Can you set the car to remember the drive mode you last used?

Only ECO and NORMAL will stay in those modes. SPORT and CUSTOM will revert back to NORMAL on next startup.

 

I feel it's worth pointing out, but you do realize all drive mode changes is throttle response at the pedal right? And that at as the pedal approaches fully pressed all the modes converge on response time (ie. if you go full throttle in any of the modes then the response is the same in all of them).

 

It is possible to select Eco mode in the AC separately from the Drive Select, and that will stick.

 

The throttle response is the least of the appeals. In sport mode it changes the steering stiffness and bumps up the regen braking a little bit which makes it better to drive. You can change the steering in the custom mode but since it doesn't stick on start up, it's not worth much.

 

Steering feel can be customized in the head unit I believe and that setting should remain. Been a while since I played around with those settings but I'm almost sure there was a steering setting in there.

 

There is, for custom mode. Which is not a mode that persists on start up. AFAIK there's no way to modify ECO or Normal mode beyond the "Eco AC" mode. If you find a different way let me know but I've played with those settings when I first got it and was disappointed that I couldn't change the modes further.

 

I know there are a LOT of differences between Gen 4 and 5 that I don't know about yet, so take this as experienced from a Gen 4 owner.
The question has been asked in regard to the Gen 4 as well, except related to changing the default Startup behavior to HV mode from EV mode.
I wouldn't pretend to know why there is no reason stated in the owners manual for persistent presets of either Gen 4 HV mode at startup or Gen 5 Individual Mode at startup. I'm sure there is a reason. The reason might be complex and very hard to explain. Or the reason might be proprietary.
Either way, or even for some other reason the lack of persistence of these options are not spelled out, I've found that it's easy enough already to make mistakes in driving these plugins. Simple mistakes could easily be magnified by making custom settings like HV mode or Individual mode ( persistent defaults ON startup)..

Might that or another possible reason(s) be a good enough to withhold that persistence settings convenience
and make the driver learn the presets they want, and not include the preset option on an already complex network.

 

The reason is actually very simple - the cars are tested and approved with certain settings producing certain amounts of emissions/co2. It must be guaranteed that the user cannot change these settings permanently otherwise the car would be different from whatever was approved. Obviously its not an issue to have lower emissions - thats why ECO stays as well.

Similar at least in EU you cannot set HV mode in the Prime as default - if there is battery left the car will always start into EV. Might be more a regulatory requirement in this case but comes down to emissions as well.