Our Fleet Test Drive: Citroen DS5 – 5th Report

I’ve recently had a breakthrough that could help my somewhat disappointing fuel figures.

Having tried ‘regular’ eco-driving and had a course from AA DriveTech on hybrid eco-driver training, I’m back to experimenting with different techniques to improve the fuel figures beyond the 45mpg average.

I’ve found that if I know I’m taking a short trip immediately after a longer journey I can ‘force’ the battery to charge up using a combination of 4×4 and Sport modes while the diesel is warm and relatively efficient so that the cold-start local trip is almost all electric. 

However, my latest discovery is that unlike normal throttles, which effectively go from zero to maximum power delivery, the Citroen’s accelerator pedal can also be used to increase or decrease the amount of regenerative braking. This means you don’t have to have full battery regeneration, which, although useful, slows the car quite significantly. If, for instance, you want to maintain a set speed downhill, you can apply a very gentle pressure to the accelerator, which keeps some regen but doesn’t scrub speed (which would then require acceleration to get back to the required speed). We’ll see how it goes.