Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Bottle
With Brake Energy Regeneration, BMW EfficientDynamics points the way to a more energy-efficient future. As soon as you brake or take your foot off the accelerator, the kinetic energy is captured and fed to the battery. This reduces the amount of power the battery takes from the engine and hence lowers fuel consumption. When the driver presses the accelerator, on the other hand, the alternator is decoupled from the drivetrain. With fewer components drawing power from the drivetrain, more of the engine's output can go into accelerating the car.
From BMW pages
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This makes the claim of dead batteries ring true for me. It does seem to be a cause for concern.
While I never turn my heated seats on unless it's a long drive, it doesn't sound as if you can turn this feature OFF. Or can you?
As it is, after a week of driving 1.5mi to work in winter, I can kill my battery by the end of a week. I never put as much current back into the battery as the long glow plug heating takes out. I end up driving to work in second gear, in the hopes that the extra RPM will put more alternator juice into the battery. It's a pain, but works, "mostly." There are 2-4 mornings per winter when I jump in the car, and the battery can't start the car.
I was hoping to avoid such concerns by switching to a gas car. Sigh.