Driving in low

[devbolt]

Yes, if you regularly drive the car, you will get used to it. But if you jump into a different car each day, like the auto testers at Consumer Reports, you may find all of the different automatic transmission shifters more difficult to figure out.

As for confusing designations, I had 2 Priuses in the past which uses B to designate engine braking plus regen which was just as obscure as L is for regen in the Bolt. Had to ask what B stood for in the Prius the 1st time I got one, just as I had to do for L in the Bolt.

B mode in the Prius doesn't increase regen, despite what people think. Its just engine braking. If anything, it might cut regen on a non-full battery, since it's using excess energy to spin the engine.

 

[sgt1372]

B mode in the Prius doesn't increase regen, despite what people think. Its just engine braking. If anything, it might cut regen on a non-full battery, since it's using excess energy to spin the engine.

I think you're right about B mode in the Prius but there are still sources on the web that say it contributes to regen as well.

I think it's a harmless "error" but it just proves that you've gotta fact check everything you read on the web.

 

[devbolt]

B mode in the Prius doesn't increase regen, despite what people think. Its just engine braking. If anything, it might cut regen on a non-full battery, since it's using excess energy to spin the engine.

I think you're right about B mode in the Prius but there are still sources on the web that say it contributes to regen as well.

I think it's a harmless "error" but it just proves that you've gotta fact check everything you read on the web.

I did use it a lot when driving my 2005. To get home I would have to drive down a somewhat steep hill for about a mile or so. Great potential for regen and the battery would fill up about half way down. Which meant that I was using the friction brakes the rest of the way. So I got in the habit of throwing it into B when the battery was about to hit full.

In the Plug-in it was never a concern because that battery had plenty of headroom. I'd start out the top of the hill with no EV miles, and by the time I got to the bottom, I had 2.5 EV miles generated.

 

[Bobolinko]

Would you Manufacture a car, and include something and incur UNNEEDED EXPENSES in the process if the item is not needed for the operation of a vehicle ?

Maybe like a parachute, or maybe oars? I don't think ANY manufacturer would do anything so foolish! Nor would they then, build a transmission that included a Low, mode AND a Drive mode.... try this on a level smooth road when you next have a moment......

Place the trans in the "L" mode and drive till you reach maybe 25 mph.... then without taking your foot off the accelerator, just kick the lever
into "D" you will feel an oh-so-slight speedup of the vehicle.... that would be enough to tell you that for the same amount of applied power, the "D" mode will take you further with the same amount of battery consumption. Also, if it takes you 3KW to go UP a hill, going down a hill will NOT regenerate 3KW of power. However, you can coast a lot longer in "D" than you can coast in "L"..... it all depends on how long the downgrade is, that will determine your regeneration amount. Were it better, The General Motors CO. would not have included a "D" position. some slight downhill grades might even cause the car to stop in "L" where the car will still keep coasting. (and regenerating) in the "D" position.
So, there are times that the "L" position would be more efficient and times that the "D" position would be more efficient. You choose, but it all depends on the traffic, speed, grade, etc. the important point here, is..... NO ONE POSITION will be beneficial for a complete trip! if that were the case, there would be a F-N-R switch on the dash...... LOL

Just My 2 cents

 

[SeanNelson]

...Place the trans in the "L" mode and drive till you reach maybe 25 mph.... then without taking your foot off the accelerator, just kick the lever into "D" you will feel an oh-so-slight speedup of the vehicle.... that would be enough to tell you that for the same amount of applied power, the "D" mode will take you further with the same amount of battery consumption.

The accelerator pedal mapping is different in "D" and "L" mode. You get the same efficiency if you apply the same amount of power, but you need to hold the accelerator pedal in a different position in "L" mode to do that.

There's no difference in efficiency between "D" mode and "L" mode if you drive the car the same way. That means adjusting the way you use the accelerator pedal. You can, for example, stop just as gently in "L" mode as you do with a light application of the brake pedal in "D" mode.

 

[BoltEV]

I always drive in L and on the open highway I find the combination of cruise control and L gives me the best possible battery conservation.

 

[PackardV8]

...Place the trans in the "L" mode and drive till you reach maybe 25 mph.... then without taking your foot off the accelerator, just kick the lever into "D" you will feel an oh-so-slight speedup of the vehicle.... that would be enough to tell you that for the same amount of applied power, the "D" mode will take you further with the same amount of battery consumption.

The accelerator pedal mapping is different in "D" and "L" mode. You get the same efficiency if you apply the same amount of power, but you need to hold the accelerator pedal in a different position in "L" mode to do that.

There's no difference in efficiency between "D" mode and "L" mode if you drive the car the same way. That means adjusting the way you use the accelerator pedal. You can, for example, stop just as gently in "L" mode as you do with a light application of the brake pedal in "D" mode.

For true and X2 on the above. Bobolinko has a classic post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore resulting from it: used to indicate that a causal relationship has erroneously been assumed from a merely sequential one.)

It's been covered over and over and over again. There's no difference in efficiency in cruise in D or in L. It's only when there is the choice of slowing/stopping via more regen or applying friction brakes. The idea that the sensation of coasting is more efficient than steady state L will seemingly never go away. If gravity is supplying momentum, then the motor is not; it just feels more different than it actually is. Again, it's the habit of using the accelerator pedal as an On-Off switch which some drivers cannot adjust. Cruise in L will feel very little different than cruise in D.

Would you Manufacture a car, and include something and incur UNNEEDED EXPENSES in the process if the item is not needed for the operation of a vehicle ? Maybe like a parachute, or maybe oars? I don't think ANY manufacturer would do anything so foolish! Nor would they then, build a transmission that included a Low, mode AND a Drive mode....

Raymond Lowey, known as the father of industrial design, always strove for "Most advanced, yet acceptable. The adult public's taste is not necessarily ready to accept the logical solutions to their requirements if the solution implies too vast a departure from what they have been conditioned into accepting as the norm."

GM chose to make the Bolt as much like the ICE vehicles from which most potential customers would be coming. That's one reason D exists; to give a typical ICE driving feel. Same with the console shifter; a big clunky piece, the function of which could have been a simple switch on the dashboard, leaving the console area available for other uses. However, most ICE owners expect the shifter to be down there and look that way. The list of what could have done better, but the worry that too many couldn't make the adjustment goes on here.

jack vines

 

[GernBlanston]

Excellent post, PackardV8.