot of anticipation.) Coasting is definitely much more efficient.
(The PHEV is great as it has flappy paddles with five different levels of regen, and also increases regen with gentle brake pedal activation before applying the brakes, and it’s a real shame the Tesla’s don’t have something similar.)
My guess is that regen is at best 50% efficient. That’s one good reason that different drivers can see a big difference in range whilst driving at basically the same speed - every time you dip into the regen area, (or obviously much worse still, use the brakes!) you’re losing range.
Cheers

[brantwedel]

For anyone concerned/confused, it's easy to just hold a speed, maybe easier than an ICE, but if you want to minimize regen or acceleration (true coasting), that is what is more difficult in an EV.

[saiyamang]

Is there a way to disable regenerative braking?

[EnmandsBand]

are you saying that you have to use Neutral on a Tesla to do coasting?? You don't have a Regen zero setting like most other EVs?
I would really like to know what the actual losses % are in the regeneration system but I have never been able to find a test of that.

[johnnybuoy]

I'd heard Tesla had sensors all around the car. And there's a feature for Automatic Braking. So just wondering that after the car slows down due to regen feature shouldn't it come to a complete stop BY ITSELF due to the auto braking as it gets too close to the car ahead....??

[Yang-xvon]

I thought this is common sense. Didn't realize so many ppl don't even understand this. Good video to teach those ppl.

[tristandemeis-dewitt]

nah that truly sucks coasting is vital i don't wanna break for no dang reason instead of wasting energy having to keep on the gas. another reason these cars are trash

[coals]

This is exactly what I thought for my HEV, thanks for confirming my answer! 👍

[Diveson]

Great video. My wife drives that way in our ICE cars. More so in her manual Chevy Cruze Eco. You noticed the other Model 3. My wife noticed the classic that drove by at 1:04-1:05. I was wondering if it is a Chevy Bel Air.

[eltacsyms]

Thank you so much for this information, it was especially helpful the way you described what you were doing as you were actually driving and slowing down. Was wondering about this question, but it was a low priority; until I just watched a video about Hyundai's new electric and how it has a bias for coasting vs regen. I'm subscribed to your channel, and appreciate that you didn't parrot that annoying "thumbs up, share and subscribe"; I automatically do that for good content, as it should be.

[skvcounter]

you were straight on the point, good info