ECO mode impressions

Today is ECO day. And the first ECO test was (what I was hoping to be) my 65mph run into work. Well that only lasted for about 20 miles (damn inconsiderate people...clogging up the freeways and ruining my data collection!), but it was enough to get the feeling I could do just about as well without ECO.

My 20 miles had cost me 3 bars of energy and I was getting average energy economy of only 4.1mpkWh. To all intents and purposes I can pretty well get 4mpkWh at those speeds without using ECO. By the time I'd completed the trip in stop-and-go, the energy economy had increased to 4.3mpkWh, but I think I could have just as easily gotten to that in D too.

Here are the hard numbers.....

Starting range @ 100% charged - 90 D miles (as opposed to ECO, just to avoid confusion)
Finishing range after 30.5 miles driven - 58 D miles
Finishing SOC 67% (which we now know could be anywhere from 54-67%)

The only number that appears to be an improvement is the finishing range. You'll remember that on the other days I got here with between 40 and 45 miles used. This time I appeared to use only 32. But that could be anything from the last 10 miles at slower speeds to a statistical anomaly caused by the appearance of having fewer miles when starting out. Who the heck knows. I'm more inclined to believe the number of energy bars I consume over the range figure at this point.

Gut feeling....ECO is a waste of time at freeway speeds, and it makes the car feel like a slug. So no thanks.

I am going to try D mode tonight for my commute home since most traffic is gone by then. I used ECO on my way in today, 41 mile commute with slight hills and traffic, left with 80 range, got to work with 72!!. Used 8 miles of range to travel 41 miles. But I do see the battery go way down on the drive home on open road. Let's see what D does for this fellow scientist.

As I mentioned months ago, eco mode will only benefit you if you are stopping frequently or on hills, need pedal feedback to teach you how to conserve, or are not smart enough to keep the climate off or on lower settings when being economical. The ECO mode is for drivers that don't know how to drive efficiently and an pack KW meter would work better to teach them (dummy mode) I plan to modify my leaf so that I use the normal drive mode but with the regen of ECO, that will render eco useless to me since I will always drive in normal mode once modified. NIssan should have provided two or three drive modes, 1-2 to be customized by checking the parameters they provide to the mode your select, that would have been very easy to do and very functional. Once again, clearly designed by folks that don't drive EVs weekly, just like another (blank) company I met with, not one person even drove an EV after years of EV programs! Nissan should have listened to that people they flew to Japan.

Watch how many EV owners get fed up with toggling the ECO mode multiple times a day. Any reasonable Leaf driver can get the same economy in D if they had the regen added. An increased regen button on the dash would have made more sense.

EVDRIVER said:

As I mentioned months ago, eco mode will only benefit you if you are stopping frequently or on hills, need pedal feedback to teach you how to conserve, or are not smart enough to keep the climate off or on lower settings when being economical. The ECO mode is for drivers that don't know how to drive efficiently and an pack KW meter would work better to teach them (dummy mode) I plan to modify my leaf so that I use the normal drive mode but with the regen of ECO, that will render eco useless to me since I will always drive in normal mode once modified. NIssan should have provided two or three drive modes, 1-2 to be customized by checking the parameters they provide to the mode your select, that would have been very easy to do and very functional. Once again, clearly designed by folks that don't drive EVs weekly, just like another (blank) company I met with, not one person even drove an EV after years of EV programs! Nissan should have listened to that people they flew to Japan.

Watch how many EV owners get fed up with toggling the ECO mode multiple times a day. Any reasonable Leaf driver can get the same economy in D if they had the regen added. An increased regen button on the dash would have made more sense.

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Hear! Hear!

Evdriver, you are right on! My hybrid SUV automatically goes into ECO mode when I take my foot of the pedal. To take advantage of hills where i can coast down, I can shift down to get a higher level of ECO yet maintain speed

Pretty easy to toggle in and out of eco mode while driving, just by popping the "mouse" to hit "D" again.

DrPowell said:

Pretty easy to toggle in and out of eco mode while driving, just by popping the "mouse" to hit "D" again.

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Actually, it's really not. Or at least it doesn't feel that way to me, and I'm a pretty dexterous kind of guy. I could have been made much simpler.

Edit: Let me rephrase that....it's not if you're doing it on a continual basis (like when trying to use ECO just for deceleration in heavy traffic).

hobbyguy said:

I am going to try D mode tonight for my commute home since most traffic is gone by then. I used ECO on my way in today, 41 mile commute with slight hills and traffic, left with 80 range, got to work with 72!!. Used 8 miles of range to travel 41 miles. But I do see the battery go way down on the drive home on open road. Let's see what D does for this fellow scientist.

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WTF????? Drove 41 miles but range dropped only 8 miles? I'm beginning to think the range display is totally meaningless.

Nissan, give us %SOC, Please!

+1 on user selected options on regen, too.

Yup. Eco mode and regen are really only their to help a sloppy human recapture their spent waste.

Still had to spend the energy in the first place.

