7 ms·
Hyundai, Kia, and Audi EVs have paddle shifters which controls the level of regeneration braking and feels very much like downshifting. One paddle (+) steps up
by hbarka 4y ago
Hyundai, Kia, and Audi EVs have paddle shifters which controls the level of regeneration braking and feels very much like downshifting. One paddle (+) steps up the regen to the point where the “drag” gets progressively stronger. The other paddle (-) steps down regen to 0 where the car can coast and there is no regen drag whatsoever. Note this is not the same as Neutral. The car is always in Drive. The function only affects what happens when letting off the power pedal.
The nice thing about the regen paddle mechanical control is the no-look ability at your fingertips to change the car’s response depending on driving context. There are moments when you don’t want the car to tip into a regeneration drag when letting off the power pedal and sometimes you feel the need for the “engine braking” to engage right away.
All the other EVs just have strong regen (B setting) or low regen and the selection is a preset you have to choose either on the screen or somewhere near the shift cluster and isn’t exactly a no-look control you can change on the fly. The older VW Golf EV used to have a stick where you can tap up and down two levels of regen on the fly and that was also a great experience but now buttons have replaced the stick. (Sigh, it was nice while you had it, VW!) The Chevy Bolt has one paddle but it’s designed like a brake-with-your-hands lever when depressed. Not quite the effect of stepping up or down.
In sum, the feeling of downshifting, such as into a turn, can be controlled. On the other hand, there is no need for “upshifting” if the EV had adequate power to get to a high speed. Tesla’s power and torque band is already covering high and low speeds with one gear, although an additional top gear would probably get them to a really insane top speed. I think Toyota’s goal is to eke out more range because they want to use less powerful motors where the power and torque bands would benefit from gearing. My dream is for Tesla to add mechanical paddle shifters and do what Hyundai does.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- baybal2 4y ago
- jjtheblunt 4y agoIs it coincidence that so many designs first seen in Audi seem to show up in Hyundia/Kia at a short delay?
- xanathar 4y agoThe Audi e-Tron debuted on 17 September 2018. The Kia e-Niro debuted on 18 September 2018. The Hyundai Kona was selling in the USA on November 2017. Are you referring to a different model? Because if we consider the e-Tron... it doesn't seem to be where this design was first seen.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dangrossman 4y agoThe first vehicle with a regen steering wheel paddle was the 2014 Cadillac ELR, followed by the Chevy Volt and Chevy Bolt in 2016.
- hbarka 4y agoTheir implementation of the paddle shifter was not the shiftable kind [1]. It was a lever you had to continually press to hold regen. Imagine your hand cramping up trying to keep it engaged. To this day GM has this odd implementation. [1] https://youtu.be/6NqfESCfSUM https://youtu.be/6NqfESCfSUM
- lokedhs 4y agoI have the Niro EV, and it was my first EV. The paddle shifters are amazing, and you get used to them very quickly. I recently rented another EV and I was surprised it wasn't there. Most of the time I can drive without even touching the brake pedal, since you can hold the left paddle and it will engage maximum engine braking, which it quite powerful. This helps with battery as well since there is less energy loss when braking.
- LorenPechtel 4y agoI thought anything other than really hard braking didn't actually happen anyway, it was actually done with regen.
- lokedhs 4y agoPerhaps it does. When I use the pedal the display shows a amount of regen power. However, as I press harder there is no obvious transition where the actual brakes take effect. It feels completely natural, which is why I thought it applied the brakes immediately. Perhaps the design is just so good that you can't tell.
- Animats 4y ago> Tesla’s power and torque band is already covering high and low speeds with one gear, although an additional top gear would probably get them to a really insane top speed. Tesla tried that in their original Roadster. It had a two-speed transmission. The lurch when the transmission shifted during launch was too hard on the transmission, and many of them broke under warranty. Tesla had to replace many transmissions. It was easier to fix the problem on the electric side than the gear side. There's something to be said for a paddle shifter, but mostly for better control at low speed. For parking and off-road use, it can be helpful to map more pedal angle to a range of low speeds. This is more like the high/low range lever found on off-road vehicles and tractors than like a stick shift. Mode switches are undesirable because they lead to "wrong mode" accidents. This is an ongoing problem with aircraft automation. Behavior with zero accelerator and brake is an interesting question. Should the vehicle creep slowly forward? That's a classic feature, or bug, of automatic transmissions. Some automatic transmissions had anti-creep mechanisms to prevent this. If the vehicle comes to a full stop, should releasing the brake initiate creep? Should the vehicle roll back if on a hill? Some cars have "hill holders" to prevent that. For an electric car, those are all design decisions - the power train has no inherent behavior.
- kayodelycaon 4y agoWrong mode accidents don’t need to happen. My Prius has three modes for acceleration curves: Eco, Normal, and Power. If you push the pedal down all the way, you get full power in any mode. Note: power mode does not increase power, it just waits longer to turn off the ICE in order to improve throttle response
- Taniwha 4y agoLeaf's switch in and out of the B regen by shifting into drive a 2nd time - however they also have an "eco mode" switch on the steering wheel - if you normally drive with it on then pressing it does feel a lot like a shift up
- Goz3rr 4y ago> The lurch when the transmission shifted during launch was too hard on the transmission, and many of them broke under warranty. Tesla had to replace many transmissions. It was easier to fix the problem on the electric side than the gear side. Seems to me this was more a problem with Teslas build quality or design, because the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT have a two speed gearbox. From when I drove the e-tron GT this shifting was almost completely imperceptible, no lurching of any kind even when launching it in sport mode. If you're driving in anything other than sport mode the car will spend most of its time in second gear anyways, not even using it from a standstill.
- terrio 4y agoI have an L button in my EV car and two settings are way enough. Fine-tuning this doesn't really add any value
- kvark 4y agoWhen would you actually need to not have the max regen braking? You can always just push the drive pedal slightly to let the car know you aren’t slowing down, instead.