I always drive in D, whereas my wife mainly uses B and switches to D on motorways and dual carriageways. Use whichever you are most comfortable with. I don't think efficiency is affected as much as by other factors (wind, rain, cold, etc).

 

I have found the same; D for long-distance cruising and NSL roads, B for stop-start stuff, but don't really stress about changing exactly as the road changes.

 

I've found that I tend to use B mode when the traffic is going at under 70km/h and D mode when faster than that. In UK terms that would be a dividing line of ~40mph

 

B mode around town and ACC everywhere else providing the road is not too twisty.

 

You can use ACC in either D or B mode can’t you? Unless I’ve been missing something.

 

VW design D as the preferred mode and I don't personally like the feel of B.

 

Albeit, this is based on my 20 min test drive, but I tried 5 mins of B and didn't like it. It seemed counterintuitive to pressing on. I can see it being of benefit only to people who drive with a lead foot on both the accelerator and brake, with no real anticipation of the road ahead, those who accelerate to a roundabout and then jump on the brakes rather than those who come off the accelerator early and brake lighter and later.

I think I'll be sticking with D when I get mine (which should have landed in Grimsby today after a 7 week wait in Emden).

 

Another vote for D mode here. As above I have only driven it for a test drive (2 hours), but after that and 40 minutes in a model 3 (essentially B mode +) I preferred D mode in the ID.3 by a large margin.

 

Coming from an ICE automatic, I initially found B had a more familiar feel.

However I soon switched to just leaving it in D unless I know I’m going to need to slow down before the car ever could (such as stretches of road with speed bumps)

 

A few minutes during a test drive is not enough to understand the pros and cons of B and D.

Once you have the car, I suggest that you try again over an extended period.

That's what my wife and I did when we got our Golf GTE nearly four years ago.

I enjoyed learning the technique of using B properly and have continued to use it exclusively ever since. A little adjustment was needed when changing to the November 2020 ID3 but 2.1 upgrade takes me back to virtually the GTE technique.

My wife has stuck with D after her experiments. That means our brakes do not rust like they would if I was the only driver.

It's a very relaxing car to drive either way and I doubt that you could measure any difference in economy.

 

I'll have another play when I get the car, but for me, I'm pretty sure I'd rather drive a car that's wanting to keep moving rather than trying to stop without your input. It's more economical to preserve your momentum and minimise waste rather than rely on a recovery system that is probably 60-70% efficient.

I'm presuming that using the brake pedal to a certain extent activates the regen rather than actually using the brakes and the actual brakes kick in under a firmer pedal press, as they would in B mode anyway - is that correct? If so, I'd think that driving in a way that generally preserves momentum in D mode would be noticeably more efficient than driving in an uneconomical manner and rely on "B" mode to save you some of that wastage.

I used to smash the combined mpg figures before stop-start massively skewed the figures. Even now, my missus averages 33mpg in our Polo GTI+ and I average 37mpg doing similar journeys. I get up to speed quicker than her but brake half as much as she does...anticipation of the road ahead.

 

As I understand if D and B mode have no effect on the amount of brake usage. They just change the way the regen is controlled.

 

Classic advice is D on motorway and fast open roads then B on rural twisties and urban roads.

 

After 9000 miles in mine, on mostly A and M-Way roads, I’m a confirmed D man now.

I can achieve better efficiency using anticipation, acceleration and coasting than ACC and I find B mode scrubs off hard won momentum unnecessarily.

In a city environment, or twisty B roads, or descending a big hill, B could be better, but I’m not a fan.

 

I’ve yet to find a scenario where B suits so I don’t think I’ll bother complicating things in future and I’ll just stick with D

 

The brakes only kick in after 0.25g worth of deceleration or very slow speeds. Regen for everything else.

 

Thanks, interesting replies. I’d thought they’d be more B fans, especially as youtubers like Teslabjorn always drive in B. But there is plenty to be said for a natural feeling freewheeling coast.
Of course ID3 typically has some intelligent regeneration assist in D which slightly complicates things I guess.
I think I’ll start using D more on faster roads.

 

D mode for me all the time unless I'm in stop/start traffic but I turn off the intelligent regen assist by making sure its in normal and not eco, I find it annoying when I switch on sport mode and it acts as though it's in B mode.

 

It's really interesting that the majority seem to prefer D mode. If you listened to the youtube reviews you would assume that VW failed because B mode was not strong enough for full 'one pedal driving'. I much prefer D as , as has already been said above, it seems much more relaxing and smoother when the car coasts rather then being artificially braked. I wonder if this is true for other EVs (such as Tesla) which have really strong regen braking?

 

I'm not fussed about one pedal driving, therefore it's been easy to ignore every ID.3 reviewer's obsession with banging on about it...

 

Plus I thought it has been said that full regen on a heavy rear wheel car wasn’t safe in winter conditions..?

