Track mode for economy?

[Rhytid]

Track mode allows for 100% power to front or rear or any combination in between. I thought if I set it to 100% rear, it would basically function as a RWD model and have better economy and longer range.

I tried it today and over about 20 miles, it made no difference in the amount of energy used.

Am I just not thinking about it the right way or is track mode a sham?

 

[UncertainTimes]

Correct me if wrong but track mode turns on max cooling and battery conditioning so efficiency is probably not great.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Track mode allows for 100% power to front or rear or any combination in between. I thought if I set it to 100% rear, it would basically function as a RWD model and have better economy and longer range.

I tried it today and over about 20 miles, it made no difference in the amount of energy used.

Am I just not thinking about it the right way or is track mode a sham?

It's not a sham, plenty of tests on Youtube show track mode does divide the power according to the sliders. However, just setting it to 100% to rear does not necessarily mean they fully shut off the front motor (and power inverters). So you may not necessarily be saving much, if any energy, even assuming front motors were dragging things down in first place (which it might not have in the first place).

FYI just shutting down the front motor does not turn it into a RWD model. You would also need to reduce the weight and go to 18 inch aero wheels. Those two play significant roles in how efficient it is.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

First of all, the front motor is generally only used for hard acceleration, it's almost always just freewheeling unpowered.

Second, track mode only adjusts the behavior near the traction limits. It remains AWD when accelerating or RWD when cruising regardless of where the slider is set. Only when you are accelerating hard thru a corner does the slider shift the handling balance toward oversteer/understeer by biasing power (and brakes?) accordingly.

Third, as others mentioned, track mode overcools the powertrain which consumes a little more energy.

 

[tm1v2]

@Rhytid Normal driving mode is very rear-biased already for efficiency. You can feel it if you push the car's limits in a turn. As @Gauss Guzzler said, "Handling Bias" slider seems to mainly affect power delivery in turns especially close to the car's limits.

One aspect of Track Mode can help efficiency - the extra strong regen. 100% regen in Track Mode is stronger than regular regen. You can maintain a faster pace on a twisty road without having to use the friction brakes. Now if you're just driving on the highway, or driving through a city or suburbs at a normal, responsible pace - the extra strength regen is useless, and Track Mode as a whole is useless.

Does the extra strong regen, if you are driving fast enough to use it, more than make up for the extra cooling energy use? My guess is yes, but I haven't tried to do a controlled comparison. If I'm attacking the twisties I'm going to be in Track Mode anyways, and I really like how the extra strong regen feels, so I don't really care if it's truly more efficient (for such driving) or not.

I wish Track Mode had an option to disable the extra cooling.

 

[AdamVIP]

Basically a lot of what everyone else said. You get extra regen but if you are already coasting to a stop on less regen you arent getting additional benefit by doing it faster. The cooling also goes to max for the battery and stays on after you turn off so that burns more energy than normal mode. Also the front motor doesn't kick on unless you are accelerating hard. For normal driving you probably don't use it much at all.

 

[Msicario]

Track mode allows for 100% power to front or rear or any combination in between. I thought if I set it to 100% rear, it would basically function as a RWD model and have better economy and longer range.

I tried it today and over about 20 miles, it made no difference in the amount of energy used.

Am I just not thinking about it the right way or is track mode a sham?

Will it create more HP? MYP faster? Or just to set up to go around a particular race track?