What's Your Default Driving Mode?

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Fisher99

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2019
Messages
424
Curious as to what driving mode people are using with their i3's. Mine is Eco Pro. In fact I used Bimmercode to set that as the default so that I don't have to change it everytime I drive the car.

Comfort Mode is a heck of a lot more fun, and I do use it from time to time when I'm not concerned about range. Or when some guy in a Honda Civic with a "tennis ball shooter exhaust" thinks he can beat me to the next stoplight... But most of the time I'm all about squeezing the extra miles out of the battery.
 
I like the idea of defaulting to Eco Pro. I was really consistent about switching into it during the first few months I owned the car, but now I'm 50/50 at best.

But I'm also convinced that most of the benefits of Eco Pro can be replicated with a light pedal touch. I like that Eco Pro remaps the throttle response to encourage me to accelerate more slowly and enforces an artificial speed limit, but I find that I'm conscious of that in Comfort mode and am pretty good at doing it myself. And if the outside air temperature is agreeable, I might just shut off the A/C / cabin heat completely and gain a big spike in estimate range.
 
My average trips almost never tax the available range, so I just leave it in COMFORT mode. ONce in awhile, I've put it in an ECO mode if I was on a longer trip, but if you are aware of what's going on, you can approach the ECO mode's efficiency while in COMFORT...not fully, but close.
 
I coded our BEV to start in EcoPro mode. In iDrive, I have disabled the speed warning and have decoupled climate control from EcoPro mode so that I have full cabin cooling power should I need it. So basically, the only difference from Comfort mode is the less sensitive power pedal mapping in its initial range. Full power remains available when the power pedal is depressed fully.
 
My driving is 95% urban, block-to-block commuting, so COMFORT is perfect!

I'll switch to ECO PRO to tame accelerator inputs when low on range, but as others have written, with careful moves on the go pedal and climate control adjustments, a COMFORT driver can mostly do everything that a regression to ECO PRO will do.
 
Race Mode! Ha! I'll have to look for that...

I too turn off the HVAC whenever conditions are right. Actually, I'll run it a lot colder in winter or hotter in summer if I'm by myself, but if my wife is along I typically do whatever is necessary to keep it comfortable. Happy wife, happy life...

I hadn't thought about coding to give full HVAC in Eco Pro mode, but might look into that. Seems like a good mod.

Personally, I don't have enough self control to accelerate lightly when in Comfort mode. I need Eco Pro to enforce that. I always thought that I would get more mature as I aged, but have found that all that has happened is that I've gotten older... Now where can I find that Race Mode... :D
 
Fisher99 said:
Now where can I find that Race Mode... :D

There's a large, funny-looking knob sticking out of the right side of the steering column. Turn it counter-clockwise in drive readiness mode with your foot on the brake pedal, and the "R" will light up for race mode. :lol:

Funny side story from my trip home today. I stopped at a traffic light, and smelled a strong raw diesel fuel odor. The first thought that I had was that the upgraded #4 injector line had ruptured again. As I was sitting at the red light looking through the intersection for a place to pull over, I realized that I was driving the i3 (BEV) and not the Cummins! Amazing how a smell could automatically trigger a whole train of thought like that.....
 
Back
Top