What bolloks is that , from when i leave my garage at 4 am with no traffic its all downhill so i put it in neutral all the way doing speed of40- 70kms and do 5 kms every dsy and arrive there still at 100% charge . Car is a cab and has done 85k kms . In N there is no electricity generated by the motor so cannot damage anything .
Really?
"So, having debunked the myth that urban driving gives the best range, another mythical idea I have come across is that you can increase your range by
coasting. By “coasting,” people mean putting the vehicle into neutral and simply rolling down hills. In electric vehicles, although there is a selector, which is similar in appearance to an automatic gearbox, there is no gearbox or clutch of any kind in an electric vehicle. The motor is permanently connected to the driving wheels and the only gear is a permanent reduction gear to provide the required level of torque at the driving wheels. In an ICE car, the engine has to be started, so, cannot be permanently connected to the driving wheels. The neutral position actually disconnects the engine from the driveshafts, and the “reverse” position actually uses a gear to turn the driveshafts in the opposite direction, while the engine, of course, always spins in the same direction. In an electric vehicle, the “reverse” position operates an electrical switch to reverse the polarity of the motor to make it spin backwards. It is, I have found from my own experience, an alarming feature of electric vehicles that they accelerate just as quickly in reverse as in drive — though, thankfully, the top speed is generally software limited to about 30 mph in reverse.
In an electric vehicle, putting the selector into
neutral does not disconnect the motor, but is, again, an electrical device, which isolates the motor from the control system so that the motor just spins freely, with neither drive nor regenerative braking. So, putting your electric vehicle into neutral and coasting does not allow the vehicle to roll more freely, as mechanical losses from the drivetrain remain unaltered. If you are going downhill faster than you would if coasting, then you are using some current from the battery. If you are going at exactly the same speed as you would if you were coasting, then even though your selector is in drive, you will not be using any current. And if you’re going slower than you would be if coasting, then regenerative braking will come into play, and you will be recharging your battery while going downhill. That being the case, there is no advantage in putting your car into neutral, and you may even be missing out on some much-needed recharging. If you actually use the brake to control your speed while coasting, then you are converting your kinetic energy into wasted heat rather than converting it into electrical energy for charging your battery, so this is actually less efficient.
The only time it would be more efficient to select “neutral” rather than “drive” is when stopped with your handbrake on, as even with your foot off the accelerator pedal, a low current is generally fed to the motor. This would be taking power from your battery with no movement, and so reducing your range. The same does not apply to using the brake pedal, as the motor management system cuts out any current to the motor when the brake is applied.
Another issue is, if you keep your vehicle from rolling back while stopped on a hill by using the accelerator pedal rather than holding it with the brake, you are taking energy from the battery, without moving, so are reducing range — and you might also damage your motor, as you are passing current through a single motor winding while the motor is not moving. In an ICE car, holding the car on a hill using the motor might burn out your clutch, but in an EV, it might burn out the motor."
