ECO Mode Reliability

[Woosie]

For those drivers who consistently use ECO Mode while slowing down, have you seen any negative effect on electronic transmission life? How long have you been using regenerative braking to slow/stop the car?

For me to implement this style of slowing down, I have to toggle the tranny engagement knob over and down (between Drive and ECO).

 

[Cheezmo]

Since regenerative braking is used when you use the brake pedal too, I doubt it makes a huge difference, unless you always mash the brakes and go straight to traditional braking in which case you would use the regenerative braking a bit less.

 

[KillaWhat]

Not quite sure what to make of the title? Reliability?
I drive in ECO 99% of the time.
I just put it there, and forget it.
ECO doesn't inhibit your acceleration, you just have to push the pedal "harder" and farther to get the same result.
It also doesn't really "switch" anything in the "transmission", it just tells the computer to operate under a different set of parameters.

You might physically wear the knob out, but for people who drive manual cars, we play with the knob like a worry bead.

So there you go....

 

[garsh]

The Leaf doesn't really have a transmission. It just has a reduction gear. The motor is always connected to the driveshafts. This makes it very simple and very reliable - much more so than any type of transmission in any other vehicle. I would not worry about it in the least.

 

[mwalsh]

You might physically wear the knob out, but for people who drive manual cars, we play with the knob like a worry bead.

I asked Ingineer about that (since he had his apart to fit the LED inside). He said it would be very unlikely to wear out the switch, even with constant back and forth between D and ECO. You could, however, wear the paint off of it.

 

[Nubo]

I mostly use Eco. No problems. It does put a load on the drivetrain, but it's far less torque than you can generate going forward. The max regen is about 40kW, iirc, while you can command 80kW with the throttle.

 

[TomT]

The car doesn't have a transmission in the conventional sense, just a three gear transfer case, so it doesn't make any difference in any way.

For those drivers who consistently use ECO Mode while slowing down, have you seen any negative effect on electronic transmission life?

 

[TomT]

It's a Hall Effect switch so no worries there.

You might physically wear the knob out, but for people who drive manual cars, we play with the knob like a worry bead.

 

[DanCar]

For those drivers who consistently use ECO Mode while slowing down, have you seen any negative effect on electronic transmission life?

Its done with a magnetic field. Nothing to wear down. You're going to be happy with how often you need to replace your brake pads. If you drive sensibly this is probably never.

 

[EVDRIVER]

For those drivers who consistently use ECO Mode while slowing down, have you seen any negative effect on electronic transmission life?

Its done with a magnetic field. Nothing to wear down. You're going to be happy with how often you need to replace your brake pads. If you drive sensibly this is probably never.

No there is no magnetic field in the drive system they are gears. The LEAF will likely need brake pad replacement for many folks, the regen is really weak particularly on 2011-12 models and the friction brakes get much use in hilly cities, mine even get hot at times which is really sad on an EV. ECO mode is not going to impact reliability in a measurable way unless Nissan did a poor job engineering the drive.

 

[dgate]

No there is no magnetic field in the drive system they are gears.

Actually the motors magnetic field is what provides the resistance to slow the car and put energy back into the battery on overrun so you are only partially correct in your statement.

 

[LEAFfan]

For those drivers who consistently use ECO Mode while slowing down, have you seen any negative effect on electronic transmission life?

Its done with a magnetic field. Nothing to wear down. You're going to be happy with how often you need to replace your brake pads. If you drive sensibly this is probably never.

No there is no magnetic field in the drive system they are gears. The LEAF will likely need brake pad replacement for many folks, the regen is really weak particularly on 2011-12 models and the friction brakes get much use in hilly cities, mine even get hot at times which is really sad on an EV. ECO mode is not going to impact reliability in a measurable way unless Nissan did a poor job engineering the drive.

Brake pad replacement will depend on how it is driven. If people drive it like some ICE drivers that race to each light, then use their brakes hard to stop, the pads will need replaced. OTOH, drivers that notice lights/stops ahead and anticipate accordingly, the pads will last the life of the car. Even with just ECO, I rarely used my friction brakes. Now, it is even less with B mode.

 

[Woosie]

Thanks for the info. I don't know much about the drivetrain. Where can I find more detailed technical info? I'm an engineer for Boeing, so I like that sort of stuff.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Thanks for the info. I don't know much about the drivetrain. Where can I find more detailed technical info? I'm an engineer for Boeing, so I like that sort of stuff.

For $20 you can download the entire service manual form the Nissan site. Most EV drives are the same so the Google wil show lots of similar stuff.