I haven't seen this posted anywhere, so I start a new thread. The user's manual says: "ECO Accelerator Guidance” - A blue zone is displayed in the Eco area which can be used as a reference operation range for using the accelerator pedal according to driving conditions such as starting off and cruising. It is easier to drive in an Eco-friendly manner by driving according to the display showing the accelerator pedal operations and staying within the “ECO Accelerator Guidance” range. (→P. 237) I have tried to understand what logic drives the blue fading bar (displayed behing the HSI bar, linked to how you much you press the accelerator), and found out the following: when coming out of a curve, the bar is longer than when trying to accelerate from the same speed when not in a curve if on an incline, the bar is longer than when on a flat road (i.e. the length of the bar is "incline aware") when accelerating on a flat road, the bar will slowly increase length, showing how fast should one press the accelerator (it promotes (extremely) smooth accelerations) when starting from a stop, the bar goes full length (but before PWR zone) when using DRCC, or CC, or the speed limiter, what a surprise, the bar is not displayed on flat roads, sometimes the length of the bar is shorter or longer depending on the charge of the battery and speed and whether the ICE is running or not when increasing speed (not from a full stop) the bar "advises" to accelerate only just a tad after the mid line, i.e. you are allowed to start the ICE going above the mid-line (like on Gen3), but don't pulse, simply have the gas engine push the car directly (without MG2 pushing too) while very slowly charging the battery --> is that really efficient? the 90mpg I have done yesterday on my commute back from work using this "technique" seems to work, but this morning I got a 62mpg, quite in line with my average on the same route, same temps, same everything, without not paying attention to this "advice" from the bar... also EV % ratio was exactly in line with the average in the same condition and route Have you guys noticed anything else? Is it a gimmick or simply a way to teach drivers coming from cars from yesteryear on how to drive efficiently? Do experience drivers get anything useful from it? It's like the ECO score. Today I got a 92, but my fuel consumption, as mentioned in point 7, was not the least more special than usual...
Yes, I've noticed all these - it seems to read the road ahead, and I'm still trying to get to understand how. It's easier to follow in ECO mode than POWER due to the less aggressive throttle response. Unfortunately, I use DRCC for the majority of my driving so I'm not getting the benefit I possibly could. We don't have the speed limiter here - GROAN!!! One other thing, if you're at a standstill and with enough battery (and if the ICE isn't running) and you SELECT EV mode, it seems to bring in a slightly different set of "rules" and holds EV beyond the normal cutoff for EV till you get to some predetermined speed (about 30km/hr I think) when EV stops playing. What I would REALLY love is if there was a DRCC or CC mode where you could tell it to "KEEP TO THE BLUE ZONE" only. Sadly, no.
If I relied on the ECO guidance bar as my acceleration, there would be some angry people lining up behind me. It's way too conservative with acceleration.
I drive now always in Normal mode. I see no marked difference in fuel consumption and the car is more zippy with my usual foot pressure. Moreover I can set the AC to ECO regardless of the mode. In Gen3 I couldn't do that, and in winter that did bring a visible hit in fuel consumption. The Eco Accelerator Guidance for me is also too conservative. I am following it now to understand how it works and also a guideline to accelerate more progressively when possible. Otherwise as traffic or situation requires, I don't care. Probably at one point I will disable it or keep another screen altogether in the MFD and in the HUD. That in the USA when merging in the highway, even a full HSI bar is not enough, I know that well from my personal experience when living 4 months in Silicon Valley and several travels also in other states. The lanes to speed up are typically really short, they are often simply becoming after a short while exit lanes already, and those in the right most lane, simply don't slow down or change lane to let you in (as instead it happens in EU - most of the times). So either you reach cruise speed ASAP or you end up exiting the highway at the next exit as you are stuck in your lane with car zipping next to you in the left lane.... BTW, also here in EU even with people letting you in, the acceleration with full HSI Bar is not fast enough to reach reasonably fast the average traffic speed. I only accelerate "that slow" when traffic allows it, hoping to save a few drops of fuel...
