Carnut said:First thing to clear up is the fact that the paddles do NOT operate gears. the only gears the car has is a CVT transmission twixt ICE and generator to stop the engine over-revving at high speed.( Had to 'phone Colt Cars in Cirencester to ascertain this, so it is straight from the horse's mouth!) They control the amount of energy being put into the battery. As with any electrical generator, the more power going in the more difficult it is to turn.
Think of them as brakes.
As far as HHL's comment goes. Yes I was not as pleased with myself as I had hoped but it WAS only the first time I had been on a longish run so I blame lack of practice.
As far as the SM's achievement goes . I wondered how he did it as well?
I have searched YOUTUBE for a video but cannot find one.
All I can tell you is what I wrote in my 'Steamed up' thread. quoted below.
I was driving off using left paddle on 5 and only easing off if it slowed me down too much. Apparently you have to drive nearly ALL the time on ZERO regen, using the 2 ton weight of the car to coast , which it does with consummate ease over very long distances. then crank on enough regen to slow you down at junctions or preceding traffic, then footbrake to stop you if required,
back to ZERO regen as you pull away. etc.
I was using the steep hills to put MORE juice (5) back in the battery and often slowing down too much and if it was hill>dip then up> another hill, I was obviously using much more EV to get up the second hill than I put in going down the first. Coast down, using momentum to get you up as much of the up gradient as possible.
So to try and make it clearer.
Use ECO button at all times. Use zero when driving. coming to a traffic light, junction or queue of cars . crank on as much left paddle as is required to slow you down. DO NOT BRAKE until you have to. as soon as you move off decrease regen using right paddle back to zero.
Or if you can't be bothered with all this faffing about just leave it on TWO!
thanks bro for your valuble openion..