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In the Audi A3 e-tron removing your foot from the accelerator pedal basically puts you into neutral and there is no regen or engine braking. Pressing the brake pedal will slow you down using regen and will only engage the regular brakes if you brake hard (or if the battery is fully topped up). Ever since I’ve started driving an EV I’ve always used the cars momentum as best I can to glide up to lights, traffic, go downhill etc... to ensure maximum efficiency. IIRC the Tesla (from my test drive) had several modes of regen (heavy and light) when you removed your foot from the pedal - does anyone know if you can disable regen completely with only regen activated using the brake pedal?
You can by putting the car into neutral... will float forever and ever
 
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In that case I’m gonna have to learn how to drive all over again.

I presume AP will try to use regen rather than brake to maximise efficiency? Also how do the brake lights work with regen? I know that in the Audi (in sports mode) where lifting off the accelerator will initiate regen braking that the brake lights come on for safety purposes.
 
In that case I’m gonna have to learn how to drive all over again

Nah, you'll love it. I think its wonderful, and is perfectly balanced (I've read people of other cars, e.g. Bolt and iPace saying same thing). Bolt has a lever on the steering wheel to increase the effect, drivers love that although I haven't tried it and I can't figure out why - I am not understanding why I wouldn't use maximum all the time and feather with throttle pedal.

Don't use Low, you won't put anything back in the battery and will use friction brakes instead and ... won't get the Range.

With One-Pedal Regen you lift off and monetarily nothing happens - that's to allow you to lift off and press the brake, or push the throttle again / adjust / whatever.

After that [literally just a] Moment its the same as a manual ICE getting engine braking from the engine when you lift off, or more so if you change down and lift off etc. but Regen is stronger than engine-braking, equivalent to the sort of reasonable braking you would do slowing down for bend / junction, but not aggressively so - for that you still need the friction brakes.That's what makes EV brakes last 100,000+ miles :)

Except Regen is better than Engine braking; you can feather the effect by pushing the accelerator to the point where you are not accelerating but regen is just the right amount. Lift off, regen builds to maximum, you are slowing down faster than necessary, just press throttle slightly to reduce regen (same as braking too hard to start with and lifting off the brake a bit).

Sorry, no more toe-heel either, if you are into that, and no more blipping the throttle on change-down coming into a bend either ... if you were into that too :cool: After a drive in a mate's Ferrari that did the whole double-de-clutch and throttle-blip thing, when you pressed the DOWN paddle, I used to do all that manually to amuse myself. SILENT is much better, no need to distort the music using graphics equaliser to boost the parts that the engine is drowning out. I digress ...

One thing that is different is that you can come into a bend, or approach a turn, faster than "comfortable", and with foot off accelerator regen is still slowing you so as you make the turn you have actually slowed enough. That, for me, is different to how I would have driven in ICE - I would have lost all necessary momentum before starting the manoeuvre. But of course you don't have to do that, you can just use the friction brakes if you are coming into a turn a bit fast

I presume AP will try to use regen rather than brake to maximise efficiency?

My AP1 is not that smart. Yes, all initial deceleration uses Regen, and in many cases car slowing a bit in front does not max out regen, but my AP maxes out regen (and I presume also uses friction brakes) quite often. I have a generous follow distance set and AP tries too hard to maintain that, so a car pulls into lane in front of me, if I was driving I would "use up" some of that space to slow down smoothly, and then allow the space to grow back again; AP1 does use some of that space, it doesn't just jump on the brakes to instantly keep same follow-distance :), but it slows more/faster than I would. I think the algorithm could better favour max regen and no friction brakes, unless necessary. Maybe AP2 does that ... either way, AP1 is "good enough" in that regard.

how do the brake lights work with regen?

Its based on the amount of deceleration, so if sufficient brake lights will come on (I believe that is the requirement for all cars, so if you had sufficient engine braking available ... or a parachute :D ... then brake lights would have to come on for compliance). I expect Audi / iPace etc are the same - modest regen slowing won't bring brake lights on.
 
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In that case I’m gonna have to learn how to drive all over again.

I presume AP will try to use regen rather than brake to maximise efficiency? Also how do the brake lights work with regen? I know that in the Audi (in sports mode) where lifting off the accelerator will initiate regen braking that the brake lights come on for safety purposes.

That's pretty much how I felt for the first few weeks/month - I remember needing to apologise to passengers regularly as I kept coming out of the throttle too much and causing the car to slow suddenly.

Now it feels like second nature and web the weather is cooler and the regen significantly drops, I have to learn to drive like in an ICE all over again.

If you look at the instrument cluster when you come out of the throttle you can see when the break lights cone on - it's not always as soon as you'd like, even though you are still slowing down quickly.
 
Although I was aware of this stuff I still might end up starting a thread titled "learning to drive all over again".

For me in an ICE it's very rare I apply as much deceleration as a Tesla does on full "foot all the way off" regen, so on my first go in one that was probably the biggest change. I found myself slowing to a near standstill 200m before a roundabout!

