Regenerative braking/changing question.
 

I’ve been driving my GS for 3 weeks now and unsurprisingly I love it!.

Its funny how driving a GS make you a bit of a Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Hyde is simple….floor it and feel the torque, but also the mix of near silent running and watching the info screen makes for very sedate Dr Jekyll driving.
So my question refers to the calm driving, to date I have been driving in D, and easing off the gas rolling up to a stop and using the brake, as normal. But I read a post referring to using the car in manual mode and changing down the gears to generate more battery charge.

So do the batteries charge at a liner rate, i.e. number of wheel revolutions x distance irrespective of gear or braking, or does changing down the CVT increase the electric motor revolutions and effectively recharge the batteries more?

Then finally would the manually changing down the box to slow the car have any long terms effects or damage?

i find when im doin 60-70 km/h if i keep it in gear selection 4 it uses less fuel, and 80-100km/h 5th gear. But highway i leave it in D.
I find it changes gear too much so i lock it in, also does help the regen being in 4.
Someone on another forum mentioned using 3rd when you need the power which i agree.
Running the car on sport mode (dont know if you have that switch) regen's more power quicker, but can heat up the hybrid system. When mines in the sun i notice the battery doesnt charge as much, 3-4mins in the shade and AC on it starts to recover.
I try to rmbr to put it in 4th but ive got so used to not thinking about the gear i usually forget.
Check out the MPG topic and read theres some good hints in there too for maximising mileage

I've driven mine in manual mode for a little while now as it makes a difference to the mpg! When engine braking from speed or down a steep hill your engine will not use any fuel but essentially charges the battery much quicker also as the electric motor turns into a generator to recharge the battery (or how I understand it at least). added at least 1 - 3 mpg on my average fuel consumption (guage not actual). It doesn't tend to help when going forwards as much, being a CVT (constant velocity transmission) you dont have "gears" as such so therefore when selecting a gear it just changes the ratio inside the box, hence why you can pull off from a standstill with 6th gear selected!
It'll hold it in the selected gear though, say 2nd doing 30mph you can hear the engine note get higher and higher until you knock it into 3rd and you can hear the engine note decrease again, but if you change before you can hear the engine rev then its essentially driving in D as you wont notice any change in characteristics whatsoever.! so you can pull off and change to 6th straight away and it wont be any different than driving in D until you start slowing down!