Recuperation System is Driving Me Crazy!

grind4it · Oct 9, 2024

Ok, so I’m trying to wrap my head around the recuperation system on my A3, and I’m hitting a bit of a snag.

In Auto mode, it coasts way too much for my liking, but when I switch to Manual, it feels like I’m slamming on the brakes!

Is there any way to tweak the recuperation level?

icee · Oct 10, 2024

The A3 E-tron does not have the typical regeneration "levels" like you see on the VW E-golf or other EVs. It takes a little getting used to.

1. While in Auto and Drive mode, the car will coast and not regen at all. This is great for overall efficiency.

2. For maximum regen, use the shifter to put the car into sport mode, you'll have to touch the brake pedal ever so slightly to get the car to max regen, all while not engaging the friction brakes.

3. Pushing the shifter to the right for manual mode doesn't regen as aggressively as Sport mode. I also did not play with this mode to figure out the relationship of speed/gear to the amount of regeneration I could observe. With our relatively tiny HV battery (when compared to a pure EV) I throw it into S mode on long downhill roads to push as much and as fast into the battery as possible. It feels like anything other than max regen doesn't help gain back usable energy.

Be mindful of your what your brake lights are indicating as you are trying to eek in a few more miles into the battery! I inadvertantly made a guy behind me mad as it looked like I was riding my brakes all the way down a mountain road in S mode.

I have a 2018 e-tron so there is no charge mode on my car. I made myself super sick by trying to charge the battery in Sport by getting on the gas to build speed and pulling off the pedal to push the energy in hold mode back in. I looked like a moron with the yo-yo speed ups and slow downs and I think I managed to push in 3 miles of range. Not worth it.

etronfan · Oct 11, 2024

Hello,
Yes and no.
S EV mode exists on the 2015 so you can have regen on EV mode.
This a bug that I have « published » on YouTube.

It does not work on the 2018 sadly.

etronfan · Oct 11, 2024

icee said:
The A3 E-tron does not have the typical regeneration "levels" like you see on the VW E-golf or other EVs. It takes a little getting used to.

1. While in Auto and Drive mode, the car will coast and not regen at all. This is great for overall efficiency.

2. For maximum regen, use the shifter to put the car into sport mode, you'll have to touch the brake pedal ever so slightly to get the car to max regen, all while not engaging the friction brakes.

3. Pushing the shifter to the right for manual mode doesn't regen as aggressively as Sport mode. I also did not play with this mode to figure out the relationship of speed/gear to the amount of regeneration I could observe. With our relatively tiny HV battery (when compared to a pure EV) I throw it into S mode on long downhill roads to push as much and as fast into the battery as possible. It feels like anything other than max regen doesn't help gain back usable energy.

Be mindful of your what your brake lights are indicating as you are trying to eek in a few more miles into the battery! I inadvertantly made a guy behind me mad as it looked like I was riding my brakes all the way down a mountain road in S mode.

I have a 2018 e-tron so there is no charge mode on my car. I made myself super sick by trying to charge the battery in Sport by getting on the gas to build speed and pulling off the pedal to push the energy in hold mode back in. I looked like a moron with the yo-yo speed ups and slow downs and I think I managed to push in 3 miles of range. Not worth it.

Hello,
Yes and no.
S EV mode exists on the 2015 so you can have regen on EV mode.
This a bug that I have « published » on YouTube.

It does not work on the 2018 sadly.

bruuster · Oct 11, 2024

When in Sport Mode the ICE starts. So if you're trying to charge the battery you're wasting gas. When I'm driving on freeway more than 20 EV miles I'll put the car in Sport Mode which helps charge the battery on deceleration. As I get to my exit, I'll switch to EV and drive the surface streets. If I'm in bumper to bumper traffic I leave in EV Manual Mode and have 1 pedal driving which adds charge to battery. Just a few tips I've learned with the A3 over the last 5 years.

Jacks A3 ET · Oct 11, 2024

There is a fellow on YouTube in Europe who claims to have found a way the get that EV Charging in Hybrid. Said if you select manual then quickly shift to auto then down to Sport you will get the deleted charging mode??
Not sure if this is what you want.
But I did have a long drive that enguged Hybrid after I was in EV fo 20 miles - zero EV miles - and by the time we got home, I had Gained 5 miles of charge? There was down hill roads much of the way home. My A3 is an early production 2017 built in 2016.

etronfan · Oct 12, 2024

Jacks A3 ET said:
There is a fellow on YouTube in Europe who claims to have found a way the get that EV Charging in Hybrid. Said if you select manual then quickly shift to auto then down to Sport you will get the deleted charging mode??
Not sure if this is what you want.
But I did have a long drive that enguged Hybrid after I was in EV fo 20 miles - zero EV miles - and by the time we got home, I had Gained 5 miles of charge? There was down hill roads much of the way home. My A3 is an early production 2017 built in 2016.

