For those of us in Winter climates - Regen and one Pedal Driving

jhalkias

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I thought about this today as I was driving to work up the highway . . . the roads were clear, but EVERY bridge on the highway had black ice. We had snow and precipitation overnight, and low 30's in the morning. There were accidents everywhere from those who hit the brakes when they hit the black ice.

It's my reflex to when I feel the slide to take my foot slowly off the gas and NOT hit the brake when I am in that situation.

Anyone with experience with this in their EV? Do you / Can you turn regenerative braking OFF in a BEV in winter conditions?

Just listened to a podcast too where Tesla in new cars is eliminating the option for less regenerative braking.
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JamieGeek

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I drive around in winter all the time in the Bolt. It is a bit more than what you're thinking: When using regen only the drive wheels will slow the car. On the Bolt that means only the fronts provide breaking.

On the Mach-E that means either only rears or all provide braking (and because EV's--at least so far--have an open differential if a wheel slips you get no braking).

But, they all have traction control. What this means is that when lifting your foot off the accelerator in winter if you feel the slightest slip your first reaction is to hit the brakes. This engages friction brakes and traction control.

So far I haven't lost control in any EV/PHEV (all 3 of mine have been FWD: Focus, C-Max, and Bolt) and during regen they would slip on the fronts on ice (in the Focus this was really noticable; hit any slippery patch or a bump that would lift the fronts off the ground and it would feel like suddenly you're on ice).

I would imagine that the Mach-E will be a bit more smarter about this and even may engage traction control during regen (that would be really cool).
 
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Badger_Prof

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I thought about this today as I was driving to work up the highway . . . the roads were clear, but EVERY bridge on the highway had black ice. We had snow and precipitation overnight, and low 30's in the morning. There were accidents everywhere from those who hit the brakes when they hit the black ice.

It's my reflex to when I feel the slide to take my foot slowly off the gas and NOT hit the brake when I am in that situation.

Anyone with experience with this in their EV? Do you / Can you turn regenerative braking OFF in a BEV in winter conditions?

Just listened to a podcast too where Tesla in new cars is eliminating the option for less regenerative braking.
Reaction here based on driving Bolt for four years in Wisconsin. I drive 100% with one pedal driving EXCEPT on an ice or snow slick road. On the slickest of such roads, the regen with one pedal driving if lifting suddenly off the accelerator can cause a loss of traction (sort of like too rapid of breaking). These are the only conditions where I turn off one pedal driving.
 

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I can tell you the combination of FWD and the implementation of antilock braking in our Leaf is not my favorite. Even on dry roads I get some irregularities with jittery and inconsistent braking coming up to turns sometimes. I look forward to that improving on the Mach E.

I don't think I've ever tried heavy regeneration (B setting on shifter) on ice or snow.
 

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Can you turn regenerative braking OFF in a BEV in winter conditions?
As far as I can tell, the only way to minimize regenerative braking is to put it in Whisper mode with 1-Pedal Driving turned off. Even then, I don't think it completely disables regenerative braking, but it's described as what engine breaking would feel like in an ICE vehicle, so faily mild.
 


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Subscribing to learn about this concern. Never have to deal with snow or ice where I live but I still would like to be prepared in case I ever drive some place where that becomes an issue.

Edit: I grew up with weather like that so I am familiar with black ICE etc bit just never had to drive an EV in such weather.
 

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Take this with a grain of salt since i never drove an EV before but i drive a lot in the worst possible conditions with different cars. In my mind the one pedal acts like a clutch so for winter it should be as simple as lifting of from lets say 60% throttle to 40-45% and gradually not abruptly. Tjis should give the wheels a chance to gsin traction while not locking the brakes, like down shifting. I think this is where a throttle indicator Formula 1 style would help.
 

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Take this with a grain of salt since i never drove an EV before but i drive a lot in the worst possible conditions with different cars. In my mind the one pedal acts like a clutch so for winter it should be as simple as lifting of from lets say 60% throttle to 40-45% and gradually not abruptly. Tjis should give the wheels a chance to gsin traction while not locking the brakes, like down shifting. I think this is where a throttle indicator Formula 1 style would help.
That could be an OTA for the small screen :D
 

MailGuy

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I thought about this today as I was driving to work up the highway . . . the roads were clear, but EVERY bridge on the highway had black ice. We had snow and precipitation overnight, and low 30's in the morning. There were accidents everywhere from those who hit the brakes when they hit the black ice.

It's my reflex to when I feel the slide to take my foot slowly off the gas and NOT hit the brake when I am in that situation.

Anyone with experience with this in their EV? Do you / Can you turn regenerative braking OFF in a BEV in winter conditions?

Just listened to a podcast too where Tesla in new cars is eliminating the option for less regenerative braking.
When i first got the Bolt I was worried about this as well. Fast forward to first unexpected squawl. The ability to feather the accelerator to provide positive and negative power sold me on NEVER wanting to NOT be in an EV in bad weather. I never felt so in control and that was just with FWD. The MME AWD IS GOING TO ROCK winter driving!! Regen is not all or none. You have total control with one foot and one input. Much better than two pedal all or nothing hydraulics. You control both the amount of acceleration and deceleration. ESC and ABS are icing on the cake you will likely never need.
 

kdryden99

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When i first got the Bolt I was worried about this as well. Fast forward to first unexpected squawl. The ability to feather the accelerator to provide positive and negative power sold me on NEVER wanting to NOT be in an EV in bad weather. I never felt so in control and that was just with FWD. The MME AWD IS GOING TO ROCK winter driving!! Regen is not all or none. You have total control with one foot and one input. Much better than two pedal all or nothing hydraulics. You control both the amount of acceleration and deceleration. ESC and ABS are icing on the cake you will likely never need.
That's exactly what figured. Its like the ability to right foot brake into a corner but now you do with only one pedal. Thank you for confirming my hypothesis.
 

kdryden99

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That's exactly what figured. Its like the ability to right foot brake into a corner but now you do with only one pedal. Thank you for confirming my hypothesis.
Please give me a throttle meter, maybe in unbridled mode it shows. I might even be able to track this car :)
 

jdsimard2012

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I was one of the first in Quebec Canada picking up my Premium AWD MME on January 20th. I have driven it in snow, blizzards and tested it on icy parking lots. Never had an issue and felt very confident in it. Now I did have new snow tires installed, but at no time driving on highways between Ontario and Quebec in the winter did I ever feel like it was losing control or sliding.

To add I am a 1 pedal driver.
 
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dtbaker61

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Take this with a grain of salt since i never drove an EV before but i drive a lot in the worst possible conditions with different cars. In my mind the one pedal acts like a clutch so for winter it should be as simple as lifting of from lets say 60% throttle to 40-45% and gradually not abruptly. Tjis should give the wheels a chance to gsin traction while not locking the brakes, like down shifting. I think this is where a throttle indicator Formula 1 style would help.
with 1-p driving, I think its possible to be MORE delicate than with ICE since you don't have to move you foot from accellerator to brake, and you don't even have a minimum of 'engine braking' as you would with ICE if you back off the throttle slowly and can hover at 'zero' regen OR mech braking if you want.

I only got in a couple mountain snow/ice drives after I got my MME... but I left it in 'unbridled', 1-p, and turned OFF traction control because I wanted to be able to claw my way out of a corner if one tire started spinning.

It really behaved quite well as long as I avoided sudden moves, and never touched the mechanical brake.
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