Did you know Neutral (N) does this?

[SnBGC]

Yup and just to clarify- L is not the same as 1PD.

1PD will take your car to a complete stop. L does similar regen, but you have to hit the brake pedal to completely stop. L will creep from a stop, 1 PD will not.

Agree.

In my car....activating "L" provides much higher levels of regen compared to D (all else being equal) but still lower than what I see with 1PD turned on. (again, all else being equal).

In my estimation......L may provide somewhere around 70-80% regeneration level as 1PD. Just a guess though. Never measured it to know for sure. I bet someone has done that already.

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[SignMD]

I am a regular on the forum, but it is possible I missed someone else posting about this. Link to it if you must!

So the other day, I was driving around town and decided to play around with the drive selector. What would happen if I spun it all the way into Reverse or Park? Actually, nothing really happens except for a warning from the car that it won't engage until you are going slower. But Neutral was a revelation.

If you like to hyper-mile, or get the best range possible, coasting is key. It is possible to approximate coasting using the go-pedal and careful modulation, but really you are just playing around the edges. You are either pressing the pedal too hard or too soft, and the car is not really coasting.

But if you put the car in Neutral, it coasts. The car uses zero energy while in Neutral, just like if you are sitting still. If you time things right, you pop it into Neutral and coast up to the stoplight. Of course it won't slow you down, so you either need to press the brake pedal or flip it into Drive to slow the car (using 1PD). I do the latter because I know 1PD is using the motor not the brakes, so I get the best regen possible.

Here is a graph that shows how coasting compares to sitting still. It is exactly the same. So the more time you spend coasting, the less energy you use.

Does it actually improve your efficiency to coast? I think it absolutely does. The challenge is knowing when to coast. Since it uses no energy to coast, if you are going up a hill, you will slow down pretty quickly. If you are in a flat area, you will slow down but not as quickly. Of course you may pick up speed when going down a hill. It takes practice and timing to really get it right.

One thing is for sure at least for me: you don't want to do this with passengers in the car. It is almost impossible to make all the transitions from coasting to Drive smoothly. Some are great and you can't even feel it. Others are rough. I suppose with a lot of practice you can get the transitions to be mostly smooth. It is much easier to drive smoothly by just keeping it in Drive.

Here is a 5.2 mile trip in 50 F weather (not cold) with no heat being used. At that temperature, I often turn off the climate because the car is sufficiently warm inside, especially because I start my drive in the warmer than outside garage.

Starting battery = 67.57 kWh
Ending battery = 66.25
Total battery used = 1.32 kWh
Distance traveled = 5.2 miles
Efficiency = 5.2 / 1.32 = 3.9 mi/kWh

Pretty excellent. Of course there are many variables, and I didn't repeat the trip without using Neutral coasting. I think though, that for a GT, it is about as good as it gets.

The trip was in town, multiple stop lights, and max speed around 45 mph during a one mile stretch. It is definitely a highly efficient route which I would have done well without coasting, but still. I think the coasting helped.

I use the neutral as you described in my test drive last year before I ordered my GT performance edition. I had no problems and agree coasting is the most efficient and I currently have a Audi e-tron that has coasting and also the ability to regen using paddle shifters which I love. I wish the mach-e had a similar setup