Featured Planting a new crop of plug-ins

Prefer all on the accelerator and not the breaks? Does the Prius have them on both and that's why you can regen by just rolling? I'll be curious on if there's a number, like 40% energy regen from breaking...

And why would you take regen off the brake pedals? I've enjoyed using the same break pads for over 80k miles!

 

It is difficult to express in words, but I will give it a shot...

Having more control over your speed via a single pedal is, for me and many others, more intuitive and natural feeling.
It is also smoother and less of a strain on very long trips, or stop and go traffic.

I would also suggest it is fractionally safer, as in an emergency, the car starts slowing appreciably as you are removing your foot from the accelerator. The difference is only a fraction of a second, but at high speeds, that can be the difference between an accident avoided, or a crash.

As for brake pad life, the pads don't care where the regen is activated. Regerative braking will lower the need of the friction brakes, increasing the life of the pads.
The stronger the regen, the longer the life of the pads.

 

Is there actually any car with no regen on the accelerator? All of the ones I can think of are set up to do light regen when you lift off the accelerator.

In any case, blended brake pedals tend to have inconsistent braking feel, because you can never perfectly blend regen and friction brakes, although you can certainly try. I never really know what I'm going to get when I hit the brakes on my Gen 4 Prius, as a result, although I've got an idea. (If anyone's got a LaFerrari or Porsche 918, I wouldn't mind taking those for a spin - those I'd guess would have the best blended brake pedals, but even there, there's reports that the McLaren P1 (with all regen on the accelerator) has better braking feel.)

With all regen being on the accelerator, though, the brake pedal behaves as it does in a conventional ICE vehicle - consistently. It does mean that lifting off the accelerator, especially in a vehicle like the Tesla Model S where the battery can absorb 60 kW of regenerative braking, is something that has to be done with caution, though.

 

The Prius, and likely all cars regen braking, has a little braking when off the accelerator for the same reason the crawls a little when off the brake; so that the car behaves like an ICE one with automatic transmission. The engineering choice was based upon making the car less different to potential buyers than on how to bring the car to a stop.

Cars said to have the regen braking on the accelerator will bring the car fully, or very near, to a stop with the foot off the pedal. The deceleration rate can be high enough to turn on the brake lights.

bthooetr covers the braking feel when the regen is on the brake pedal, and many Prius drivers have experienced the momentary loss of braking over bumps when there was a delay between regen braking stopping and friction braking coming on. Getting the braking feel right on a blended brake pedal is tricky. I expect the cost of doing so will lead to most plugins, with the motors and batteries to support it, to go with regen on the accelerator, and the brake pedal just operating the friction brakes.

 

Having driven a 48V, Saturn VUE hybrid, yes!

Bob Wilson

 

Hit up Francisco. Man Steals Porsche 918 Spyder From Showroom For A Joy Ride

 

Perhaps you just didn't notice it under the regular engine braking.

 

True. I've owned my share of ugly cars and have enjoyed them, but the i3 crashed into the ugly tree. At least Multipla drivers now have something to aspire to.

 

absolutely not - in fact the worst of the worst so-called hybrids was the 1st Malibu mild-hybrid which simply called itself a hybrid because GM's lame leadership believed all they had to do - to make people flock to GM for hybrids, is slap a hybrid badge on the side ... add start/stop during red lights ... and of course, charge a little extra for the privilege of owning a GM 'hybrid'.
So yea - No regen at all.
I kind of miss the old Bob Lutz knucklehead type leadership. They were always good for a shocking but humorous laugh.

that's an easy hybrid brake wear target to hit. Our genII (as well as many Prius taxis up in this range) brake pads looked hardly used ... and that's with mileage in the 6 figures. Some hev's ev's & phev's actually experience a thin film of rust on the rotors due to lack of use. A good sharp hit on the brakes though we'll clean that right up.

turning on how old you are, you'd be surprised how many cars would surpass your opinion of the i3. You can find dozens of ugly car list on the web. Although they don't include all my favorites this one does have the Lion's Share of them;
10 Ugliest Cars of All Time
I'd definitely put the i3 way way behind all those bad boys.
And as an owner of a car that's uglier than all those top 10 ugly Bad Boys I, above all people, know what's ugly, being an owner of one of the very 1st Nissan leafs into the USA. It even makes a catfish look ugly;

 

The Tesla and BMW i3 looks much better from the rear ... about 2-3 seconds after the traffic light turns:

GREEN.​

Bob Wilson

 

Completely different market, and in my opinion it would be a flop to release a Lexus electric (since most in that category would just get a Tesla at this point). A Prius with a 60kWh battery would compete pretty well against the Leaf 2.0 or Chevy Bolt, unless of course the Model 3 really blows everyone out of the game.

I'll believe it when (or if) it ever actually hits the market.

 

you can't really put a 60 in a prius. they would have to design a new car around the battery.

 

Tell that to Honda. They did it with their little fit with 24 kwh battery pack. They just lifted a few inches and stuff the battery pack under the floor.

They disappeared once Honda priced it correctly as a leased car. People loved it, even car folks got them as their commuter.

Prius is a hella lot larger and new battery advanced more than 5 years ago.

 

it's not 2 1/2 times larger.

 

I don't mean a PHEV with 60 kWh, I mean make it a full BEV electric with skateboard design battery placement. They could figure it out if they wanted to.

 

understood. but i think a skateboard would be a whole different vehicle. you can put the same body and interior on if you want to, buy why? you're building your first (for real, competitive) bev, starting from the ground up. you might as well try to build something the world wants.

 

That car is called Rav4. I have one in the garage, it drives great and has a 41.5 kwh pack with 2900 mAh cell. If they use the 4000 mAh cells, it will fit for 60 kwh pack.

Just that Toyota hated this car, but owners lover it... except for Toyota experience.

 

well who knows, with their recent admission of misjudging the ev market, rav4 bev might be their next offering.

 

If I was Toyota, I use the current Rav4 hybrid, put in a Prius ICE, and add 17 kwh battery pack. Program it so that it comes on with 35ish% of battery left like the Volt. Basically a Volt or Outlander Phev design.

Make sure to sell it as a world car.... Europe would buy everyone up... just look at the Outlander Phev. Best selling plug in car.

 

Toyota did build the first RAV4 EV. But Gen 2 was a glider sent to Tesla, so Tesla actually built it. Tesla is so busy right now just keeping up with existing orders that I'm sure they'd find that they have no time to help Toyota a 2nd time, unless of course ..... if the price was (outrageous tesla profi) just right. With lighter & more energy dense traction packs, I'd wager Toyota could build a RAV4 EV with a 200 mile range for under $40,000 not counting subsidies. Bring it on Toyota ... no more of that ridiculous "no one's knocking on our door to build an ev" diatribe!
.