[JCSurrey]

Another question for the i8 Hive-Mind:

My understanding is that driving in Comfort mode wont really charge the battery (as it's being used to drive the car up to certain speeds).
So if you want to increase battery charge on a journey you need to put the car in Sport mode so that the IC engine is running all the time.
I get that.
But once in Sport Mode, do you need to drive the car hard in order for the batteries to charge, or will they still get a decent charge even if you're driving sedately (say in city traffic where you can't get above a few MPH and with lots of start/stop)?

Thanks!

[RRBerman]

The ICE will charge the battery anytime it's running. Also you can "hold the state of charge" in comfort mode so the ICE will maintain the charge. There's a cool little picture of what is happening you can see in the dash (charging, engine running, where the power is going, etc,) I made a shortcut for that, memory button 1, so I can see what is happening. Sometimes you can't tell if the engine is running, particularly on the freeway.

[JCSurrey]

That's helpful thanks!
As satisfying as the throaty 'enhanced' engine noise coming through the speakers is, there are def. times when you just want a quiet drive but also want to be charging the battery.
I wanted to clarify that you don't have to be thrashing it for that to occur!

[Aye-eight]

In fact, just cruising along in Sport mode will probably give you the fastest recharge. If you drive more racy, you will get eBoost every time you accelerate, which drains the battery quite fast. I’ve noticed that while driving long distances on the Autobahn with a bit of traffic, with the constant acceleration and braking, the battery can have trouble staying charged.

That said, running Sport mode to recharge the battery isn’t a very energy-efficient thing to do. You’re using the stored energy in your tank, you’re running it through a rather inefficient combustion process with loss of waste heat and friction, and you’re storing it again for use in another propulsion system that’s maybe a bit more efficient, but obviously not 100%.

But don’t let me spoil the fun. I do it too. ;-)

[JCSurrey]

Haha yes I can see that.
My plan would be to have the car on charge overnight anyway but just good to know the best way of maintaining charge on a normal city driving journey to maximise the time spent on electric only.