 

The whole subject of D v B has been debated for years. I have driven many different EVs and experienced the ways that the various OEMs provide access to regen. The early systems were pretty crude and drivers adapted to develop new skills that required much more finesse when using the 'go' pedal. It has always been possible to find the sweet spot where the car would coast - between drive and regen - and that gave many people some satisfaction. Others found it to be irksome as they regarded the accelerator as a switch that was either on or off.

The Korean cars developed the flappy paddle approach where much of that accelerator tickling became redundant. At last the ideal level of regen could be selected right down to zero where the car simply glided as if in neutral. And could be adjusted by the second to time the approach to a halt and glean as much regen as was available. And within each setting the driver could still use the one pedal drive method if desired by feathering the accelerator appropriately. I find the Hyundai/Kia method suits me best, and when I drive other cars it can be quite annoying to have to adapt back to what I now regard as the old fashioned regen method that other OEMs install.

I now tend to select zero regen when starting a drive and use the paddles to grab regen when appropriate and then cancel it as much as possible. This means that the car is coasting much more than you would imagine. Grabbing whatever regen is available. And my efficiency figures are good. This kind of operation is perfectly possible in a car with just D or B available but requires much more driver input and skill to seek out the sweet spot in every situation. I now find that to be out of date and could limit my choice of car when the next change is due.

 

The whole subject of D v B has been debated for years.

It may have done, but assuming you’ve read the rest of the post, you’ll see that it’s moved on with the fact that some manufacturers like VW are adjusting the regen levels automatically to account for things like speed limit changes, upcoming roundabouts/junctions, distance and relative speed to vehicle in front, terrain, throttle input etc. All without ACC activated, so D mode on cars like the ID3 is not the same as D mode on other manufacturers models or what it was universally like a few years ago.

So effectively it’s automating all of you paddle fiddling.

 

we use D but scrubbing speed takes some getting used too as you don't have the engine breaking

 

"D" in my ID.4 has no regen at all while coasting - I am constantly surprised by how slowly I lose speed on "D" when coasting up to a roundabout. However, it is important to note that there is regen on "D", when you press the brakes the first 0.25g is always regenerative. So driving in "D" is just as efficient (and even more so in some cases) than driving in "B".

 

In an ICE, I would engine-brake a lot, so I find B is a better mode, with feathering.

I'm not sure why it would be thought of as useful for the lead-footed amongst us - I certainly found that my ability to read the road was better than the IDs predictions in D mode. I find the ID to be far too lead-footed itself.

However, I find it isn't good to sit at one constant speed for a long period relying on feathering, as my foot will then ache more. For motorways, I'll likely swap back to D.

I don't yet trust ACC enough yet...

 

Thanks. Done.

 

I’m a D mode man myself! I actually think it’s one of the best features of the ID.3, the predictive regen stuff. I find that it almost always knows when I want regen and when I don’t. When you need it, the predictive regen in D mode gives you more regen than B mode seems to, then when you don’t need it the car just coasts… best of both worlds!

I’m always shouting at the screen in YouTube reviews of the ID.3 when they bemoan it not having ‘one pedal driving’, thinking “you don’t need it anymore! VW moved the game on! Now it knows when you need regen and when you don’t… it has magic regen, so forget all the old-fangled one pedal stuff and move with the times YouTube person!!”

 

VW moved the game on! Now it knows when you need regen and when you don’t… it has magic regen, so forget all the old-fangled one pedal stuff and move with the times YouTube person!!”

Are you... praising... VW?

 

Bit of a tip, the mechanical brakes don't kick in until the green bar is full.

I personally like the predective regen, it allows you to coast in traffic when the traffic around you doesn't keep to a constant speed. It also does a good job of stopping you from unintentionally tailgating and getting all the stonechips from the wally in front who likes to drive in the gutter or centre of the lanes.

For when the predictive regen gets it wrong, just prod the accelerator gently through the regen phase and that switches it off until the next opportunity to regen.

 

For when the predictive regen gets it wrong, just prod the accelerator gently through the regen phase and that switches it off until the next opportunity to regen.

This was a bit I found hard... the car would predict differently to me, so I'd use the accelerator. Then when I expected the predictive regeneration to kick on, it didn't because I'd accidentally overridden it a few seconds earlier.

 

Curious if the ID.3 behaves differently on 'D' vs 'B' mode for ACC. My Golf GTE does - in 'D' mode it coasts for longer then goes fairly hard on the brakes if it needs to slow down to maintain the gap, whereas in 'B' mode it regens immediately. I think this would make 'D' slightly more efficient, but there is probably not that much in it for a longer trip.

 

Exactly the same. It subtlety and constantly adjusts to the movements of the car in front so unless they are being erratic, then the ID3 will be calm.