e-Pedal System?

After using the e-Pedal System for awhile, I've grown to like it very much, but there is a noticeable loss of power. It's not as quick off the line, and if you deactivate it while driving, the car picks up more power. It takes more pedal push for acceleration than with e-Pedal deactivated. Normal, I assume?

When using the system, are the brakes at the wheel activated, or is the braking at the electrical motor?

One comment someone made on a YouTube video was the flashing of the brake lights. As soon as you let off on the accelerator, even slightly, the brake lights come on. So with constant back and forth pressure on the pedal, the brake lights are flashing off and on. Could be a bit of annoyance with the drivers behind you, and with more and more episodes of road rage these days, that could fuel an event.

The power change you feel is the instant remapping of the accelerator.

Since ePedal does employ the brake light when decelerating, I do prefer it for non freeway travel.

DougWantsALeaf said:

The power change you feel is the instant remapping of the accelerator.

Since ePedal does employ the brake light when decelerating, I do prefer it for non freeway travel.

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Thank you for replying. Instant remapping? Not sure what that means. Since one has to push the accelerator farther to achieve similar power, is that draining the battery more than if I just leave e-pedal off?

I agree, It would be better NOT to use it on the highway. Drivers behind you will get the wrong impression thinking that you are flashing your brake lights on purpose at them. We have enough problems to deal with in life without adding road rage to them. Just yesterday, a woman shot a man in a road rage fit. It's a gun crazed country that I live. No matter the situation you find yourself in, it's always best to remain calm and just ignore those on the road who fly off the handle. It's a real problem where I live. Dash cams front and back are a great idea, but it sure would be nice to have wrap around cameras that catch everything going on around you. Of course, that's another topic.

ElectriCute said:

After using the e-Pedal System for awhile, I've grown to like it very much, but there is a noticeable loss of power. It's not as quick off the line, and if you deactivate it while driving, the car picks up more power. It takes more pedal push for acceleration than with e-Pedal deactivated. Normal, I assume?

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E-pedal is controlling both the accelerator and brake at the same time, so there is a delay because when at a stop, you press the accelerator, the car has to release the brakes first and then applies power, there is also no creep mode activated. It's the same as doing it manually with your foot, but since you aren't moving your foot around (it stays in the same place with only little movement), you notice the delay from a mental perspective since you don't have to shift your foot anymore. If you want to decrease the delay, you can turn off Eco mode, B mode, etc. for a better performance feel. It varies from person to person how they like to Leaf to behave, but you have many options you can play with.

Me personally, I like E-pedal for long stop and go driving, but without traffic, driving in Eco Mode with B regen gets pretty close to one pedal driving without the actual stop and start delays.

When using the system, are the brakes at the wheel activated, or is the braking at the electrical motor?

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Using E-pedal, the motor does maximum regen braking until the actual physical brakes are needed depending on how fast and how much you lift off the pedal. E-pedal is no substitute for emergency braking though, the brake pedal still works fine in E-pedal just in case you need it.

One comment someone made on a YouTube video was the flashing of the brake lights. As soon as you let off on the accelerator, even slightly, the brake lights come on. So with constant back and forth pressure on the pedal, the brake lights are flashing off and on. Could be a bit of annoyance with the drivers behind you, and with more and more episodes of road rage these days, that could fuel an event.

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At night, it's easier to see this in your rear view mirror, the brake lights only come on during heavy braking or stopping. If you are creeping forward by inches at a stop light, then yes your brake light goes on and off for every inch forward if you drive that way. :lol:

Are the brake lights really turned on that easily? I just read this in the manual in the e-pedal section:

The vehicle’s brake lights illuminate when the deceleration level reaches an ordinary braking operation.

jaja06 said:

Are the brake lights really turned on that easily? I just read this in the manual in the e-pedal section:

The vehicle’s brake lights illuminate when the deceleration level reaches an ordinary braking operation.

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It's a safety issue, otherwise drivers behind you would slam into the back during heavy regen braking. Any de-acceleration that is higher than 35 kW will trigger the brake lights. Example, if you drive in B mode and get some good speed (+40 mph) and drop the pedal, that force you feel slowing down is the maximum that will not turn on the brake lights and probably the maximum allowed by law for safety reasons. Even that slow-down may cause some close calls with drivers behind you who are not paying attention. E-pedal can use twice that power for braking, so it would be like slamming on your brakes and no brake lights coming on otherwise, which would be causing legal headaches for Nissan I'm sure with lawsuits if it really functioned that way. :mrgreen:

Another way to know, if your regen meter hits the max, you'll know the brake lights are on if you are moving above crawl speed.

Yes, all of that I would have assumed.

What was surprising to me was in the OP: “As soon as you let off on the accelerator, even slightly, the brake lights come on.”

I’m (very impatiently) waiting for my ‘22 to arrive any moment, so I haven’t actually driven it yet I did always wonder what the threshold was for the brake lights when I used B mode on my ‘13.

here is a great video on how the brake lights work in the different modes.

https://youtu.be/-GwYWuoQO0g

Great video link, may explain it better to show than us trying to throw out examples. :mrgreen:

jaja06 said:

What was surprising to me was in the OP: “As soon as you let off on the accelerator, even slightly, the brake lights come on.”

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When you let off completely, yes the lights come on, but if you let off gradually and keep the regen low, from what I've seen on my own Leaf, the Brake Lights will not come on until you get a high enough regen and/or de-acceleration level going first.

Learjet said:

here is a great video on how the brake lights work in the different modes.

https://youtu.be/-GwYWuoQO0g

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Awesome video! Thanks so much for providing it.

Learjet said:

here is a great video on how the brake lights work in the different modes.

https://youtu.be/-GwYWuoQO0g

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing!