Regen question

[EdmondLeaf]

I believe this happened before to others. Leaving highway my car lost regen at 60mph and we felt like someone hit us from the back, fortunately there was enough space and time to for regular brake to engage. Is this just software glitch, do not worry about this?

 

[garygid]

Were you in ECO using its stronger Regen to lose speed?

And the "Regen braking" suddenly quit, as if you had shifted into Neutral?

Without more details (bump in the road, SOC estimate, ...) it is difficult to guess what might have happened.

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Were you in ECO using its stronger Regen to lose speed?

And the "Regen braking" suddenly quit, as if you had shifted into Neutral?

Without more details (bump in the road, SOC estimate, ...) it is difficult to guess what might have happened.

I was in ECO exiting highway about 60 miles and I did "regen braking" which suddenly quit, as if I had shifted into Neutral, but I didn't, car was still in ECO so I quickly hit brake. SOC was 3 bars, no bumps, nice road, exiting highway.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Were you in ECO using its stronger Regen to lose speed?

And the "Regen braking" suddenly quit, as if you had shifted into Neutral?

Without more details (bump in the road, SOC estimate, ...) it is difficult to guess what might have happened.

I was in ECO exiting highway about 60 miles and I did "regen braking" which suddenly quit, as if I had shifted into Neutral, but I didn't, car was still in ECO so I quickly hit brake. SOC was 3 bars, no bumps, nice road, exiting highway.

It is highly unlikely that your regen cut out for no reason. It is far more likely you lost some traction and it turned off since you were exiting. Even oil on the surface can do this as the LEAF is very sensitive and the traction control is VERY invasive, too much so IMO. You would not even feet the loss of traction. As a result of this many people on the forum think odd things are happening with the car but it is not the regen having a "bug" and just cutting out for no reason. I think Nissan made the system far too sensitive and it is annoying and approaching dangerous for the unsuspecting.

 

[EdmondLeaf]

[It is highly unlikely that your regen cut out for no reason. It is far more likely you lost some traction and it turned off since you were exiting. Even oil on the surface can do this as the LEAF is very sensitive and the traction control is VERY invasive, too much so IMO. You would not even feet the loss of traction. As a result of this many people on the forum think odd things are happening with the car but it is not the regen having a "bug" and just cutting out for no reason. I think Nissan made the system far too sensitive and it is annoying and approaching dangerous for the unsuspecting.

Thanks, EVDRIVER. It was just strange because speed was high. It is not like I was going to hit someone because I was prepared to use brakes anyway. Just weird feeling. I put more miles and all is normal.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I believe this happened before to others. Leaving highway my car lost regen at 60mph and we felt like someone hit us from the back, fortunately there was enough space and time to for regular brake to engage. Is this just software glitch, do not worry about this?

i get this feeling all the time if first out of the garage in the morning with high SOC. what was SOC? how many charge circles were available?

ya, i know. impossible question to answer on the charge circles but i notice they do seem to come and go and have not discerned a pattern yet other than when pack is cold it does not want to regen as much maybe?

 

[planet4ever]

Leaving highway my car lost regen at 60mph and we felt like someone hit us from the back, fortunately there was enough space and time to for regular brake to engage.

This is a long shot, but you did say "we", so I assume you had a passenger in the front seat. Twice my wife and I were driving on the freeway and it was suddenly as if the car was in neutral. Of course the feeling was not the same, but both your situation and ours felt like neutral. I figured it out in my case. My wife tried to open the console storage compartment, and pulled the wrong lever. Yes, if you pull and then release the parking brake lever when at speed, the car appears to go into neutral for a few seconds.

p.s. I think I have my copilot trained now; it hasn't happened since last summer. But I am still not at all happy with the position of that parking brake lever.

Ray

 

[Reddy]

Yes, motor and inverter.. then you have the one speed gearbox. the differential and the two halfshafts with their universal joints. Probably 2% mechanical losses and 1% battery losses.

The SAE has published a composite efficiency map for the Volt and the efficiencies ranged between 70% and 88%. The Leaf's shouldn't be that different. http://papers.sae.org/2011-01-0887" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Has this been posted yet? http://www.plugincars.com/ford-focus-electric-gets-95-braking-regen-efficiency.html
It sounds like they're estimating similar regen efficiency to those postulated here for the Leaf.

I had a hard time deciding where to post this since there are numerous threads discussing the braking regen efficiency. Since it has been discussed many times before, I didn't think a new thread was needed.

