[Jason Carmichael]

1 - coast.

2 - press the brake pedal.

3 - pressing down on the cruise control (Set/-). It's like a double click, do a double down and hold. Watch the charge gauge.

4 - tow it.

 

[yticolev]

No regen from towing. But you will damage it if towing all four wheels.

 

[jmurphEV]

No regen from towing. But you will damage it if towing all four wheels.

Purely hypothetically (seriously, do not try this at home) if you flat towed the Niro at a steady speed with the ignition on and in gear (with a driver obviously) it would be exactly the same situation from the car's point of view as if it were coasting down a long hill. It would be the single most inefficient way to charge the battery, but it would probably work. >

First question, at a steady 50mph with no brake pedal input, just the default coast regen, how long would it take to charge the PHEV battery from 0 mile range to the max 26? :nerd:

Second question, repeat the above calculation at max regen (just before the friction brakes are engaged). :nerd::nerd:

Last question, how long (in nanoseconds) would it take Kia to void your powertrain warranty if you tried this unbelievably dumb stunt?

I feel a MythBusters episode coming on.

 

[cockedandglocked]

I would bet it would probably take 200 miles to fully regen the battery while coasting (being pulled by another car).

This based on my experience of getting roughly +1 mile for every 5 miles of coasting, the few times I've actually been able to coast for that far.

In full Regen (foot on brake), it might regen the battery in 100 miles or so.

 

[Jason Carmichael]

I have only ever seen my 17 Niro fully charged 3 times. 2 in the same drive.

Tonto National Forest, Arizona. Very long 6% highways. I recall it being fully charged while driving(coasting with cruise set at 70). It took about 2 miles and was full.

I don't know how to do full regen with brake pedal without getting into the friction brakes, but I when you do double tap down on the cruise (Set/-) it does way more regen than coasting. I think the friction brakes really only are applied at like 8 mph and less, and of course in emergency stopping.

Test this out. Set your cruise at 25 or 30 or something, drive to 55 or 60 or something, then press the resume button. It feels like you slamming on the brakes.

 

[badyellowvette]

I have accidentally put my Niro hybrid in neutral going down hill you should see how fast it will coast, no regen though. I sometimes do this with my Chevy HHR and coast almost 3 miles. The Niro will go too fast for the curves.

 

[yticolev]

Speaking of coasting, I learned something interesting on the Ioniq forum. Sitting at a stoplight, the motor is drawing half an amp (for the crawl function) in drive, zero in neutral. While actually "crawling", the motor is drawing 2 amps. Crawl is evil! I'm going to try to get into the habit of shifting to neutral at a stop to save energy.

On a related topic, I did a really long coast down in drive on the flat. At exactly 6 mph (or 10 kmh), it stopped slowing down and regenerating and switched to crawl. Clearly, if one is actively braking, physical brakes have to be blended in by 6 mph. Could happen a bit earlier, say blended braking starting at around 10 mph on a slow or normal stop, but I, like so many others, cannot tell where blending begins. I only notice the physical brakes on the last few feet of a normal stop. Anyway, that give a good hint for others who want to know where the physical brakes are engaged. For fast or panic braking, all bets are off!

 

[badyellowvette]

I coast to improve mph in the HHR has no effect in the Niro.

 

[yticolev]

You mean mpg? Well, technically, coasting in neutral will improve mpg in the Niro too, for example coasting down to a stop in neutral is better than going faster and using regen as regen is never as efficient as preserving momentum. If you really meant going faster, I don't know why it wouldn't on a good hill.

 

[badyellowvette]

You mean mpg? Well, technically, coasting in neutral will improve mpg in the Niro too, for example coasting down to a stop in neutral is better than going faster and using regen as regen is never as efficient as preserving momentum. If you really meant going faster, I don't know why it wouldn't on a good hill.

I did mean mpg but it does increase mph also, I have a really steep hill. And it does nothing in the Niro to increase mpg. It works out the same as going down the hill in drive.

