Only one EV charger at home?!

Do you have to call them Bev? Are they female?

you need to leave room in the "tank" for

There's no problem. The car could just apply a big load to discharge the battery so it can still use regenerative braking. A big heating element perhaps. Doesn't have to direct it inside the car, it could just go outside.

I'd set it to none. Why should I have to use a pedal to keep the car at a constant speed?

What happens behind you is not your problem.

No, the rest of the world is too thick to buy a car which does something as mundane as gear changing by itself.

My 1998 VW Golf Auto got better mileage. An Auto is always in exactly the most efficient gear. And often between gears.

It f****ng well is if they're going to ram you at 60 mph.

For once I can agree with you. Giving lessons to tailgaters with the handbrake was a favourite trick. Only let it off when the smoking tyres in the mirror were a foot from your rear bumper.

Exactly, sooner or later you'll guess wrong and change down too early.

Why would you think one side of the hill was the same angle as the other?

I was, in 1997. I stopped doing that as soon as I passed the test. Braking is much more controllable. Engine braking is all or nothing, completely unsuitable for gracefully changing speed. Think about the erson behind you seeing a car lurching about with no brakelights.

A much more sensible idea.

That's only because you don't know how to do it properly.

They soon learn not to drive too close to you.

The best idea is to compromise with a sensible mixture of gear-changing and braking.

It's all old-hat anyway. The cars of the future, and a lot of them now, use regenerative braking. Which is another new skill to learn.

Mine may be a bit elderly, but the level of regen available depends on battery temperature and level of charge. Ideal for energy use minimisation is to not use the brake pedal at all except to hold when stopped, which means slowing down earlier when it's cold or you are starting out with a full battery.

nib

I had a friend who changed gear to get engine breaking, His engine broke!

I use lift and coast, if I am not in a hurry. Very little engine braking on an auto. The challenge is for the cruise control, set to 30mph, to just cut in as you pass the 30 limit sign...

No, the pedal simply mechanically activates the brakes from halfway down onwards. Above that is by wire for regeneration.

It should also take quite some time to run out of pressure.

Start stop is pointless, it saves f*ck all petrol to turn the engine off for a minute.

But their hydrogas suspension is amazing. Only Bose suspension beats it - you don't even feel speedbumps with it, it lifts the wheels over them after spotting them with a camera.

I think the energy saving (or lack of it!) is not the only reason for using start/stop. It also saves cars sitting in queues of traffic (eg at lights) with their engines giving out exhaust fumes while the engine is idling. So it's partly an anti-pollution thing.

I wonder how long the engine has to be turned off and then restarted, for it to produce less exhaust / use less fuel than leaving the engine idling. Bearing in mind the energy used by the battery to restart the engine, and the fuel needed to replace this energy in the battery.