Here are a few for reference:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=713&p=255106&hilit=+regen+efficiency+#p255106
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5508&p=127695&hilit=+regen+efficiency+#p127695
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5461&hilit=regen+efficiency
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6595&hilit=regen+efficiency
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6869&p=152538&hilit=+regen+efficiency+#p152538
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=9917&p=228486&hilit=+regen+efficiency+#p228486
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10540&hilit=regen+efficiency

Reddy

 

[TomT]

There is a tar strip on the down ramp where I exit the freeway for work and I can reproduce this phenomena every time there. Even with only very light regen, it will disable every time I hit the strip. If I manually turn off traction control with the switch, everything is fine and it never disengages. I agree that the system is far too sensitive and intrusive.

It is highly unlikely that your regen cut out for no reason. It is far more likely you lost some traction and it turned off since you were exiting. Even oil on the surface can do this as the LEAF is very sensitive and the traction control is VERY invasive, too much so IMO. You would not even feet the loss of traction. As a result of this many people on the forum think odd things are happening with the car but it is not the regen having a "bug" and just cutting out for no reason. I think Nissan made the system far too sensitive and it is annoying and approaching dangerous for the unsuspecting.

 

[LEAFfan]

Leaving highway my car lost regen at 60mph and we felt like someone hit us from the back, fortunately there was enough space and time to for regular brake to engage.

This is a long shot, but you did say "we", so I assume you had a passenger in the front seat. Twice my wife and I were driving on the freeway and it was suddenly as if the car was in neutral. Of course the feeling was not the same, but both your situation and ours felt like neutral. I figured it out in my case. My wife tried to open the console storage compartment, and pulled the wrong lever. Yes, if you pull and then release the parking brake lever when at speed, the car appears to go into neutral for a few seconds.

p.s. I think I have my copilot trained now; it hasn't happened since last summer. But I am still not at all happy with the position of that parking brake lever.

Ray

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

 

[JohnOver]

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

Where did they move it to?

 

[planet4ever]

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

Where did they move it to?

To a foot pedal, at least in the Japanese version. I think we all assume the US version will be the same, except on the opposite side of the car. :lol:

2013 LEAF Specs, Pricing, Options Released In Japan

Ray

 

[LEAFfan]

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

Where did they move it to?

To the left side above the left foot rest, like the old ICEs

 

[JohnOver]

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

Where did they move it to?

To the left side above the left foot rest, like the old ICEs

Good! I've always thought that it was too tempting to "mess with it", when driving.

 

[JohnOver]

Maybe that's the reason Nissan moved the PB in the 2013.

Where did they move it to?

To a foot pedal, at least in the Japanese version. I think we all assume the US version will be the same, except on the opposite side of the car. :lol:

2013 LEAF Specs, Pricing, Options Released In Japan

Ray

Thanks. And thanks for the link. I somehow missed the new about the 2013 specs coming out.

 

[LEAFfan]

The 2013 is supposed to have more regen than ECO mode. I hope it's like the Tesla S.

 

[JohnOver]

The 2013 is supposed to have more regen than ECO mode. I hope it's like the Tesla S.

Me too. I drove my neighbor's Tesla S (signature) and it was very easy to get used to "one pedal" driving.

 

[EVDRIVER]

The 2013 is supposed to have more regen than ECO mode. I hope it's like the Tesla S.

Me too. I drove my neighbor's Tesla S (signature) and it was very easy to get used to "one pedal" driving.

Ebox had this and it was adjustable, 0 regen to full motor power off pedal. This could stop like ABS to about 2 MPH. Makes an EV exciting to drive not like the 70's American car like LEAF made for the old Cadillac crowd.

 

[surfingslovak]

Ebox had this and it was adjustable, 0 regen to full motor power off pedal. This could stop like ABS to about 2 MPH. Makes an EV exciting to drive not like the 70's American car like LEAF made for the old Cadillac crowd.

The ActiveE inherited some of this legacy from the MINI-E, which had a powertrain from AC Propulsion. It took me a while to transition from the LEAF, but I would not want to miss the strong regen now. It truly makes an EV stand out, and relegates conventional cars to the 20th century. Most of the uninitiated, who test drove the ActiveE, had a positive reaction to the strong regen. Some of them were even super excited, and made unprintable comments. Really! It's definitely something worth exploring, and I put that on the list of improvements we compiled for the Google meeting in December 2011. I hope that Nissan was listening.

 

[RegGuheert]

The ActiveE inherited some of this legacy from the MINI-E, which had a powertrain from AC Propulsion. It took me a while to transition from the LEAF, but I would not want to miss the strong regen now. It truly makes an EV stand out, and relegates conventional cars to the 20th century.

I certainly hope the brake lights come on at some level of regen!

One issue with the LEAF could be battery heating. If you heat the battery a lot during acceleration, you *may* have some cooling airflow available to help remove some of the heat, but if you heat it up during regeneration, the car may simply remain stopped to soak with the now-heated battery. This would be less of a concern in an EV with active battery cooling.

In any case, I imagine someone will offer aftermarket regen boosting for LEAF owners.