hope i dont get bashed for such a basic question ... but what exactly does the ECO Indicator meter actual represent?
i know the green "ECO" light on the dash just basically means you're accelerating hard. . . but was wondering if anyone knew the actual math/statistics represented by that meter.
i feel like its some sort of function of how much you're pressing accelerator at a given time

 

It's basically another way of representing fuel economy. The more "Eco" you're driving, the better fuel economy you are getting, which is, as you have observed, directly related to your throttle input. As far as I can tell, there's nothing tricky going on with it. Less throttle = more Eco.

 

You're right about then eco indicator. Those people driving painfully slow are the ones watching that thing closely lol. Common on many cars.

Now I didnt have an F-Sport....but i dont think im wrong when I say you are in Eco drive mode in that picture. The green light LOOKS like you're in Eco mode. Eco mode will stay there even after you turn the car off until you put it in Normal or Sport mode.

If im wrong than I suck, sorry.

 

Yeah, Eco mode and the Eco light and Eco Indicator are all separate things. If you switch into Sport or manual shift mode, the Eco light won't even come on, and the Eco Indicator won't function. As for the little green light, I turned off my Eco light day one.

 

I turned off the ECO light as well. Distracting.

 

Didn't know the damned thing could be turned off! (Other than by more 'go' pedal .) Super annoying, always think I left a turn signal on or something.

 

To be fair, I only knew it could be turned off because a similar Eco light was in my previous car, a Camry. It would do the same thing and turn on when I wasn't giving it much throttle. It's a Toyota thing I guess.

 

After a few months of ownership, I looked in the manual to turn it off. Much better.

 

I disabled the ECO light immediately after taking ownership and usually have my boost gauge up while driving, along with my live fuel econ on the infotainment screen. I can't remember ever using the eco screen itself.

ECO mode itself stays permanently unused, found it does stay active even after turning the car off, so it's actually a hazard to use and doesn't have any noticeable effect on fuel economy vs normal from what I saw the few times I did use it.

 

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the eco-indicator is counter-intuitive? The indicator extends when I drive aggressively, and shrinks when I hyper-mile. Maybe it's broken!
(This is the eco-indicator shown in the OP, F-Sport instrumentation.)

 

Yeah it's kinda backwards. You want to keep the meter inside the "Eco" box.

 

Consider the Drive Mode "Eco" as Active Eco...you Act to turn it on and the car Acts differently:
Throttle is less responsive, Cruise is less aggressive and the A/C provides less cooling.
All power consuming features use less power to improve MPG by as much as 7%.
Will remain in Eco when the car is stopped and restarted.

Drive Mode "Sport" changes the throttle mapping and shift points, F-Sport models have "Sport +"
which also changes the suspension dampening. Sport and Sport + will Not remain on after a restart.
Seems that the EPA/CAFE ratings would be rated in Sport if defaulted (and they didn't want that!!)

The old green ECO light and the new ECO graphic could be thought of as Passive ECO.
It does not change the car, it attempts to change you, the driver into driving more conservatively.

 

never thought of it that way. All the ones I've seen work the same way

 

No Sport + in the 16 model, of course.

 

Off-topic, but Sport+ is available on the 350 F Sport models only, and the only difference is the adaptive suspension.