Just got the hang on Strong Regeneration/1 pedal driving.

Find that each time I start the vehicle it’s in ‘Normal’. Is there a way to save the regen setting so I don’t need to start I normal?

Reason I ask is because I back out of my garage onto a hill so turn on car, put in drive, flip to strong regen, then back out. Trying to save a few seconds/steps in the AM or when I need to back out.

 

There is no way to save the settings. It's due to regulatory requirements in Europe (as I understand it) so the car always performs according to its rated WLTP (or in the US, EPA) range estimates. I put my car in "no recuperation" mode every single time I get in and go to maximize range and get the most out of regen, so I hear your pain, but it's just an automatic reflex for me at this point, I hardly notice it.

 

How do you get the most out of regen if it is set to no recuperation? Please explain. Thanks

 

Excellent question, @HBerman . It comes down to two main elements.

1. Physics of regeneration: By and large, coasting is more efficient; at best, the motors will convert 40-60% of your kinetic energy back to the battery during regeneration. The rest is lost as heat. Coasting, on the other hand, is mostly free. There are friction losses and some back-EMF losses from the permanent magnet motors (especially if no disconnect unit, like my sedan), but these are just a few percent compared to heat and inefficiency losses from regeneration. It's better to coast as long as possible, rather than accelerating and regenerating.

2. Braking system: EQE is brake-by-wire. The strategies of brake blending are different in the different recuperation modes. If you go into Vehicle Information section in the main MBUX interface, you can see that there is a "brake" entry percentage bar. This actually is only indicating service (friction) brakes. In Normal and Maximum recuperation modes, as soon as regen starts kicking in, you'll notice an immediate 9-10% service brakes have also applied. This is to give you good brake blending, and a good braking experience. By contrast, if you use "No Recuperation" mode and look at the same screen, service brake percentage is 0% when coasting, and 1% when applying the brake pedal up to about 50% application. Beyond 50% brake application, you'll notice the service brake percentage creep past 1-2%. The brake blending is and feels different. So, that means for "maximum" and "normal" modes, there may be a bit more friction efficiency losses due to the improved brake blending feel and performance. In "no recuperation" mode, you actually end up maximizing the regeneration when you actually use the brake pedal, unless you add a lot of brake input.

 

There does not appear to be a "brake entry" bar on my AMG MBUX screen at least not that I can find in Settings. There is a lot of other "useful" information on the AMG Performance screen which shows motor output, temp, acceleration, etc, but not braking.

 

@stc1996 You are progressing well on the learning curve. Your next task is to get familiar with Intelligent Recon mode. Like you I start out switching from Normal to Strong until I am on the road. If there is traffic ahead I will use Intelligent which handles coasting, reducing speed and stopping. If there is no traffic then Strong to handle stopping at a traffic light or stop sign. For highway it is mostly DISTRONIC if you have that.

 

I've been experimenting with the No_Regeneration setting and it totally changes the driving experience for the better! I understand the difference between coasting and regen regarding efficiency as well. I can see the regen start, however when I look at the regen display on the main driver display when I initially apply the brakes. That would imply that the regen only occurs now when the brakes are applied and not when the accelerator is released. Interesting. I'll have to see the effect on the range that I achieve over then next period. Thanks.

 

I've been driving all electric, no ICE, for nine years, about 150,000 miles. Two BMW i3 BEV (2014, 2017) and two Tesla Model S (2015, 2018). Before that I owned a variety of cars including MB (4), Porsche (3), and BMW (2). I just swapped the Model S for the EQE 350 4Matic which now has about 2,000 miles.

So I've been one pedal driving for nine years and it's by far my preference so I use the strong regeneration. But MB has made a real mess of regeneration by changing the driving characteristics of the car in each mode. The regeneration setting should only affect what happens when you lift off the pedal, but MB has changed what happens when you depress the pedal as well. The Go pedal requires a different level of pressure in each mode to effect the same movement of the car. That completely screws up the driving experience. It's difficult to delicately move the EQE, as when in a tight parking situation, when it's set to strong, so I end up switching to Normal or None. However, I will experiment with the Auto recuperation to see if that provides a predictable driving experience while maximizing regeneration.

