What's the max regen you've seen on your vehicle?

I have completely charged the battery going down the mountains from Donner Summit to Sacramento Valley on I80. One of the longest downhill stretches charges the battery about 40 to 50% It doesn't work out quite as well going down US50 from Echo Summit. You do have to be careful about going into the HV mode when the battery is fully charged, the car will "eat up" about 10 to 15% of the charge. Of course that energy is used to increase overall mileage.

 

i never get more than usual lift back around these flat lands.

 

I regen 2 miles every time I visit my wife's apartment at the top of Marquam Hill, and she only lives 15 miles away. Knowing that I'll be putting 2 miles back into the battery, I make sure to use at least 30% of my range before coming down the hill so that the battery will readily accept the massive regen.

The most I've put back in is about 8 miles coming down from Creator Lake. Setting the cruise control to 61 MPH still had the car utilizing massive regen to control the speed, and at times the car would momentarily switch to HV mode, presumably because something got too hot.

I hope to discover the reason for HV activating on long regens when I go to Yosemite for spring break.

 

The estimated miles are a strange calculation based on many factors and does not show the state of charge. I use a ScanGage that reads the actual battery charge level. A full charge could mean anything from 10 to 13 miles. There is no "beyond your charge".

 

How much vertical hill do you have?

There ought to be many hills, not just I-80 off Donner Summit, that can fill the battery.

 

I'm not sure about "many" but Mt Haleakala on Maui is 10,000 ft to sea level with virtually nothing but down hill road. Of course you would end up using friction brakes for the last part of the trip. Perhaps there's some good ones in the Colorado Rockies.

 

I rented the cheapest economy car I could find, which of course was the Nissan Versa. Would have been great to see what a PiP would do, although I'm sure it would outrun the capacity to regen many times.

 

While I don't have a PiP, I don't believe one needs anywhere near that much elevation change. The Donner Summit to Sacramento route is a 7000 drop, but at a somewhat shallow angle where much potential energy is lost to air drag and rolling resistance. Steeper angles should fill it with shorter drops.

There are plenty of other descents in the 2000 to 4000 foot range, 5 to 7% grades, outside Colorado and Hawaii. But a PiP owner will have to speak up with some actual experience.

 

If you try to charge too fast the ICE will kick in and you may not be able to fill the battery.

 

Not only that, but as you approach full charge the rate of charge is reduced. That means your friction brakes will be utilized as the regen rate on the battery slows. I don't have a reliable way to tell when friction brakes are being utilized, but I can tell when pressing harder on the brake no longer increases the rate of regen.

 

Merged

I have a 6-7% grade for about 7-8 miles and I typically get 10-11 miles of regen. Please understand this is just an estimate based on driving history and habits. See attached photo, it's still 11-15 miles.

 

I don't know what you mean about "beyond your charge". In the summer the full charge estimated EV miles shown runs about 12.4 miles and in the winter about 11.2 miles. Of course any time of the year it is strongly effected by your driving experience, several days of mostly level roads an the estimated miles will go up, but several days of much uphill EV and the estimate goes down. So the maximum EV miles estimate isn't related to how you charge the battery, from the wall or from regeneration. To understand the actual battery state of charge you need a ScanGauge or similar device http://tinyurl.com/hzaexpp