How often do you drive without ECO?

[Astral]

For everyone using e-pedal + B mode. Don't bother, it's is exactly the same as e-pedal + D mode.

Once e-pedal is activated, B or D doesn't matter.

 

[Bombastinator2]

For everyone using e-pedal + B mode. Don't bother, it's is exactly the same as e-pedal + D mode.

Once e-pedal is activated, B or D doesn't matter.

Did it matter without it?

 

[Deleted member 37757]

The hydraulic brakes are only operated using e-pedal when the car comes to a halt.

Oh no! Let your foot touch (only touch!) the brake pedal and you will feel that the hydraulic brakes are operated far before a halt (driving with e-pedal). Not my preference but that is what it is...

 

[Bombastinator2]

Oh no! Let your foot touch (only touch!) the brake pedal and you will feel that the hydraulic brakes are operated far before a halt (driving with e-pedal). Not my preference but that is what it is...

Well yeah. You don’t use the brake pedal with e-pedal. I think this is likely one of those interpretation of language confusions. I think he means that when you are using epedal and take your foot off to slow down the car applies maximum ebraking till the vehicle stops, and when it does it uses the mechanical brake to lock it so it doesn’t slide downhill or something. Could be wrong. Likewise if you hit the brake pedal but not too hard with the epedal off only the ebrake is applied too. Only hard braking applies the mechanical brake.

 

[BobLerwill]

The hydraulic brakes are only operated using e-pedal when the car comes to a halt.

I know the Nissan web site says that the brakes are not used to slow you down when you use epedal, but I don’t believe this is true. Here is an experiment you can do to prove it to yourself. Take a drive with the battery fully charged using epedal and (when safe to do so) take your foot off the throttle. The car will slow down, but if you look at the meter that indicates charge/discharge you will see no charge going back into the battery! Ask yourself how it could be pushing charge into a fully charged battery? Conclusion: epedal mode must be applying the brakes.
By the way I don’t think this is the only occasion the hydraulic brakes are applied in epedal mode, it is just the easiest one to demonstrate.

 

[Bombastinator2]

This is one of those things where I would believe the manufacturer barring proof. Which would be fairly easy to get. If the rotors don’t get touched the mechanical brakes don’t get engaged. Just mark the rotors with something and drive around.

 

[Astral]

Did it matter without it?

Sorry I don't understand your question. I just meant to say if you have e-pedal activated and remembered by the car, you can just start it and drive, no need to bump it into B mode every time as it does nothing. (B mode is not remembered)

 

[SueC56]

[deleted]

 

[LeftieBiker]

E-pedal does use the hydraulic brakes in some common situations, like having to slow faster than regen allows, and holding the car still while stopped on a hill. Keep in mind that Nissan has made numerous design mistakes, and gaffes in their literature over the years. They even specified a portable EVSE that requires a fixed 27.5 amps, thus making it unsafe to use with a 30A dryer circuit. They then advertised the car showing it plugged into a dryer circuit...

 

[Bombastinator2]

Sorry I don't understand your question. I just meant to say if you have e-pedal activated and remembered by the car, you can just start it and drive, no need to bump it into B mode every time as it does nothing. (B mode is not remembered)

I have never intentionally put it in b over d. I always thought they were effectively the same and just a left over from automatic transmissions where it only sort of mattered anyway. The implication though is that this is not the case.

 

[Bombastinator2]

[deleted]

Been there.

 

[TreacherousPath]

As far as your comparison to operating costs, ICE (gasoline) vs EV (electricity), you're just factoring in the cost of gas, but you forgot to consider the cost of electricity.

Here in the San Diego area, where we're forced to buy ours from the rip-off company SDG&E, (the highest price of anywhere in CA and the nation, including Hawaii), it's a much different equation. I'm a hyper-miler and started driving a Prius over 10 years ago and was able to average about 70 mpg on the non-PHEV Prius hybrids that I owned (a 2013 and 2016). In 2019 I decided to start buying a new EV every year to take advantage of the state and federal incentives and since that time I've owned a Prius Prime, Honda Clarity, and a 2022 and 2023 Leaf. With my driving techniques I'm able to average 5.6m/kWh with the Leafs. This is the indicated miles per kWh, i.e. from the car's computer, my actual is 4.7m/kWh.

I only use the Leaf for local driving and I'm able to charge at home during super-off peak hours, but were I to drive a distance necessitating charging on the road, the price per kilowatt runs as high as $.58 in SoCal. Last night I bought gas for the cheapest I've paid in 3 years here in our area, $3.99 per gallon at Costco. So if you crunch these numbers, I was getting over twice the miles per gallon with the Prius hybrids, including the plug-in Prime, compared to my Leafs if I were charging away from home at peak times. When gas was around $6 per gallon and I was buying electricity at home for around $.25 per kilowatt, the equation, gasoline vs EV is much better.

Of course I realize that most Leaf owners will be getting closer to the 3.1m/kWh that FuelEconomy.gov rates the 2nd gen Leafs at. I'm able to get the 4.7m/kWh using my techniques and living in a moderate temperature area of the country and not having to use climate control, which is a much bigger factor for any EV compared to gas vehicles.

My brother also lives in the San Diego area and tells me the same as what you've reported. He's got a Bolt and a Mach-E. Crazy how expensive electricity is there. He has solar on his house, so that helps a lot. I'm in Northern Utah, electricity here is around 10 cents per kWh and gas around $3/gallon, so I figure running my 2015 Leaf is about 4 times cheaper than gas.

