All manual transmissions lurch if you quickly take your foot off the gas in low gear. Drivers with a modicum of skill learn how to ease off the accelerator and avoid any lurching.
It’s irrelevant in any case–not only is it adjustable on Teslas, it is also designed to not lurch even at the highest regeneration setting. It may slow down more quickly than you anticipate, but it is not uncomfortable for the passengers.
Also, the regeneration does very little at low speeds. You have to use the normal brake to come to a complete stop (unless you’re willing to coast for a long ways at a few MPH).
now now, don’t act like you just fell off the turnip wagon.
You can drive an ice car hard all day long and then let someone else drive it all night long. Lather rinse repeat until you’re bored or die of old age.
Do that in a Tesla and the day is going to be measured in minutes.
Odd that you would argue a compliment of the car but OK. Regenerative braking by default takes away the feel of the brakes. Even if it’s rate is adjusted the driver has to adapt to it.
I test drove a P85 about a year and a half ago and I walked away thinking that Tesla was a game changer. Since that time it seems that every car manufacturer (except for FCA, because Sergio) has come forward with plans to bring an EV to market. In that respect Tesla has become a game changer. And I believe that has been Elon Musk’s goal from the outset. Sell some cars, shake up the auto world and encourage the mainstream adoption of EVs.
It doesn’t lurch to a stop. The decal you get when you lift your foot completely off of the accelerator is maybe comparable to the engine braking you’d get in second gear for a manual-transmission ICE car. And it’s a linear gradient from max acceleration (with your foot to the floor) to max decel (with your foot off of the accelerator); if you don’t want to decal that hard, just don’t lift your foot all the way off of the accelerator. The decal also tapers off as you drop below maybe 5 MPH; if you want to come to a complete stop, you’ll need to get on the brake pedal.
You can turn this off through the center console’s menu system, but you’ll lose the range-extending benefit of the regenerative braking if you do so (less of an issue during highway driving).
And unlike a manual-transmission ICE car, there’s no slop/lash in the driveline; you don’t get any lurching or bucking as the driveline winds up or unwinds.
If you haven’t taken a Tesla for a test ride, I recommend trying it.
Musk may indeed be a saint. Don’t know. However, electric cars were being tested before he arrived and continue to be researched and produced. He changed the dollar value of sports cars in the performance range his cars sell in. And for that he gets full credit. He is NOT the game changer in production of mainstream electric cars. That credit should go to Nissan.
What has changed is battery technology and as that improves so will the sales of mainstreem EV’s.
Like I said, he was the only one able to sell his backers on the business case for building a long-range EV. None of the other existing automakers lack the talent or knowledge to build a 200-300 mile EV, but 10 years ago if Mark Reuss went to GM’s board and proposed spending 6 billion on developing one, he’d have been laughed out of the boardroom. Nothing about the Model S is really all that revolutionary. It’s an aluminum-bodied car, moved by an AC induction motor, controlled by a variable-frequency drive, powered by consumer-format LiIon cells. The revolutionary part of what Musk/Tesla did is change the narrative. Before Tesla, nobody could justify developing such a car. Now, everyone has the mandate to play in that space. The Chevy Bolt would never have happened if the Model S and Model X hadn’t existed.
A few years ago, when GM (once the largest company* of any kind* in the World) was looking to Washington for a loan (was this their only possible source of a loan?), they made a huge deal about THEIR brand-new, cutting edge, new technology, Chevy Volt!
I had never heard of the Volt until then.
Yes, Musk has changed the way we buy things (PayPal), how we think of EV’s - yes, there had always been the idea of ‘eventually’ - Musk turned that ‘eventually’ into ‘Now’.
Ford or GM could bury Tesla if they would devote as much of their resources to EV as Tesla has devoted its resources.
Porsche has a long track record of building excellent cars. Tesla has a short track record of late deliveries and poor mechanical reliability.
I think Musk has pulled off something close to a miracle getting this far. In an industry full of crossover “everythings” he not only identified an unfulfilled niche but he delivered a well designed car.
However, his cars are never on time and have reliability issues because of a lack of funding.
I don’t see the things coming up as reliability issues for Tesla’s cars as being too much different or worse than a lot of expensive (especially German) cars. and owners make excuses for those all of the time…
Ah yes, the Tesla fan club thread. Lest we not forget the bearing of fruit at the alter of Musk. I’ve been waiting for 3 people to swear his cars cure cancer so he can be anointed a living saint.
I can’t even post a video of how happy people are or give the company a compliment about adjustable braking without someone swearing it’s not noticeable or a big deal and then comparing it to braking in 2nd gear as if anyone does that.
It is possible to acknowledge it’s a nice car without swearing a blood oath of allegiance to the company. The sun will shine again if it isn’t the greatest car ever built.
