Macan Turbo EV – Sport Plus vs Normal… turns out it was Just Regen?

[MMR]

regen is only efficient if you were going to slow the car anyways - otherwise it's a loss…

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[PastaSource]

lift-off regen (or in some vehicle's more extreme one pedal driving) it _NOT_ more efficient than coasting…one pedal driving is what you do if you can not engineer blended braking…

first we need to start with some simple high level 'facts'

1. the friction brakes transform kinetic energy in thermal heat - this heat is dissipated in into the atmosphere…so the more you use them the more you don't add power back to the battery
2. there is no energy recovery - there is only energy you put in to the system that you get back - it was your energy in the first place - you haven't gained anything - you've just lost less that you would've…
3. regen isn't actually that efficient, but it's vastly better than nothing…losses however are still high…

what does Porsche understand that most Tesla-fanboi's and other regen fanatics don't…



broadly in the case of #1 LOROPD is not efficient because it immediately starts harvesting power for the battery and slowing the car - now if you're going to go back to power or wish to maintain speed you now have to add back the power you lost lost - and you have to add back more power than you gained from regen - you've actually lost more power than if you had simply coasted…

in case #2 since you're slowing the car anyways might as well start harvesting power as soon as possible…any power you've could've recovered will just be wasted as heat if we don't get into regen as soon as possible…

Regen is _NOT_ efficient it's just better than nothing…

Tesla put LOROPD in place for several reasons:

• they couldn't do blended braking
• they wanted to have people use the friction brakes as little as possible
• if you get people used to high powered regen they use the friction brakes less
• if your friction brakes are used less you don't have to cool them - reducing cooling ducts drag
• if your friction brakes are used less they don't have to be as large/heavy
• etc…
• there is a whole bunch of "whole system" efficiency gains to be had if you don't design a high performance friction braking system…weight , aero-drag, wheel size, etc…
• Teslas friction brake "system" is actually one of the worse brake system ever deployed on a modern vehicle because it's not designed to be used that often - it bodes on unsafe - and there are stories of near failures on long downhill grades that when the battery is close to full or actually full and regen can't be that power, long duration use of Tesla's brake system on downhill grades drives the system into near failure…Tesla depends on regen Ana OPD so that they can under-design their friction brake system to gain efficiency in other area…steady state causing for example and overall vehicle weight…
  • Porsche pays a huge efficiency penalty because they have world class high performance brakes on their EV's with world class regen. But their friction brakes have no issue with high-performance or high duration use in the compete absence of regen. However this braking system pays huge efficiency penalties in steady state power consumption hauling around an un-necessariily over-designed braking system that is rarely (or never) used…

Coasting is more efficient if you really didn't intend to slow the vehicle
if you don't have blended braking friction brakes are waste of energy

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Porsche's approach is the most technically sophisticated - because regen only happens when you actually use the brake pedal the driver clearly intended to slow the car - time to start harvesting cause otherwise this is all going to be lost energy - and in theory if the friction brakes are not necessary as determined by the blended braking software you never used the friction brakes and still bring the car to a stop…meaning you harvested the maximum amount of energy possible with out a single joule of energy being lost to thermal output…

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine if Porsche's implementation of blended braking achieves "ideal"…

• you don't want OPD for real performance driving because it causes weight transfer
• you don't want OPD for real performance driving because the level of regen (and therefore deceleration) will vary based on battery state
  • (NOTE: the new F1 2026 regulations and regen and battery size/state are causing real problems for the F1 drivers because based on battery state their braking application has to change - it's a real sh*t show)

any conversation about regen and if it's more of less efficient is meaningless without bringing the driver's intention into the conversation - and it all centers around the question of:

did you want to actually slow down the car?

if the answer is "yes" then start regen harvesting as soon as possible
if the answer is "no" then regen should not happen and the vehicle should coast losing the least amount of energy possible…

now the question is - how do we design an interaction system for the driver such that they "cause" regen to happen…and that leads to OPD, blended braking, paddles on the steering wheel (Chevy Bolt) etc…

regen is only efficient if you were going to slow the car anyways - otherwise it's a loss…

What a really brilliant summary, thanks for taking the time to write that up!

From a 'user' perspective, the one time I really value OPD is in stop-start traffic, I know for a fact my wife really dislikes in on the motorway or country lane, for all the jerky retardation it inevitably brings. however smoothly I'm trying to modulate the accelerator.

I thought (still think) I would miss it as doing the school run in busy traffic in a Tesla MY is actually quite relaxing. I didn't enjoy the Macan test drives in full coast mode, felt like my foot was constantly dancing between pedals in traffic, and am still a little concerned about missing OPD if I'm to make the swap (I have an extra few months to decide now, so will be looking to try out a longer Macan drive as well as iX3/EX60/GLC400)... my preference is still Macan for all the reasons I love the marque, but I'm going to try and be practical about it (I still have the Spyder for real fun).

I find personally, that OPD reminded me in a way of one of the things I always preferred about Porsche in the past (986, 987, 981 now 718) and that is the amount of engine braking compared to everyone else. I love the fact that a full lift off, especially in lower gears is accompanied by a significant amount of retardation via engine braking, seeing that rev counter quickly dial back and feeling the car slow, and I liked being able to easily regulate using downshifts to induce more, and brake when I reeeally wanted to slow, not just slow down a bit, or bleed off a little speed through a bend. I personally really disliked the way other sports cars at the time (mostly German/Japanese), just held on to revs in comparison and didn't slow the car down anywhere near what I had come to enjoy.

I'm sure I'd adapt to the absence of OPD, but have just got so used to having it. I'm not one to care too much about the efficiency reasons, more the driving experience and ease of having it for the situations it works well for (i.e. daily/not performance driving ... I just wish, like others seem to, that Porsche offered the option in some fashion without feeling they have to lose face (i.e. it's not a performance 'thing') by providing it.

 

[ColdCase]

Sport plus lowers ride height? Lower is more aerodynamic, sometimes significant mileage improvement at highway speed..

For me there are very specific conditions where OPD is useful, but it otherwise requires much more concentration to drive smoothly. My spouse often mentions how much less head snapping and jostling there is when riding in the Macan than the OPD Mini.

 

[MMR]

From a 'user' perspective, the one time I really value OPD is in stop-start traffic

For that I let the ACC take control

 

[Wivenhoe]

For that I let the ACC take control

Me too !

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