Cruise Control or Not for better range/mileage?

[zhottel12]

For the past month or so I've been experimenting with what gets better mileage l, driving with cruise control or without it.

So far, it looks like just driving appears to be better for the battery, but I'm curious what others think.

It makes sense to my brain that slowing more dramatically manually versus what the cruise does means more regen, but its hard for me to accept cruise isn't the most efficient.

Sponsored

 

[Hartland]

Speaking to a Ford EV mechanic only last week he said driving with speed limiter gave best results. It may be as you say more regen

 

[Mach-Lee]

It really depends how you drive. You can drive smoother than cruise control and same some energy, but if you have bad habits like going too fast then cruise control might be better.

For best efficiency you want to limit your acceleration and braking rates, and travel as slow as possible.

The Mach-E has blended braking in all modes, so there isn’t anything inherently more efficient about letting cruise control do the braking vs. doing it yourself. It’s all about the rates.

 

[dtbaker61]

For the past month or so I've been experimenting with what gets better mileage l, driving with cruise control or without it.

So far, it looks like just driving appears to be better for the battery, but I'm curious what others think.

It makes sense to my brain that slowing more dramatically manually versus what the cruise does means more regen, but its hard for me to accept cruise isn't the most efficient.

steady speed is better than accel/decel because regen is not 100% efficient capture.

lower speed, even by 5 mph, will make a bigger difference.

 

[Gloff]

As already stated, consistent, slower speeds increase efficiency. Air resistance gets exponentially higher the faster you go. Additionally, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. If you can coast instead of regen you'll be more efficient. Regen gains some energy back, but you're losing energy due to the physical losses in addition to the small inefficiencies in capturing energy with a motor. Likewise, you'll lose energy gaining that speed back in both the small inefficiencies of the electric motor and the physical losses of acceleration.

Long story short, if you can use cruise control without slowing down, it will likely be a tiny bit more efficient than driving it yourself, but you can slow down some to gain some efficiency.

 

[dbsb3233]

It's pretty moot because people generally aren't gonna be using cruise control where the style of driving matters most: stop and go in the city. It's the fast starts that burn the most additional juice, and the hard stops that waste some regen recapture because the friction brakes have to also kick in.

For highway cruising, the difference should be minuscule. I could see how manual could be slightly better cruising through rolling countryside, where gravity tends to cause people to slow a little on the ups and speed up a little on the downs. Using CC to keep that at a steady 75 probably uses a tiny bit more to fight gravity a bit more often, but certainly not enough to worry about.

OTOH, most people aren't that good on the pedal, and likely end up over-correcting some, offsetting that effect with some quicker acceleration. So probably a wash at best.

 

[dml105]

The big gains in efficiency by using cruise control are a relic of non-hybrid ICE vehicles. The energy used to get up to speed is what cruise control minimizes. But if using regen (as EVs and hybrids do), that cost is nearly neutralized. Removing the cost of getting up to speed, cruise control will provide no savings -- the actual cruise segment of your trip will burn the same energy either way. So if you're looking for a big difference between using it and not using it when driving an EV, don't be surprised if you do not find one.

 

[AliRafiee]

What does the miles/kwh say for each type of usage?

 

[Sikkun]

I’ve passed the same car 30 times on a long road trip….so, going to say cruise control is more efficient than how lots of people drive.

 

[Blusteed]

My perception is that, for highway driving that I do without 1 pedal drive, my feathering the pedal myself uses less energy than cruise control or Bluecruise. One reason may be because on inclines, i don’t feel the need to stay at, say, 65mph. Will let it slow to 60 or 55, then pick up speed again on level or downhill. Again, I say perception because I haven’t actually measured.

Sponsored