[bradhinkle]

There are different regenerative brake settings. In our orientation, the dealer said not to leave the highest regeneration level on while driving because somehow that uses more energy. On other electric vehicles, it doesn't matter. In fact, you can pretty much use the accelerator as a brake simply by easing up on it. One pedal to accelerate and brake unless extra braking was needed. It seems like a pain to have to manually hit the paddle to turn on the regenerative braking EVERY TIME you want the regenerative braking to slow the car down. So I wanted to know if it was okay to just leave it on the highest regenerative setting 100% of the time.

 

[[email protected]]

Recuperation options seems to be manual and automatic. The automatic drops off your settings once you hit the accelerator pedal, which has no use in town. The manual option remembers your setting as long as your drive cycle takes a time or you use automatic speed control. But I have no answer to your original question, will it consume more energy to keep recuperation level on highest setting. With one month experience my e-tron consumes 0,25 kwh per kilometer as an average and this value seems to be high compared to rivals. Anyhow, I'm going to test to leave recuperation off to see would it make difference to energy consumption.

 

[chrisjenx]

That's kind of counter intuitive, I leave it on highest all the time.

Not sure how having it on will use more energy, it's designed to recuperate energy not use it!

 

[gonkulator]

My A3 e-tron uses less energy the more I use regenerative braking, and I suspect the e-tron will as well, but I haven't done any testing. and like chrisjenx said, it really doesn't make sense, since the purpose of regenerative braking it to recuperate energy. And as I understand it, when you apply brakes up to what would be the equivalent regeneration level, the braking uses regeneration. Beyond that, the regular brakes kick in. Seems like it is just the mechanism that is different, not the actual energy use. But I am open to correction. BTW, I wish the regenerative braking had a more aggressive level to choose.