E-Pedal regen braking question

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

FunkyMike

New member
Joined
Nov 16, 2018
Messages
3
Aloha all,

I am currently on the market to buy an EV car so I have been test driving some and I have a question to ask you guys.
In the Hyundai Ioniq they have paddle shift which allows you to alter the amount of regen braking you get which I found really good but I loved the coast mode which was very good on the motorway. Is there a coast mode possible with the Nissan Leaf?
Can you adjust the amount of regen braking?

Much Love,
Mike.
 
You adjust the amount of regeneration with accelerator pedal movement. When E-Pedal is on the car is also in B mode in terms of how aggressive the regeneration is btw.

The two most common scenarios for me to adjust the amount of regeneration is when on the highway & let's say cruise is set to 65mph & I crest a small to medium size hill the car will speed up due to gravity & will use regeneration to slow the car down so I gently press on the accelerator to keep the power bar out of the regeneration area because that's a more efficient way to travel if the extra speed is an option & appropriate.

The other often situation is highway off ramps in my region vary greatly in their length so on a longer off ramp I don't want the car to slow via regeneration as quickly as it does normally when using E-Pedal so I turn off cruise control/Pro-pilot & then modulate the regeneration to whatever is appropriate for that off ramp. That balances the time spent slowing down as well as puts power back into the battery at a slower rate which allegedly is better for the battery long term.
 
Hi Mike,

I have a 2017 Leaf and don't know anything about e-pedal on the newer Leaf's. On a 2017 (and I think all earlier models), there is a shifter between the front seats that shifts between D, B and N. N is coast. D is drive and has normal regen. B is drive with stronger regen. In either D or B mode you can feather the amount of regen by using the accelerator pedal. There is a guage on the dash that shows how much regen is happening (plus you can feel it...).

So yes, at least on 2017 Leaf's you can coast and select regen (low/high) and fine tune the regen further with the accelerator pedal as needed. I coast all the time when approaching red lights, off-ramps, down hill, etc.
 
Thank you very much for the quick responses all.

I have a follow up question if I may. So the e-pedal sounds like a very good feature on short trips that's for sure, hats off to Nissan there! But on longer journeys do you not find constantly adjusting the regen braking with your foot get in the way?
Sorry for really digging into this but I'm sitting here picturing myself constantly having to adjust the throttle or fully turning off the e-pedal to be able to coast which quite often is very handy in gradually slowing down traffic.
I know its each to their own when it comes to stuff like that, let me know what you think.
 
The behavior in D on the highway is very much like that of an ICEV automatic transmission: there is some drag, but not a lot. There is a device for previous gen Leafs, called "Leaf Box" IIRC, that lets you essentially preload the accelerator circuit to eliminate the regen. Maybe it will be updated for the 2018.
 
I use E-Pedal exclusively around town. My reflexes aren't what they used to be and taking my foot off the pedal is faster than hitting the brake. The few times I have had to brake, E-Pedal has slowed me down considerably by the time I hit the brake.

Driving down into town from the foothills west of town I use B-mode for the 2000 ft decrease in elevation.
 
I too am no longer young and need all the driving technology assistance I can get. I really like the E-pedal. I think you might be able to get more regeneration in B mode, but I've only had my 2019 Leaf less than a month and haven't fully explored its strengths and weaknesses. Where I live it's relatively flat, so regeneration isn't much of an issue. I find the blind spot warning very useful, also the all-around vision monitor is helpful when parking. Unfortunately, for the latter you have to get the SL trim, which in my case meant that I was paying for leather seats and a better stereo system I didn't care about. That's still 10k less then you can would pay for currently available Tesla Model 3 versions, and you can still get the 7.5K full federal tax credit.
 
FunkyMike said:
Thank you very much for the quick responses all.

I have a follow up question if I may. So the e-pedal sounds like a very good feature on short trips that's for sure, hats off to Nissan there! But on longer journeys do you not find constantly adjusting the regen braking with your foot get in the way?
Sorry for really digging into this but I'm sitting here picturing myself constantly having to adjust the throttle or fully turning off the e-pedal to be able to coast which quite often is very handy in gradually slowing down traffic.
I know its each to their own when it comes to stuff like that, let me know what you think.

The short answer is no. The only time I need to significantly manually manipulate the regeneration is when I am exiting a freeway.

The rest of the time it's basically the inverse operation of your current right foot. Let me explain. In a typical vehicle when you typically need to slow down you lift your right foot from the accelerator pedal & move that foot over to the brake pedal & begin gently pressing the brake pedal to modulate how much braking force needed for the given situation to either slow for a curve, turn, or a full stop.

In the leaf you are essentially doing the same thing except all you have to do is lessen the pressure on the accelerator pedal. Also once you become familiar with the cars deceleration rate once you're below 30-40mph the car literally stops completely & extremely smoothly without you touching either pedal. Even on a significant decline! Now I of course by that time have moved my right to "cover" the brake pedal if I need additional braking & misjudged the stopping distance range needed or if traffic or road conditions didn't allow for the required distance for a smooth full regeneration stop.

An example of that would be a high traffic freeway exit with a short off ramp will almost alway require me to provide extra braking via pressing the brake pedal but again once the car is below about 20-30mph I can then allow the car to "take over" & finish the stop.

Anecdotally I may however be conditioned because I came from a Prius that has about 1/5 of the regeneration deceleration force so I have been modulating brake pedal regeneration for 5.5 years now. The Leaf has been a welcome change in the cars ability to do 98% of the "work" I was doing via the brake pedal of the Prius.
 
Back
Top