 

[Binder V]

I have the 2020 hybrid Ex (wish the dealer had talked me into the ex premium - should have done my homework. $15 bucks more a month). Anyway, I have tried to get mine fully charged and only frustrated myself. Got the full bars and within seconds it was gone. I tried a different experiment and got a surprising result. Sitting in my driveway, in park, gently pressing on the excellerator to engage the ICE and generator, I timed it to see how long the "generator" would take to charge up one bar. Six minutes, BUT THE BAR WENT DOWN!!!!!?? HUH!?!? Can anyone explain that? So, that won't work. I know its a dumb idea, since the whole point is fuel economy and not charging a battery. As I said, it was simply an experiment.
So, back to the cruise control idea and having it regen the batteries - is there any geniuses out there that might know how to trick the niro, with a switch wired into the cruise that could make it think its slowing the vehicle down via cruise and then you simply just release when you get slowed to what you want or as you approach a light, etc? I know I sure wondered how the niro was able to slow so quickly on cruise. It was amazing. Why no paddle or reverse excellerator feature, like the BMW i3?

 

[atc98092]

I have the 2020 hybrid Ex (wish the dealer had talked me into the ex premium - should have done my homework. $15 bucks more a month). Anyway, I have tried to get mine fully charged and only frustrated myself. Got the full bars and within seconds it was gone. I tried a different experiment and got a surprising result. Sitting in my driveway, in park, gently pressing on the excellerator to engage the ICE and generator, I timed it to see how long the "generator" would take to charge up one bar. Six minutes, BUT THE BAR WENT DOWN!!!!!?? HUH!?!? Can anyone explain that? So, that won't work. I know its a dumb idea, since the whole point is fuel economy and not charging a battery. As I said, it was simply an experiment.
So, back to the cruise control idea and having it regen the batteries - is there any geniuses out there that might know how to trick the niro, with a switch wired into the cruise that could make it think its slowing the vehicle down via cruise and then you simply just release when you get slowed to what you want or as you approach a light, etc? I know I sure wondered how the niro was able to slow so quickly on cruise. It was amazing. Why no paddle or reverse excellerator feature, like the BMW i3?

With the standard hybrid, there is a computer controlling the amount of electricity that can be put in the battery. It's not like a PHEV or BEV where you can charge to 100%. With the hybrid, the computer keeps the battery somewhere between 25-75%. It can go higher when using regen down a long hill, and in fact that's one of the reasons the computer doesn't let it go super high under regular conditions. There has to be buffer space in the battery to allow for regen, and for battery health it will try to stay above 25%. With my PHEV, it will let the battery go as low as 18% before switching to hybrid mode, and a heavy foot will let it drop even lower. But again, for battery health it will bring the charge back up to 18-20% as a lower level.

 

[Binder V]

I have the 2020 hybrid Ex (wish the dealer had talked me into the ex premium - should have done my homework. $15 bucks more a month). Anyway, I have tried to get mine fully charged and only frustrated myself. Got the full bars and within seconds it was gone. I tried a different experiment and got a surprising result. Sitting in my driveway, in park, gently pressing on the excellerator to engage the ICE and generator, I timed it to see how long the "generator" would take to charge up one bar. Six minutes, BUT THE BAR WENT DOWN!!!!!?? HUH!?!? Can anyone explain that? So, that won't work. I know its a dumb idea, since the whole point is fuel economy and not charging a battery. As I said, it was simply an experiment.
So, back to the cruise control idea and having it regen the batteries - is there any geniuses out there that might know how to trick the niro, with a switch wired into the cruise that could make it think its slowing the vehicle down via cruise and then you simply just release when you get slowed to what you want or as you approach a light, etc? I know I sure wondered how the niro was able to slow so quickly on cruise. It was amazing. Why no paddle or reverse excellerator feature, like the BMW i3?

1 - coast.

2 - press the brake pedal.

3 - pressing down on the cruise control (Set/-). It's like a double click, do a double down and hold. Watch the charge gauge.

4 - tow it.

Reference to#3: Thanks to you and your #3 suggestion, I have discovered how to "set" the cruise at 30km/hr and then drive at whatever the speed limit is and the cruise will flash "30". Then when I wish to decelerate, I just let off the gas and it (cruise) works the regeneration to get the Niro to 30. Its so cool..it's like having reverse acceleration (such as the BMW i3 has). Thank you!!