My Kona blends regen and friction when you press the brake pedal, and it works great. It is smart enough to use entirely regen braking when you press lightly, and it adds more friction as you press harder. It’s smart so you don’t have to be.
Note it also uses regen braking when take your foot off the accelerator, like one-pedal braking except it slows it to about 3 mph but doesn’t stop it completely*. And it has a paddle on the wheel that adds more regen than just removing your foot, and will stop you completely and hold the car in place. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it’s probably more complicated than it needs to be. But the advantage is that you have a lot more control over braking than Tesla’s one pedal.
*New Kona models have a toggle that turns on “full stop” regen braking when you take your foot off the accelerator. It was an obvious omission in my 2021 model.
On the other hand, I would think, but could be wrong, that if you can only apply the regenerative braking (at least to the fullest extent possible), that you would want to do it as soon as possible so that you don’t waste energy to the higher friction of higher speeds. Of course on surface roads this isn’t always practicable if you will brake so hard that you will have to accelerate fast to make the next light, or will be going much slower than the expected flow of traffic when crossing a heavily used but non-signalled intersection.
I’m sure all of the different systems are easy enough to get used to after a few stops.
The Tesla one is easy to control, because there is one concept. Press the tall pedal for as fast as you want to go. If you want to be going slower, press it less, up to a maximum of not pressing it at all. So you can modulate regen by not lifting off completely.
For example, on the snowy streets this morning when I was approaching a stop instead of lifting completely, I just lifted most of the way.
This is solved by limiting regen by only pressing the accelerator a little bit. Exactly how much to apply in any situation takes a bit of practice.
I have been very impressed with how easy Tesla one pedal driving is to master. It works very well and I haven’t found anything to change about it. It’s also extremely easy to pick a speed and go that speed without enabling any sort of cruise. Doesn’t matter if you are going up or down a hill, it just does the speed you want.
You, my friend, should go test drive a Lucid Air Sapphire. No, not a coupe. But… 0-60 in 2 seconds, 9 second quarter mile over and over and over until you feel sick. Second lowest C/D of any production car. Pulls 1.35 Gs in corners. 450 miles of range. Literally only behind the highest end McLaren and the Rimac in everyone’s tests… I’m sure there’s a showroom in Miami!
There is. And I’m in that part of town about every other weekend. Due to travel I won’t get there this upcoming weekend, but …
Yowza. That is one hell of a car. I’ve generally liked the styling of the Lucids I see around, but I don’t think I’ve seen an Air Sapphire. The pix remind me of a Taycan. Definitely a sedan, but one with 'nads.
I’ve driven my parent’s Ford PHEV (don’t remember the model) that worked that way. I agree with echoreply that I prefer the Tesla approach (which I don’t think is exclusive to them, but I haven’t driven others).
On the Ford you had to pay attention to the dash to see if you were using 100% regen or the brake. No way to do it by feel.
The Tesla has infinite control over the amount of regen; you just have to let up on the accelerator gently. Let off completely for max regen, or partway if you want to go easy.
It very quickly trains the muscle memory and there’s no need to ever look at the dash or use some separate control. And you always know for sure that if you touch the friction brake, you messed up and are wasting energy.
Could be that some of the ease (for me) is that 1-pedal driving feels a bit like driving a manual, except that you never have to shift and the regen is more powerful than engine braking. But it feels a lot like tooling around in second gear and not having touch the brake.
Why would you need to pay attention to that? Yes, it tells you, if you care. I typically did 100% regen breaking, except in “emergency” situations. (Someone cuts in front of me, i didn’t notice that thing, whatever.) And actually, i learned what they felt like, and did know by feel whether the friction brake cut in. But other than when you are learning to use the system, why would you care? Just brake when you want to slow down and let the car worry about the details.
All I can say is that 1-pedal driving is very comfortable and easy to get used to, and I know I’m maximizing efficiency if I’m using it. It’s a little different from driving other cars but the muscle memory is easy to pick up.
Maybe eventually I’d detect the transition in the Ford, but I’ve driven it a fair amount and I still haven’t really figured it out. There’s no difference in pressure, nor is there a bump or vibration or other haptic indicator. Whatever it is, it’s much more subtle than “1-pedal good, friction brake bad”.
And well, 1-pedal driving is nice in and of itself. I like it even outside of the efficiency benefits.
And in the very broadest terms, I like it when machines are “transparent”. I’ve always hated automatic transmissions because you can never be sure when they’re going to shift. I want the control inputs to map as directly as possible to the behavior of the machine. And so I like the situation where pressing on the friction brake always means the friction brake will be applied.
This is one of the things I hate most about our Subaru: The transmission. It is a year or two before they came out with the CVT so it has true gears. But it is one of the dumbest auto-trannies I’ve ever driven. If you are on the highway and want to pass, you hit the gas and it makes all kinds of noise before it finally decides to downshift. And god forbid you let off on the gas because you decide you can’t make the pass: Lots and lots of noise and revs and then nothing. Doesn’t speed you up, doesn’t do much except make a racket. And with it being a Subaru, this happens often since many stars have to align properly to get an opportunity to pass. Not so in the Tesla. It’s almost as good as passing on my motos. You get way more opportunities.
That and a bunch of variations is basically my experience with automatic transmissions. Another annoying case is when I start going uphill and the car downshifts because I’m pressing the accelerator harder to maintain speed. No, you idiot! I just want more throttle in the same gear! In a manual I can decide for myself, only downshifting if the hill gets really steep or I have to pass. And of course the Tesla has no gears.
I like manuals not because I’m especially enamored with shifting (it is sometimes fun, but that’s not the main reason). It’s because I can tell the car what to do and it’ll do it. And while the Tesla is simplified, it’s the same principle. The friction brake is the friction brake and the accelerator controls the motor (for both acceleration and deceleration). Simple and direct. Ok, there’s a little magic with it blending the friction brake in at low speeds, but that’s a limited situation and handled well.
I mean, that happens about as often as braking, and in theory, it kind of words me out about one pedal driving. But I’m practice, one pedal driving is very popular, and if i get a car that supports is, i expect I’ll learn to love it. But that’s how i felt about the mix of regen and friction braking. There was a little magic, but it worked well and i liked it.
Nads to spare!!! Look into how they engineer the aero especially the under-car and the diffuser. Spectacular. We’re in snow country so we’re looking at the Gravity.
I’ll need a very special Powerball ticket to swing a Rimac. Fortunately for me, that almost-racecar style is not one I actually want at this stage of life. And it’s far enough out of reach I don’t feel tempted to try to rationalize making the deal work.
An Air Sapphire would be a very generous but doable present to myself. Ask me again after we see how the 2025 stock market did. It’ll either be or .
The Model S Plaid is 95% of the perf as the Air Sapphire for a very affordable price. And it self-drives. For real. They just need to get it an interior that befits the perf & price. Like the Sapphire.
Thanks, that video has come up in my feed a few times, but I’ve never bothered to watch it. Excellent.
For as much as I like cars, I don’t follow motorsports at all, so I can’t say if anyone has tried this. When will there be an electric top fuel car that runs 3.5?
or 
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