Has Anyone Driven Steep Mountainous…
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From: Brookshire, Texas & Cat Spring, Texas
2019 SL550/2023 EQS 580 SUV
Has Anyone Driven Steep Mountainous…
Roads downhill in high regeneration and seen the battery percentage go up on the dashboard? I live in flat coastal country in S.E. Texas so I am clueless! 😊
Last edited by Utopia Texas; Jan 21, 2023 at 07:28 PM.
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EQS 450X4 SUV, Rivian R1T
Yes. I'm here in Colorado and drive lots of steep terrain. I can descend long mountain passes without touching the brakes and capturing a few percent of battery through regen. It basically evens out the loss from climbing the pass.
EVs are superior to ICE vehicles in the mountains, especially at altitude. The instant torque combined with no loss of horsepower from the thinner air, and regenerative braking makes them great mountain vehicles. The low center of gravity also helps on the windy roads.
I should add that Colorado has an amazing CCS charging network with much better coverage than Tesla. So owning a CCS based EV in Colorado is great experience. As a state they have done a great job building charging in remote locations.
EVs are superior to ICE vehicles in the mountains, especially at altitude. The instant torque combined with no loss of horsepower from the thinner air, and regenerative braking makes them great mountain vehicles. The low center of gravity also helps on the windy roads.
I should add that Colorado has an amazing CCS charging network with much better coverage than Tesla. So owning a CCS based EV in Colorado is great experience. As a state they have done a great job building charging in remote locations.
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Yes, I've seen this happen on highway 17 in California, which goes over a large hill between Los Gatos (near San Jose) and Santa Cruz. Going down the hill, I've seen my charge go up by 1 or 2%.
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I've also experienced regaining range while coasting down long stretches of mountain highway, pretty cool to see the range going up.
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Having never owned an electric car before, I expressed my pre-purchase concern to my MB dealer about getting stuck in something like the multi-hour / multi-km traffic jams often found on expressways in Germany around weekends and holidays. What if I'm low on power, only 20 km from a charger, but in reality, hours away from the charger due to the crawl? And...having never heard of something like "regen" before, I was rather astounded to hear him claim that the range will go up a bit during stop & start crawl situations. Now that I understand regen better, I can see how this might be possible to a small extent. I think his explanation was a little overly-optimistic, but do see how the regen in "crawl" situations could reduce my concern about not having enough power to get to the next charger in a traffic jam. We shall see later this year...
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From: Reading PA
26 EQS 400 SUV, 23 EQS 580 SUV (sold), 19 X7 (sold), 17/14 GLS550 (sold), 13 GL550 (sold)
Having never owned an electric car before, I expressed my pre-purchase concern to my MB dealer about getting stuck in something like the multi-hour / multi-km traffic jams often found on expressways in Germany around weekends and holidays. What if I'm low on power, only 20 km from a charger, but in reality, hours away from the charger due to the crawl? And...having never heard of something like "regen" before, I was rather astounded to hear him claim that the range will go up a bit during stop & start crawl situations. Now that I understand regen better, I can see how this might be possible to a small extent. I think his explanation was a little overly-optimistic, but do see how the regen in "crawl" situations could reduce my concern about not having enough power to get to the next charger in a traffic jam. We shall see later this year...
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Having never owned an electric car before, I expressed my pre-purchase concern to my MB dealer about getting stuck in something like the multi-hour / multi-km traffic jams often found on expressways in Germany around weekends and holidays. What if I'm low on power, only 20 km from a charger, but in reality, hours away from the charger due to the crawl? And...having never heard of something like "regen" before, I was rather astounded to hear him claim that the range will go up a bit during stop & start crawl situations. Now that I understand regen better, I can see how this might be possible to a small extent. I think his explanation was a little overly-optimistic, but do see how the regen in "crawl" situations could reduce my concern about not having enough power to get to the next charger in a traffic jam. We shall see later this year...
So if you were driving at high speeds and had 50 miles of range left based on highway efficiency, then you suddenly hit stop and go traffic, your efficiency would most likely increase due to the slow speeds, and your range gauge would increase. However you aren't magically adding more energy to the battery, just using what is left more efficiently.