 

[Bombastinator2]

My brother also lives in the San Diego area and tells me the same as what you've reported. He's got a Bolt and a Mach-E. Crazy how expensive electricity is there. He has solar on his house, so that helps a lot. I'm in Northern Utah, electricity here is around 10 cents per kWh and gas around $3/gallon, so I figure running my 2015 Leaf is about 4 times cheaper than gas.

Yeah. It’s 10,000 lakes not 10,000 rivers :/ the more expensive electricity is the more it matters. Raise the price of electricity enough and there’s no longer a money advantage. IRRC Maine and California are the only places in the U.S. that have unregulated monopolies for their electrical grid. It makes the price of electricity vastly higher in those places. Could be wrong about that one. In California it might be fires or something.

 

[Bombastinator2]

E-pedal does use the hydraulic brakes in some common situations, like having to slow faster than regen allows, and holding the car still while stopped on a hill. Keep in mind that Nissan has made numerous design mistakes, and gaffes in their literature over the years. They even specified a portable EVSE that requires a fixed 27.5 amps, thus making it unsafe to use with a 30A dryer circuit. They then advertised the car showing it plugged into a dryer circuit...

Yeek! Which model was this? (Not mine I hope)

 

[Ancient1]

It's my understanding that B mode incorporates more regen than D mode. My car definitely slows more in B than it does in D, and the acceleration is not as quick, either. In order to use one-pedal driving, e-pedal is necessary to coordinate everything properly. Now that I am used to it, I can come to a stop behind traffic or at a limit line without using the brake pedal. I never have a problem with stopping too soon - you can balance out your stopping speed with the throttle. I didn't realize so many folks were having problems with this concept.
As far as the cost of electricity is concerned, be glad you don't live in Northern California. Peak time cost here is .46357 per kWh, and my off-peak rate (midnight to 9 am) is .27818. I am fortunate to have a ChargePoint facility across the street at a hospital which is free to use, so I have probably only used my at-home charger a handful of times in the last couple of years. Not having to pay for charging makes owning a Leaf VERY economical!

 

[Bombastinator2]

It's my understanding that B mode incorporates more regen than D mode. My car definitely slows more in B than it does in D, and the acceleration is not as quick, either. In order to use one-pedal driving, e-pedal is necessary to coordinate everything properly. Now that I am used to it, I can come to a stop behind traffic or at a limit line without using the brake pedal. I never have a problem with stopping too soon - you can balance out your stopping speed with the throttle. I didn't realize so many folks were having problems with this concept.
As far as the cost of electricity is concerned, be glad you don't live in Northern California. Peak time cost here is .46357 per kWh, and my off-peak rate (midnight to 9 am) is .27818. I am fortunate to have a ChargePoint facility across the street at a hospital which is free to use, so I have probably only used my at-home charger a handful of times in the last couple of years. Not having to pay for charging makes owning a Leaf VERY economical!

If I had a free charge point near my house my trunk would be filled with batteries and I’d fill them at the charge point and use them to make my meter run backwards. And if I thought of it there is probably someone that started doing it years ago and has already recouped the price of his batteries. This explains why street chargers are so unbelievably expensive though in my area. They’re bad enough I won’t use em except in an emergency. They cost like 3 times what home charging does for me. The MoA used to have free chargers for electric cars in their ramp. They're gone now. No surprise.

 

[BobLerwill]

This is one of those things where I would believe the manufacturer barring proof. Which would be fairly easy to get. If the rotors don’t get touched the mechanical brakes don’t get engaged. Just mark the rotors with something and drive around.

I too would normally tend to believe the manufacturer. I am a design engineer and I usually rely on manufacturers’ data when incorporating their products in my designs. However my doubts were raised when a friend of mine who has a leaf and always has epedal on found that his brakes had worn out in remarkably short time if you assumed they were hardly ever used. Apart from the experiments, I did a bit of on-line research and found that there is an international car safety standard that demands that any regenerative braking system that decelerates by more than 0.1G must also be able to automatically apply the hydraulic brakes. This applies to all manufacturers and all models. It is particularly important on cars like the leaf that can only apply regenerative braking on two of the four wheels.

 

[Bombastinator2]

I too would normally tend to believe the manufacturer. I am a design engineer and I usually rely on manufacturers’ data when incorporating their products in my designs. However my doubts were raised when a friend of mine who has a leaf and always has epedal on found that his brakes had worn out in remarkably short time if you assumed they were hardly ever used. Apart from the experiments, I did a bit of on-line research and found that there is an international car safety standard that demands that any regenerative braking system that decelerates by more than 0.1G must also be able to automatically apply the hydraulic brakes. This applies to all manufacturers and all models. It is particularly important on cars like the leaf that can only apply regenerative braking on two of the four wheels.

Wacky. The impression I got was that leaf brakes last longer than the car. If dude had to have his brakes replaced there’s something up alright. My desire to take a sharpie to his rotors and maybe mount a little camera there so I can see exactly when they get applied and how often goes way up.

 

[cornbinder89]

I suspect it is "apply the brake LIGHTS". This is required in someplaces where retarders are used on trucks, (Jake brakes, Telma's etc).
Why they would need to apply the actual brakes is something I don;t understand.
A vehicle that can slow faster than a normal vehicle without triggering brake lights, could be a problem, shouldn't be if drivers are paying attention.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Yeek! Which model was this? (Not mine I hope)

Nissan only offers one dual-voltage EVSE, and it comes with pretty much all Gen II Leafs now. So despite what Nissan says or pictures, don't use the 240 volt configuration on a dryer circuit.