Does turning off Ludicrous Mode save battery?

[Black/Black MS]

I've recently taken to driving around without ludicrous mode engaged, as the acceleration with it turned on tends to make my passengers car sick (acceleration feels a little more gentle with it turned off). Will this translate into a benefit in range or does it not really matter if you're not doing launches?

Bonus question, when you have LM turned on is it always on, or are there conditions (e.g. battery too hot) where you're not getting full power but there's no indicator saying you're not?

 

[whitex]

It's how you drive (speed, acceleration, and amount of regen) that determines energy usage. If you drive the same, you will see no difference between Ludicrous on or off. We have a S60D and a P85DL (Ludicrous always on) and when driving both cars together (one following the other) their power usage is usually within 1% of each other. See [Poll]- Last days to order 60/60D by April 16th, anyone?

As for less than optimal power, I'm sure that happens, sometimes I get a little warning triangles on the power gauge but without any text explanation.

 

[oktane]

Cruise control and lowered speed really help if running low. Was able to achieve 238 W/h/mi driving 65 mph.

 

[davidc18]

turning off "L" will have no impact on your range. Your foot on the pedal will. My average energy use is way (way) higher than the rated range. I do much better in the 70.

 

[Black/Black MS]

I didn't buy the car to drive slow so my real world range is pretty low. I get about 50% of rated miles when I drive around town.

Turning off L does seem to help with the carsickness issue as the acceleration is just a little more gentle, but what I've found from reading other posts is that it's the regen braking that really give the motion sickness feeling to passengers. Since I alway leave regen on standard I'll just have to find a way to be a little slower easing up on the accelerator, but from what I've read it's impossible to hit a sweet spot that doesn't affect passengers.

 

[luckyj]

For me, I think that having L on leads to heavier acceleration, whether intentional or not. That translates into increased power consumption. I leave it off normally.

 

[Pezpunk]

I wouldn't know, it's always on in my car

 

[sakimano]

I didn't buy the car to drive slow so my real world range is pretty low. I get about 50% of rated miles when I drive around town.

Turning off L does seem to help with the carsickness issue as the acceleration is just a little more gentle, but what I've found from reading other posts is that it's the regen braking that really give the motion sickness feeling to passengers. Since I alway leave regen on standard I'll just have to find a way to be a little slower easing up on the accelerator, but from what I've read it's impossible to hit a sweet spot that doesn't affect passengers.

Precisely

The car sickness or motion sickness doesn't come from the motion itself, but it's the unexpected motion that your brain isn't prepared for. Sea sickness isn't because of waves... It's because waves aren't uniform.

For example acceleration far beyond what someone is expecting...or in the case of regen braking, decelerating far beyond what they're expecting, causes the motion sickness.

I keep regen on low. I would love to turn it lower still. I don't see the point. If I leave it on standard what am I going to save...best case 10 % energy usage savings? When you're paying maybe $500 a year in energy (say 10,000 miles at 320 whm), am I going to sacrifice my and my passengers' comfort to save $50? Heck no. Regen off please.

 

[FlyingCookie]

I keep regen on low. I would love to turn it lower still. I don't see the point. If I leave it on standard what am I going to save...best case 10 % energy usage savings? When you're paying maybe $500 a year in energy (say 10,000 miles at 320 whm), am I going to sacrifice my and my passengers' comfort to save $50? Heck no. Regen off please.

This depends entirely on where/how you're driving.

If you spend a lot of time going down long grades where you'd usually be riding the brake to stay under the speed limit, regen can net you a lot of power. There are a lot of roads around Nashville that have downhill slopes with a stop at the end/middle of it, so regen can actually create a net energy gain for a few miles, even on the interstate. I wouldn't say it's higher than maybe 20% range increase, but around here you do notice the difference in range when regen is off.

That being said, making passengers sick isn't really a concern of mine... All my friends have tough stomachs and don't expect a smooth ride in a car with me.

 

[whitex]

I keep regen on low. I would love to turn it lower still. I don't see the point. If I leave it on standard what am I going to save...best case 10 % energy usage savings? When you're paying maybe $500 a year in energy (say 10,000 miles at 320 whm), am I going to sacrifice my and my passengers' comfort to save $50? Heck no. Regen off please.

I think for most, myself included, it's not the money savings on electricity, rather it's extended range. Of few occasions when I filled up to 100% so regen was limited, I've seen my Wh/m go up 20%+.

There are some indirect savings beyond electricity cost too. For one - brake pads. When I had my old Lexus RX400h with regen, I drove it for 50K miles over 7 years and still had over 80% of original brakes left. Then there is the big one, S90D without regen will probably get range closer to S75D with regen. So, if S90D is what you have and don't use regen, you could have saved money and drive S75D with regen - same outcome (slight difference in acceleration).

Another way to look at it, no-regen cost is slight electricity cost increase, more often brake service, and $10K cost of having to get a bigger battery to compensate for the lack of range.

 

[Black/Black MS]

I keep regen on standard simple because that's the way I like to drive. I like the responsiveness. But it's clearly uncomfortable for my passengers so I have to be careful with it. I don't actually set it to low when I drive my family but I try to let off the accelerator more slowly.