In stop and go traffic and running air conditioning or the heater, you'll drain about 6 miles of range per hour. So this could offset some of the gains by driving at slower speeds, but the hit from running the HVAC isn't substantial. The range gauge in your EQS will take into account energy used for heating and cooling.
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From: Reading PA
26 EQS 400 SUV, 23 EQS 580 SUV (sold), 19 X7 (sold), 17/14 GLS550 (sold), 13 GL550 (sold)
You can always put it in Neutral and let the car behind push you, that would increase range for sure. 
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Having driven into Interior BC recently in BC that required going over a mountain pass and a couple smaller passes. The range itself will recoup some but obviously laws of physics dictate how much you can get back (definitely not 100% back) but it’s at least enough to prolong the dropping of %. You’ll need a pretty steep and long down hill (in terms of miles) before you see significant gains in the regen.
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From: WI
17 E43; 21 GLS580
Having never owned an electric car before, I expressed my pre-purchase concern to my MB dealer about getting stuck in something like the multi-hour / multi-km traffic jams often found on expressways in Germany around weekends and holidays. What if I'm low on power, only 20 km from a charger, but in reality, hours away from the charger due to the crawl? And...having never heard of something like "regen" before, I was rather astounded to hear him claim that the range will go up a bit during stop & start crawl situations. Now that I understand regen better, I can see how this might be possible to a small extent. I think his explanation was a little overly-optimistic, but do see how the regen in "crawl" situations could reduce my concern about not having enough power to get to the next charger in a traffic jam. We shall see later this year...
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I live in the hills of west Austin. I have a steep downhill to get out of my subdivision every morning. I start off the car at 1999 W/mi and when I get to the bottom of the hill about 2 miles away, I am sometimes at 50-75 W/mi and will gain back 1%, rarely 2%. I DONT put it in strong regen however. I am still questioning whether strong regen is the best option, because when I put the car into strong regen going down the hill, I end up having to push the accelerator to get it bottom, because otherwise the strong regen would actually bring the car to a stop (or at least very slow) going down the hill. When I push the accelerator, I am actually using power (as shown on the power meter), but if I keep the car in normal regen, it coasts down the hill with the power meter at 0%. I actually think the strong regen uses more power ultimately than normal regen, because you have to give the car more pedal.
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From: Irvine, CA
2023 EQS 580 4Matic SUV
Stop and go traffic used more power. If you are driving on a flat road, it only takes less than 5% of power to maintain the speed of 80+ mph. Going down Mt Charleston (about 4 miles) i gained a full 5%.
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I live in the hills of west Austin. I have a steep downhill to get out of my subdivision every morning. I start off the car at 1999 W/mi and when I get to the bottom of the hill about 2 miles away, I am sometimes at 50-75 W/mi and will gain back 1%, rarely 2%. I DONT put it in strong regen however. I am still questioning whether strong regen is the best option, because when I put the car into strong regen going down the hill, I end up having to push the accelerator to get it bottom, because otherwise the strong regen would actually bring the car to a stop (or at least very slow) going down the hill. When I push the accelerator, I am actually using power (as shown on the power meter), but if I keep the car in normal regen, it coasts down the hill with the power meter at 0%. I actually think the strong regen uses more power ultimately than normal regen, because you have to give the car more pedal.
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17 E43; 21 GLS580
The regen on the EQS is up to 200kw+, and it will stop the car unless you drive it off a cliff. Strong regen is full one pedal drive even on downhills, so you have to engage the pedal at all times. An option is auto, which will select regen depending on where you are driving and traffic. It works well, but Im not fond of it since in mixed traffic, you will get inconsistent pedal operation. I leave it in normal 99% of the time. It feels natural to an ICE vehicle. On long drives on uncluttered highways, no regen is fine.
Last edited by c4004matic; Apr 21, 2023 at 11:23 AM.
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The regen on the EQS is up to 200kw plus it will stop the car unless you drive it off a cliff. Strong regen is is full one pedal drive even on down hills so you have to enga the pedal at all times. An option is auto which will select regen depending on where you are driving abd traffic, it works well but Im not fond of it since in mixed traffic you will get inconsistent pedal operation. I leave it in normal 99% of the time. It feels natural to an ICE vehicle. On long drives on uncluttered highways...No regen.
