2018 Leaf e-pedal problem

I use e-pedal all the time in my 2018 Leaf - it works well, and consistently in all conditions. The explanation given by the engineer sounds like nonsense to me, and is likely just an inability or unwillingness to actually find the problem with your car. Not sure what you can do about it though.

I'll start using ePedal during some of my work shifts just to see if I can observe the same issue. I sometimes spend over 8 hours driving my Leaf in both city stop n' go and long distance, high speed interstate driving, so it has plenty of chances to show it's odd behavior. :lol:

Having now used the ePedal a lot more, I have noticed some quirks that sound very familiar in this topic.

High regen only works at low speed. You know that feeling when you just let go of the accelerator and you feel the braking force of maximum regen bring you to a stop (or on LeafSpy to see how high it spikes). This only seems to happen at low-ish speeds, once you get over 45 mph, the regen braking force is limited to more of what B mode does, especially at much higher speeds (say +65 mph) I understand the safety logic for it, slamming on your brakes (even if by regen) could cause a rear accident that way.

Your brake pedal usage overrides ePedal. This one is more noticeable on hills, but it took a few tries for me to figure out what I was experiencing with this one. I had several instances where it seemed like the Leaf was not going to stop, especially when braking down a hill for example. I finally figured out that me lightly pressing the brake pedal overrides how much actual "braking" ePedal is doing. So if ePedal is braking hard and I step in to override and don't press the brake pedal enough, I get a "it won't stop" feeling of coasting. It happened enough times that it felt like ePedal was not going to stop or wasn't working correctly. Turns out, it was me, not getting the correct feel for braking. Once I got over this mental block, I could tell right away that I was the cause of the issue because I'm so used to already "using" the brakes when I come to a stop versus just stepping in mid-way and having to mentally figure out how much brake pressure I need to stop. That mental delay triggers inconsistent behavior that I'm not used to when I'm always in full control of the brakes before.

Any ABS activation greatly reduces ePedal braking. It can be a big bump in the road or some flat, low friction surface (like the top of a manhole cover in the wheel lane part of the road) and during this activation, it really feels like ePedal won't stop because I'm stepping in a little late in the mental game of brake control. This gives me the feeling that I'm not stopping quick enough at low speeds and feels like I am about to "coast" into the back of the car ahead of me.

ePedal has a longer delay between "no accelerator, switch to braking" than what one can do mentally and physical when letting go of the accelerator to step on the brake pedal to stop.

The stop delay for ePedal is more noticeable when you are using the brake and it feels like less control. What I mean is, if I am in traffic and I let ePedal bring me to a stop, everything feels fine. But when I try to bring the car to stop, I feel like I'm "coasting" further than I should be for the given brake pedal pressure I'm applying. It takes getting used to this type of behavior.

Overall, I did actually enjoy using ePedal for all the stop and go city driving. It really does save a lot of mental foot hopping between the accelerator and brake pedal. But the quirks would still show up and cause some stressful mental situations where I felt like I wasn't in as much control of the car as I should be and I can relate to a lot of concerns in this topic now.

How to fix it or does it work like this on all year models, I'm not sure. I only have my wife's 2018 to test with, so maybe now that I have a taste for how mine behaves, I can spend a day in her Leaf with ePedal and see if it behaves the same or different.

I agree with the assessment that e-Pedal is most useful in city stop-and-go traffic. For me, using e-Pedal is more stressful in highway and back road driving than not using it. Probably a facet of the "too old to change" automatic foot to brake pedal syndrome.... But neither wife nor I use e-Pedal except on rare occasions.

I did find out that with "creep" mode disabled in ePedal, you could feather the accelerator light enough to move forward with only 40 watts of power, LOL, according to LeafSpy. I've always wondered how far my phone battery could drive an EV, now we can actually test it. :mrgreen:

've always wondered how far my phone battery could drive an EV, now we can actually test it.

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Who ya gonna call when the phone battery goes into turtle mode?

dmacarthur said:

've always wondered how far my phone battery could drive an EV, now we can actually test it.

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Who ya gonna call when the phone battery goes into turtle mode?

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I'll flag someone down and ask if I can use their phone to power my phone.

petewc and knightmb,

It's obvious from the discussion in this thread that the unpredictable, random behaviour of the e-pedal mode is not present in all Leafs. In some Leafs, this system works reliably every time. In others, it is unreliable and downright dangerous.

petewc, the engineer who looked into this issue in my Leaf acknowledged that there IS an issue and that he was aware of this behaviour in Leafs of all production years since Nissan began employing the e-pedal technique in power regen. So, some Leaf owners have never experienced this issue. I also thought that the engineer's explanation was BS at first, but the more he got into the details of what the on-board computer does in order to decide how to engage e-pedal operation, the more I realized how hit-and-miss this design must be. And he did say, too, that the design engineers of this system and the software governing it need to re-think, re-design, and/or re-program this whole complex system before we, consumers, have no issues with the e-pedal mode. All of us who experience e-pedal issues have to continue to "bug" Nissan -- let them know we're not happy.

knightmb, supposedly, according to Nissan marketing, letting go the accelerator automatically engages maximum regen. When this system works as intended, it's beautiful, it gives the driver a feeling of satisfaction, and it can help extend the range of the Leaf. Everyone who has driven their Leaf with e-pedal on has had a learning curve (an un-learning curve?) in judging the distance needed for the car to come to e complete stop in various road conditions since this is vastly different from how friction brakes bring a car to a complete stop. (It took me the better part of a year to figure this out driving in snow, ice, rain, heat, flat road, inclines, bumpy roads, with ECO mode on and off, etc.). It was quite upsetting to me when I first realized that e-pedal was "misbehaving", as I'm sure it was for every other Leaf owner who has had this trouble. You may need to spend a considerable amount of time driving your (wife's) Leaf in order to know how e-pedal mode works and if it works as it should.

Update:

I took my car to the dealer and of course they can't find anything wrong. I'm going to file a complaint to NHTSA so that it's documented. I really loved epedal on my 2018 Leaf, and this random braking/not braking on my 2022 is ridiculous and unsafe.

misterT said:

I urge all who are experiencing this issue to contact Nissan Canada and open a case file. Only then can Nissan do something about fixing it. Here's the phone number: 1-800-387-0122. And here's the email: [email protected].

We might even open a case file with Nissan Canada as a group -- all of us who have had the e-pedal in our Leafs not operating as touted.

We've paid good money for our Leafs and for the convenience of one-pedal driving. We need to get that.

Just for reference, and hoping it may help others, I'm also posting the list of observations I have made using my Leaf. I have attached this list to my case file with Nissan Canada. Here it is:

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I live in California, not Canada, so I will open up a case with Nissan USA. Once I get the information I will post it here.

I have this exact problem on my 1700 mile 2022 Leaf SV. For the first 1500 miles or so the e pedal worked great and as it should. It would slow down my car consistently and quickly. But recently it just randomly doesn’t work. As in I will stop pressing the accelerator but the regen ‘graph’ just stays at the neutral/O line on the dash and the car slows down but at a much reduced rate than when the e pedal is engaged and the regen graphic is nearly maxed out. I will raise this issue with Nissan USA as well