If the video you are talking about is from « fun car reviews », that would be me

Jacks A3 ET · Oct 12, 2024

etronfan said:
If the video you are talking about is from « fun car reviews », that would be me

Thanks for the Videos. I have seen several and they helped me learn more about. My E-tron. Though your A3 is earlier model & without Tech Package, And mine is a US version, much is the same. Regards from a US A3 owner.
P. S. Where are you LOCATED. I am traveling in Coatia for a week.

etronfan · Oct 12, 2024

Jacks A3 ET said:
Thanks for the Videos. I have seen several and they helped me learn more about. My E-tron. Though your A3 is earlier model & without Tech Package, And mine is a US version, much is the same. Regards from a US A3 owner.
P. S. Where are you LOCATED. I am traveling in Coatia for a week.

You are welcome. Glad to see if was of help

, as I have seen lots of « not that correct or missing » information. That’s why I decided to create that channel.

The bug that I have discovered helps a lot of people as they where disappointed that the GTE has the regen and not the A3. I have sent it to Audi but did not want to confirm it was a bug.
Unfortunately, it was not working on the 2018 facelift.

I am in Switzerland.

I had the 2015 A3 e-Tron. Lots of fun but not full option (it was a second hand as i did not want to pay too much).
I sold it after 4 years and took the new one, new.
I really loved it. I just had one problem with it and preferred to sell it just in case.

Jacks A3 ET · Oct 16, 2024

Are you doing new videos on the new A3? I am sure this Forum group would be interested, as I would. Like you I bought used for $20000 as I would not have bought new at $47000. But if my 2017 lasted 5 years, I would consider a 2024 model used. I really like the size of the A3 and the Hybrid drive system suits our needs perfectly. As we only have 22000 miles on this car, And only drive about 4000 miles annually it should still have som trade value in exchange for a later model.
Regards, Seattle Jack

Kenny1678 · Oct 18, 2024

I just got my 2018, drove it from Colorado back home to Virginia! On my trip I discovered that going into sport mode on the highway, the car would "intelligently" use the ICE as a generator to bring the battery up to a max of 50% when in battery hold mode. You can tell when it's doing this by watching fuel economy, while driving on a totally flat road at a consistent speed I could see the economy drop by 15 MPG and the charge would jump up.

So technically, the facelift cars do have a recharge mode! It's just really not obvious in any way shape or form.

Plus, while watching the HV battery current numbers while driving in charge hold mode (normal drive mode), it does indeed use the engine to recharge most of the energy consumed when it shuts off the engine and coasts using electric for a while. It doesn't always get back 100% of what it used, which is why the charge tends to slowly drop even in hold mode.

I'm enjoying learning the techniques and oddities of the hybrid system, not to mention just how efficient you can be with the right type of driving. With my car being the prestige trim, setting the lane assist and ACC behind a truck I was at one point averaging 59MPG (3.98L/100km)!

icee · Oct 18, 2024

That's a neat find!

I've read several people on this forum describe how, like you, sport mode got them around 50% charge back. I assumed that the only charge you got was from the regen braking while in sport mode so I never really saw more than 5 to 10% charge gained going from stop light to stop light.

I just never had enough patience to just leave the car in sport mode on the long highway stretches.

I understand that this is not great for over all gas efficiency, but this satisfies my "need" to push some power back into the battery on long trips just so there is always a few bars of power for wide open throttle "boost".

etronfan · Oct 19, 2024

Kenny1678 said:
I just got my 2018, drove it from Colorado back home to Virginia! On my trip I discovered that going into sport mode on the highway, the car would "intelligently" use the ICE as a generator to bring the battery up to a max of 50% when in battery hold mode. You can tell when it's doing this by watching fuel economy, while driving on a totally flat road at a consistent speed I could see the economy drop by 15 MPG and the charge would jump up.

So technically, the facelift cars do have a recharge mode! It's just really not obvious in any way shape or form.

Plus, while watching the HV battery current numbers while driving in charge hold mode (normal drive mode), it does indeed use the engine to recharge most of the energy consumed when it shuts off the engine and coasts using electric for a while. It doesn't always get back 100% of what it used, which is why the charge tends to slowly drop even in hold mode.

I'm enjoying learning the techniques and oddities of the hybrid system, not to mention just how efficient you can be with the right type of driving. With my car being the prestige trim, setting the lane assist and ACC behind a truck I was at one point averaging 59MPG (3.98L/100km)!

Indeed driving in sport mode brings your car to battery hold mode and therefore trying to keep your battery steady. This is more true on highways because of the speed. It is also the case while city driving but will not really work as speed is too low. So you ll lose battery in battery hold mode on city driving, slowly.

etronfan · Oct 19, 2024

Jacks A3 ET said:
Are you doing new videos on the new A3? I am sure this Forum group would be interested, as I would. Like you I bought used for $20000 as I would not have bought new at $47000. But if my 2017 lasted 5 years, I would consider a 2024 model used. I really like the size of the A3 and the Hybrid drive system suits our needs perfectly. As we only have 22000 miles on this car, And only drive about 4000 miles annually it should still have som trade value in exchange for a later model.
Regards, Seattle Jack

I have only done a couple on the new one, pre facelift (the latest I bought, in 2021, new) but nothing as advanced as the old one (lack of time).
But you can ask me questions about it as I have it for almost 3 years now and have tested it thoroughly.
If I can answer you, I ll do, or test.
I also wanted to make a very approximative table on the horsepowers as it greatly differs between modes.

I love the new one. Battery is way better than the first gen (also bigger).

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