I predict that Nissan gets a big "I told you so" form all the EV people they consulted with but ignored, had more of the decision makers been regular EV drivers things would be different. I expect changing, regen modes and instrumentation to gravitate to what was recommended some time ago. Believe it or not but the auto industry thinks that most EV drivers are fanatics, engineers, techies, and the like. Although many are there are just as many 10 year EV drivers that care less about anything other than driving the car like the average driver. EV owners are one of the most diverse groups of people you will ever see with a common interest. Nissan did a good job on the Leaf but the were far to paranoid about making it like an EV and overcompensated to make it like a car, so much so it's a bit impractical in some areas. The eco mode only teaches drivers to ignore how to drive efficiently by insulating them from the process more. I hope they listen and offer changes to existing customers. Think of driving in SF hills with the silly ECO response on the pedal while climbing hills. In fact, one that drives in a spirited manner wants ECO off for response but more regen for quick stops, it's backward. Those that put about slowly on flat ground and like to coast will not need or like the increased regen. It's good to see people are finally seeing the reality of these modes and the gauges and how they really perform.

mwalsh said:

DrPowell said:

Pretty easy to toggle in and out of eco mode while driving, just by popping the "mouse" to hit "D" again.

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Actually, it's really not. Or at least it doesn't feel that way to me, and I'm a pretty dexterous kind of guy. I could have been made much simpler.

Edit: Let me rephrase that....it's not if you're doing it on a continual basis (like when trying to use ECO just for deceleration in heavy traffic).

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When I did my test drive it didn't seem any harder than downshifting...

This just in....ECO more bearable in stop-and-go traffic. Full report later.

OK....ECO mode on the drive home.....

Traffic was (predictably) heavy, and much was stop-and-go. Funnily though, the ECO mode was quite a bit more tolerable in this kind of traffic. I don't quite know why, but I suspect that at freeway speeds I just feel it takes away the ability to maneuver out of trouble quickly enough. Sure, I know that when you put your foot all the way down that it's supposed to give you the normal amount of power, but I would just as soon not wait for a computer to realize what I'm asking of it.

Now down to the numbers. I ended the day with 4 bars left and 31 miles worth of range. Energy average for the whole day was 4.8kWh, but I came this ][ close to kissing 5.0mpkWh, reaching 4.9mpkWh before the traffic opened up again (and faster speeds obviously meant a drop in the average consumption).

Starting range from work @ 67% charged - 58 D miles
Finishing range after 61 miles driven - 31 D miles
Finishing SOC 33% (which we now know could be anywhere from 26-33%) but in this case, since it took 4 hours and 18 minutes to recharge, I'm guessing it was closer to the 33%.

So ECO was effective to the 10% advertised. But those numbers are only equal to numbers I was able to obtain myself on the first full day with the car by driving very conservatively.

I still like the idea of having the ECO mode level of regeneration being the default though. Anyone want to come up with a hack?

mwalsh said:

OK....ECO mode on the drive home.....

I ended the day with 4 bars left and 31 miles worth of range.

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mwalsh said:

I still like the idea of having the ECO mode level of regeneration being the default though. Anyone want to come up with a hack?

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Nissan ? Pretty please ? With a red cherry tree leaf on top ? :mrgreen:

mwalsh said:

Finishing SOC 33% (which we now know could be anywhere from 26-33%)

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Just to quibble, SOC "33%" is actually, 29% to 36%. The computer drops to 4 bars at 36%, drops to 3 bars at 28%.

planet4ever said:

mwalsh said:

Finishing SOC 33% (which we now know could be anywhere from 26-33%)

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Just to quibble, SOC "33%" is actually, 29% to 36%. The computer drops to 4 bars at 36%, drops to 3 bars at 28%.

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9+% per bar? Possibly. It seems a bit high to me, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. Especially since I remember now seeing 2 bars represented as 17%. So the least it could be, assuming the two bar limit was only just breached, would be 8.5% per.

I also find it very easy to go from D to ECO and back again. Easier than a downshift actually; no pedal to fuss with, no other gears to hit by mistake, light resistance and very fluid.

Ohmie said:

I also find it very easy to go from D to ECO and back again. Easier than a downshift actually; no pedal to fuss with, no other gears to hit by mistake, light resistance and very fluid.

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I'm getting comfortable doing it on surface streets. The freeway still presents more of an obstacle for me, maybe because everything is happening at a more rapid pace.

mwalsh said:

9+% per bar? Possibly. It seems a bit high to me, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. Especially since I remember now seeing 2 bars represented as 17%. So the least it could be, assuming the two bar limit was only just breached, would be 8.5% per.

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It's 8%. I was just quoting what Andy posted from the diagnosis manual: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2265&start=40
See "available charge gauge segments" - OFF timing.

Well, I already stated I like driving in ECO mode because the regen with foot off the acc pedal feels more like driving a stick. One thing to mention about this mode: If your LEAF is charged to 83-100% there's little or no regen with foot-off acc.

Saturday night I did my first long run since bringing the car home from Fontana - Glendale to Venice to LAX to Glendale.
Charged to 100%, something I haven't done yet. Set to ECO mode, jumped on the 2 Fwy which has a long downhill component.
I start passing cars at 60 mph, let off on the acc, expecting some regen when I let off... nothing. It was like I was freewheeling; 65, 70, 72 before I used some brakes, which also felt weird since I was actually using the brakes.

It was kind of spooky initially. I was looking to see if the car was in neutral before I realized it was the SOC that kept regen off.
BTW, trip went great, 69 mi, mostly freeway and carpool lane (65-70mph), arrived home with 25% SOC ~20 mi on meter.