I knew cold weather affected efficiency significantly but not that it affected the rate of deceleration through regen so much. That'll be an adjustment.

Having driven a fairly recent auto ICE a fair bit recently, I found the need to choose between eco mode which drops it into N when you lift off and sport which applies deliberate engine braking, I wanted the ability to use both. The way I see it is that feathering the accelerator in an EV should be a little like having both. That said, once things settle down will the tesla regen on lift off "one pedal driving" approach win the day or the Audi coast on lift off, regen on brake pedal, win the day?
 
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I knew cold weather affected efficiency significantly but not that it affected the rate of deceleration through regen so much. That'll be an adjustment

That's only with cold battery. Regen is reduced by perhaps 50% when setting off in winter. That can partly, but not totally, be cured by charging battery for an hour before departure. Its annoying because I set off in the morning and forget, get to my gate, lift off ... nothing happens ... and I drift out into the road before I realise ... its probably an Age thing :oops:

Same if battery is 100% charged, very limited regen.

But once battery has warmed up (or is back down to 95%), full regen is available - Winter and Summer.

I've got used to it, it isn't a big deal, just "another EV difference"

feathering the accelerator in an EV should be a little like having both

Yup, you can drive EV exactly like that.

will the tesla regen on lift off "one pedal driving" approach win the day or the Audi coast on lift off, regen on brake pedal, win the day?

Tesla's TECH on this is 7 years old ... people seem to love the additional Hard Regen button on Bolt. The iPace has even-more-regn on first part of Brake pedal travel. All Regen on brake pedal (Audi-style) will be "familiar" to ICE drivers - my problem with that is you won't know if you are using friction brakes, so trying to (only) use full-regen may not be possible? and that is important on max-range days - unless there is some sort of "bump" in the brake pedal travel maybe?

For improved regen design my WishList is:

Always the same experience - so augment with friction brakes if full regen not available
Regen (on throttle) able to work all the way to 0 MPH (Bolt does that by, in effect, energising the motor backwards)

If more regen is possible, but would be too aggressive on throttle-lift-off, put that on the first part of the brake pedal travel.
 
Always the same experience - so augment with friction brakes if full regen not available
Regen (on throttle) able to work all the way to 0 MPH (Bolt does that by, in effect, energising the motor backwards)

I’m sure this could be implemented given that everything is now “fly” by wire. I’m certain I’ll love driving the MX and the biggest challenge for me will be moving from a small A3 to a huge Tesla. I’ve really started to notice width restrictions on routes I occasionally go through and would now have to think about navigating around since I’ve heard that even 7’ can be tricky (particularly the evil London low metal bollard ones)
 
I’m sure this could be implemented given that everything is now “fly” by wire. I’m certain I’ll love driving the MX and the biggest challenge for me will be moving from a small A3 to a huge Tesla. I’ve really started to notice width restrictions on routes I occasionally go through and would now have to think about navigating around since I’ve heard that even 7’ can be tricky (particularly the evil London low metal bollard ones)

Its certainly a consideration.

I drive a mondeo and a vw van round Devon lanes. They're wide, but doable and I'm used to it. A MS is even a little wider than both, by about 100mm, and I'll care about scratching it. It'll require some care.
 
I’m sure this could be implemented given that everything is now “fly” by wire.

Interesting that many of these things aren't currently user configurable options. Also a bit more of a gap in pedal travel between forward force and regen to allow total freewheel. And/or something in autopilot to allow a small deceleration below the set speed up the hill and freewheeling acceration over the set speed back down the other side. It seems to me there are easy opportunities for AP range increases with no change to total journey time. Maybe they will be in the future.
 
moving from a small A3 to a huge Tesla

Wife and I went from, supposedly, Eco BlueMotion Golf <VW=spit> to Model-S. Yeah, MS is a big car by comparison, but we seem to have managed. Wife hates it in small car parks (e.g. station) and multi storey and she will take old ICE on those journeys. I'm happy to park at far end of car park and walk, not something I want her to do returning late to an unlit car park ... in the rain ... etc.

I’ve heard that even 7’ can be tricky (particularly the evil London low metal bollard ones)

Dashboard shows image of radar sensors around the car, the display for each changes yellow, orange, red as you get close to something. Backing up it even gives you the distance in inches (until it decides you are one-inch-short-of-a-ruler, and then says "STOP" !). I haven't specifically checking it going through bollards, but if you are creeping through a narrow gap I reckon that would ensure you avoided bumping into anything.
 
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Dashboard shows image of radar sensors around the car, the display for each changes yellow, orange, red as you get close to something. Backing up it even gives you the distance in inches (until it decides you are one-inch-short-of-a-ruler, and then says "STOP" !). I haven't specifically checking it going through bollards, but if you are creeping through a narrow gap I reckon that would ensure you avoided bumping into anything.

The scientist in me will be setting up a test rig with plastic cones spaced 7’ apart to test this out :cool:
 
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