Comment by l2p | Hacker News Reader

Comment by l2p | Hacker News Reader

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Not the Parent Author, but have been driving an EV since 2018:

Superior Qualities (in general):

- Less moving parts (less stuff to break)

- No oil changes

- No gas stops

- Lower center of mass = better stability and crash performance (moose test)etc

- Regenerative braking extends the life of your brake pads

- Lower total cost of ownership for comparable ICE platform

- Nearly 100% torque availability from zero RPM

- Full battery every morning if you remember to plug it in

- Reduced exposure to combustion byproducts

- Financial Subsidies and other Government incentives (HOV Lane access)

- You move the emissions from the consumer to the electricity producer who are more likely to have the funds to actually start working on viable greenhouse gas reduction strategies

Inferior Qualities:

- Heavier

- Take longer to "re-fuel" on road trips

- Regenerative braking and heavier vehicle reduces the life of your tires

- Eventually the HV battery will degrade to the point that it might not be practical for your use case

> Regenerative braking and heavier vehicle reduces the life of your tires

I have never heard that regen breaking reduces the life of your tires (they do reduce brake pad replacements though) - until recently my 5 year old Ford Focus EV @60k miles didn't have to replace any of the stock tires - which is better than I'd have expected for other vehicles.

Some combination of increased weight, increased torque, or removal of the "coasting" state from EV's leads many folks to experience reduced life on their tires compared to ICE platforms. Obviously your experience may differ, but in my experience it is common enough to mention to provide a fair viewpoint.

Can regenerative braking be easily turned off on most EVs? That is the one feature that I absolutely do not want and has kept me away from looking at any EV so far.

Regen braking != single pedal driving.

Regen braking can be done by being blended in on the brake pedal. This gives a near identical feel as driving a regular car, where it doesn't really start pulling power to the battery until you press the brake pedal. Once it reaches its max draw it starts to bring in the brake pads.

Many EVs make single pedal driving modes optional, with some of them not even really having it as a feature at all. Some just essentially have it like its just a medium level of engine braking but will never come to a complete stop on its own.

Regen braking is a big part of why EVs and hybrids can be as efficient as they are; they capture all that energy that normally bleeds off as heat when you're driving around the city. Since I've established you can still have a normal accelerator/brake feel as a regular car while still having regen, what reasons would you have for not having it?

Also, I'd highly recommend actually giving single pedal driving a decent shake before fully judging it. Its incredibly nice just being able to control my speed with a single pedal instead of having to use two pedals to achieve the same end result. And then when I take my foot off the accelerator, I'm fully stopped without having to hold down a brake. I get many cars have an "auto hold" feature but I've yet to feel one as smooth as cars with good single pedal driving and I just can't seem to trust it in the same way.

I love it, but you can easily turn it off, and should when you are on the freeway (you'll get better mileage coasting). On my EV (BMW i4), it is just a small horizontal motion on the shifter to go between D (no regen) to B (regen). The BMW also has AutoH, but it seems mostly useless in contrast to regen braking.

Out of interest, why do you dislike regenerative brakes? This is actually an old and well proven technology.

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