Love the paddle on the Volt. If I want modulated regen, that's what the 'brake' pedal on the floor does. In urban settings, it's Sport, L, and I use the paddle. I seldom have to touch the brakes. Probably because I don't tailgate, I look far ahead, and I don't race towards stoplights that are red. And I still get to my destination quicker than most folk.
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Chevy Bolt - 200 mile range for $30k base price (after incentive)
- Thread starter FredTMC
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- bolt chevy Electric Vehicles review
Love the paddle on the Volt. If I want modulated regen, that's what the 'brake' pedal on the floor does. In urban settings, it's Sport, L, and I use the paddle. I seldom have to touch the brakes. Probably because I don't tailgate, I look far ahead, and I don't race towards stoplights that are red. And I still get to my destination quicker than most folk.
Yep, I'm a big fan of the regen paddle too. I'm hoping the Bolt has an analog paddle for more refinement when slowing with the paddle.
I believe GM owns the patent for the regen paddle, which may be one reason no other manufacturer employs one....at least I don't think any non-GM EV has a regen paddle.
Chickenlittle
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They did funny thing with volt bought 2016 last December for 40K and it didn't even include home link. Can't wait to see what's left off bolt
The raison d'etre of Sport mode is to affect the resolution. you get more power with less pedal travel. I don't consider it a problem, I consider it a matter of preference. My wife drives in Sport/PWR and I drive in Normal/ECO mode in our Volt/Prius.
If the resolution isn't affected by driving Low then it must mean that I'm moving my foot when I shift, because I've seen a change in power when I've shifted. (I drive the Volt with the kW displayed). I can test it next time I drive the Volt.
There are times when being able to switch regen from high to low would be handy, like when going downhill and you don't want to keep the car moving at a reasonable speed. I've learned to use the accelerator to reduce regen in these situations, but it would be nice to just set it and let it coast.
The pedal presumably generates a digital code for a small movement of the pedal. If you remap the pedal to cover the same driver power request over a shorter pedal travel distance then the same power range is described by fewer motion codes so fine changes in position might be seen by the powertrain computer in a chunkier granularity and thus power changes might be perceived as rough rather than smooth.
I just tested this in my Volt because I was curious. Traveling 55 along a level highway, I braced my foot against the footwell side to help me keep it steady. 10kW draw. I could move between D and L not moving my foot on the pedal and the kW draw stayed the same and the speed didn't change.
In practice, in the Gen 2 Volt, it works really well with "L" mode. A little too abrupt to use in "D". Sounds like this will be fixed in the Bolt EV.
I haven't seen either the Bolt or the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV yet but the latter has paddles which allow the user to adjust regen. It sounds like they each use the paddle(s) differently but both do use paddle(s) to adjust regen.
The paddle on a Volt acts like downshifting a gear when approaching a corner. I imagine folk who don't drive stick probably don't care much for it.
I tried looking up the Mitsu Outlander's paddles and how they work, and it seems they are set up differently from GM's implementation. Like you tug the paddles (there are paddles on both sides of the steering wheel) and the regen braking level ramps up or down accordingly. So they are more like "adjust regen level on the fly" paddles rather than a "regen braking" paddle. Definitely sounds more clumsy than GM's version. Could be how they get around paying GM licensing fees.
My parties and social events often are populated by enthusiasts, racers, or ex-racers. They know what heel toe, Ackermann, bump steer, snap oversteer, and paddles are.
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I've got mixed emotions on this trend to emulate an ICE's user experience in the new EVs. While I can see the need to make EVs "familiar", to get non-EV drivers over any anxiety they might have, I worry that it will ultimately hold the EV market back. The only exception seems to be the common thread that highlights EVs performance characteristics, and thank your favorite deity that they aren't numbing that down. But the rest of this - linking regen to "low" on a car that doesn't even have a transmission, for example - I worry will ultimately get in the way or cause enough confusion to slow adoption of EVs.
In fact, I'd bet that most of the folks in this target segment - the ones that can't handle things different - don't even use "L" on their ICE transmission in the first place. Making things simpler, which an EV can easily do through software, should be better for them. Paddles and a bunch of intertwined options for controlling regen is totally the wrong thing to do. As high-tech as my Roadster is, it still just has 4 simple buttons for controlling what mode the car is in, Park, Neutral, Reverse, and Drive. And 99% of the time, I only need the last two.
"Regen On Demand" aka the regen paddles are something you simply DON'T find on conventional ICE vehicles. Not sure why they are even being mentioned in the same breath. When's the last time you bought a gas car that could brake via the steering wheel?? They would be a foreign concept to the "average Joe", so the argument being made that including regen paddles is somehow making an EV MORE like an ICE is mindboggling....
Exactly. Regen paddles are a new feature specially designed for EV driving.
Many of us who have experienced the Volt/ELR version of the paddles and the ability to conveniently shift from light regen to stronger regen on demand using the floor mounted shifter know this enhances our EV driving experience.
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