Hard Or Soft Braking

[markatty]

Is hard or soft braking better for fuel consumption and electricity generation? Each morning on my commute I take a long exit ramp off the highway. I can apply the brakes softly so that the Kw guage goes just a little negative and brake for say 500 yards or I can coast on the first part of the ramp and brake harder so the Kw guage goes full negative for say 200 yards.

Now I assumed that long gentle braking would be better, since it was all regenerative braking, but when I look at the consumption display, I seem to get more electrity buttons generated, by coasting and then applying the brakes hard enough to get to the bottom of the guage. So any thoughts on which is better.

Related items: The manual says that maximum number of electric "buttons" you can get on the consumption screen for any 5 minute period is 4 electric buttons on the display so once you get that number, I can't tell which driving pattern is better for any five minute period.

Any way to tell when the regular brakes kick in? Riding the regular brakes will get expensive.

Is there any advantage to braking even harder so that the Kw guage is hard on the bottom? My ears tell me that the generators are spinning even faster, but once again with a max of 4 electric buttons, I can't tell which is better.

[katzjamr]

I vote for slower and more gradual braking, coasting and more gradual braking adds regeneration over time, and its a more comfortable way to drive, for your passengers too. I personally dont think the harder stop at the end is worth any extra juice that may be put back into the battery. I will admit that driving like a grandpa gets old sometimes and i have spurts where i drive more aggressively, the available power in this suv is one of its best features.

[Philly400h]

Is hard or soft braking better for fuel consumption and electricity generation?

Any way to tell when the regular brakes kick in? Riding the regular brakes will get expensive.

Is there any advantage to braking even harder so that the Kw guage is hard on the bottom? My ears tell me that the generators are spinning even faster, but once again with a max of 4 electric buttons, I can't tell which is better.

It sure loves the long braking and coasting to get good mileage and regeneration.

I was told by the dealer when I test drove that slow braking just uses the regenerative braking resistance - and only fast braking uses pads.

However now that I've been driving it around a bit - I wonder if that's accurate.

It seems remarkable that the generators would be able to guage braking pressure like that and apply the right amount of resistance during changing conditions like hills, etc.

I haven't been able to tell by Kw gauge whether it charged differently with different braking.