It seems like this thread has an undercurrent of range anxiety.

If you cannot charge at home, then that is understandable as the problem is not getting to the destination, but anxiety about where/when/how soon you have to charge next. And if you are pioneer, living in a state or region with very limited charging facilities it's also an understandable concern.

If you can charge at home, range anxiety is a transitory fear which fades with time. The 350 4Matic is nominally about 280 miles of range. A 125 mile trip, 250 mile round trip day, is entirely feasible. On road trips it's binary, you'll either make one charging stop, or not. There are very few occasions on which you will need to drive more than 450 miles in a day.

My point being that adjusting your preferred driving experience to save energy or micro-managing the energy consumption is probably not something you did with an ICE car, and is not necessary in the EQ.

 

No range anxiety with me. I just like the way that the car drives w/o all of the regen braking.

 

Appreciate the thought, but no range anxiety for me either. It's totally non-existent as far as I'm concerned. I do like to eke out small efficiency gains. I did the same for combustion cars as well. EVs make you feel even more in control of things like efficiency, so I enjoy doing it. Do I sometimes forget about it? Sure. But I also find it fun and rewarding to see what the differences are. Agreed about the different "go" pedal feel. I guess I've learned to modulate it over time. It gets a lot easier after your first few thousand miles. Gotta say, I love the system as it is, especially when treating the paddles as pseudo downshifting. Quite fun in addition to what it already does.

 

I'm not convinced the no regen uses less braking in the MB EQ cars. I, too, can't find the "brake" information in my AMG MBUX. If bytemaster0 could help me navigate the screens to find the brake information, I will experiment. This is not about range anxiety for me. It is about the different modes of regen and how much mechanical brake is actually used in each mode. What bytemaster0 is saying is counterintuitive to what it means to use the regenerative braking.

My original thought was that normal and strong regen use varying degree of rheostatic braking to slow the car down, and then use the mechanical brakes to put the car into the final stop position. In no regen, stepping on the brakes would actually use the mechanical brakes to slow the car down and stop and regen is used secondary and not primary to slow the car down. In normal mode, the car would use rheostatic brake to slow the car down, but if you step on the brakes, it would use the mechanical brakes in conjunction with the rheostatic braking to slow the car down and mechanical brake to bring the car to the final stop. So goes for strong regen with the car using more rheostatic braking then normal regen. Hence the brake pedal feels harder in strong regen because stepping on it to a certain degree will mean using the mechanical brakes to increase the slowing down of the vehicle by the strong rheostatic braking.

Therefore, driving in no regen is most efficient when you don't have to brake a lot. But if you are in a stop and go or light to light, the regen modes will help recoup the efficiency and put less wear on the mechanical brakes.

 

I agree, it seems totally counterintuitive what I'm saying. The screen with service brake percentage is likely not visible on AMG models. It's the "vehicle info" screen on the center MBUX display. But I can assure you that on both our EQEs, the service brake percentages are 1-2% for 2/3rds of pedal travel (and accompanying feeling of deceleration and indicated "charge" graph in the instrument cluster) in "no Recuperation" and instantly 10% even with no pedal application in the other two modes. Happy to shoot a video if you like! Lastly, I do recall a reviewer mentioning this after having talked to engineers. Would love to have an MB engineer clear it up if possible!

 

Could it be that the service brakes is an indicator for percentage saving from servicing your brakes as you drive instead of how much mechanical braking is being used? Lately, I've been lazy to switch to strong regen and drove in normal regen, and my rims are just filthy dirty. I do drive faster than most people and brake often as a consequence. But I recall that in strong regen, I experienced less dust on the rims. Note that this is just a casual observation.

 

It is a legacy indicator from combustion MB cars. My old W213 E class had the same, albeit on a smaller screen. It's dynamic, and goes up or down based on friction brake usage (I called it service brakes as a technical term, but it simply says "brake" and "accelerator" on the screen).