Electric Vehicles

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Jack by the hedge said:
Well I expect to feel engine braking if I lift off in my ICE car so a modest degree of regen braking ought to feel natural I guess. More natural than just coasting as if I'd knocked it into neutral, anyway.
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My Honda Clarity has paddles to select the amount of REGEN, marked in 1 to 4 “chevrons” on the panel. I select 4 chevrons - Max REGEN - when I start the car and leave it there. Letting off the “gas” is similar to downshifting, which is very handy on the twisty roads around me. Many, if not most, owners wish more REGEN was available to get closer to one pedal driving. The supposition is that Honda didn’t want a plug-in hybrid that drove too differently from their regular hybrids.

As an aside, if you get in a heavy REGEN situation with a full battery, the Clarity will start its gas engine and use its compression to slow the car. It works, but seems kinda wasteful.
 
Kestrel said:
Regenerative braking can’t be used when an EV is near 100% charge because there is no place to put the energy generated slowing down the car. This isn’t a big deal because it is rare to charge an EV 100%. Having the car act different in this rare situation would create a safety issue.

Recommend practice is to only charge an EV to between 80% and 90% of full charge. Charging to 100% only when the full range is needed. Topping off the battery is slow. It may take as long to get from 90% to 100% as it did to get from 50% to 90%. Going to a full charge also stresses the battery.
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I understand the issue. I just miss the idea that one can coast.

I think here in fairly hilly country, the best practiced would almost certainly be to undercharge a little, and use the free charge from regenerative braking. If one doesn't need the last few miles of range, it's almost certain to cost less than the combination of paying for full charge and scrubbing off excess energy with the brakes.
 
bruto said:
I understand the issue. I just miss the idea that one can coast.

I think here in fairly hilly country, the best practiced would almost certainly be to undercharge a little, and use the free charge from regenerative braking. If one doesn't need the last few miles of range, it's almost certain to cost less than the combination of paying for full charge and scrubbing off excess energy with the brakes.
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Coasting is available in all electric and plug in hybrid vehicles.

If you want to coast, you turn off the regenerative braking.

My car also has the regenerative braking levels linked to paddles on the steering wheel.

Please note that 'coasting' requires some power consumption in electric vehicles, there has to be enough power applied to the electric motors to overcome the innate resistance of the motor.
 
novaphile said:
Coasting is available in all electric and plug in hybrid vehicles.

If you want to coast, you turn off the regenerative braking.

My car also has the regenerative braking levels linked to paddles on the steering wheel.

Please note that 'coasting' requires some power consumption in electric vehicles, there has to be enough power applied to the electric motors to overcome the innate resistance of the motor.
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I really don't have the option of turning off regen braking in my Tesla. It was probably hitting the range estimates that Tesla publishes.
 
I know what you mean, but technically, you can 'turn off' the regenerative braking with sufficient pressure on the accelerator pedal.

(i.e. enough power to prevent regen, but not enough to cause acceleration.)

It's just easier in my car with the paddles.

(Regenerative braking can be set from B0 to B5, applying the brake pedal momentarily increases the setting up to B6 depending to the amount of pressure applied)
 
Fast Eddie B said:
My Honda Clarity has paddles to select the amount of REGEN, marked in 1 to 4 “chevrons” on the panel.
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Why would anyone select less than 4? What situations would make choosing a smaller number advantageous? If you chose 1 (there's no zero, I suppose) would that be like coasting in an ICE car?
 
SezMe said:
Why?

BTW, I don't want that to sound hostile; I'm really curious.
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There is a lot that goes into battery management to make sure that they last as long and deliver as much capacity as possible.

If lithium batteries were fully charged it can mess up the battery because it loses its internal structure. It has to do with the way lithium ions move inside the battery. You can look it up if you want more details.

But it isn't an issue because when you charge your car to 100% the on-board battery management doesn't allow the battery to be charged fully. You can't charge the battery to 100%. In my case, when the car is charged to 100%, the battery is actually at something like 87%.

The battery management system also won't let the battery be discharged to too low of a level.
 
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SezMe said:
Why would anyone select less than 4? What situations would make choosing a smaller number advantageous? If you chose 1 (there's no zero, I suppose) would that be like coasting in an ICE car?
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I suppose it would make it easier to pseudo-coast on a long downhill stretch. Your speed could drift around a bit as the slope varies without having to constantly adjust pedal position or have alternating acceleration and (regen) deceleration.
 
SezMe said:
Why would anyone select less than 4? What situations would make choosing a smaller number advantageous? If you chose 1 (there's no zero, I suppose) would that be like coasting in an ICE car?
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Even 1 chevron provides some small amount of REGEN.

The only time I choose less is on miles-long descents in the mountains. I paddle up or down to maintain speed and/or following distance. Admittedly, you could get the same result by either using cruise control or just gently using the brake pedal to control REGEN, but sometimes using the paddles seems appropriate.

Another odd choice by Honda: every time you stop, or even slow a lot and accelerate, your REGEN setting goes back to minimum. Except in “SPORT” mode where it remains where you set it unless you activate cruise control. SPORT mode reprograms the “gas” pedal to be more responsive, so I virtually live in SPORT with no obvious hit to EV miles. It just feels peppier, though mashing the gas pedal results in maximum acceleration regardless of mode selected.
 
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Here's good news for EV fans:
President Joe Biden is prioritizing a national EV charging network under his $2 trillion infrastructure bill, promising to have at least 500,000 of the devices installed across the U.S. by 2030.
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Linky.
 
quadraginta said:
Interesting site and product.

I have to think that the copyright and trademark negotiations were interesting, as well.
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It appears that Paramount's trademarks for a "The Fonz" shirt design are dead (in the US). And names are not protected by copyright.
 
Roughly one in five plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners switched back to owning gas-powered cars, in large part because charging the batteries was a pain in the… trunk, the researchers found.

Of those who switched, over 70% lacked access to Level 2 charging at home, and slightly fewer than that lacked Level 2 connections at their workplace.

"If you don't have a Level 2, it's almost impossible," said Tynan, who has tested a wide range of makes and models of PEVs over the years for his research.

Even with the faster charging, a Chevy Bolt he tested still needed nearly six hours to top its range back up to 300 miles from nearly empty - something that takes him just minutes at the pump with his family SUV.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/1-5-electric-vehicle-owners-164149467.html
 
Some friends came around to talk to me about buying a Leaf. They have a garage, but it's away from the house, so I told them they need to find out if they can have a 7kw charger installed there, because the won't be able to have one reach from their house
 
JoeMorgue said:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/1-5-electric-vehicle-owners-164149467.html
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It's a definite problem. We had the tesla before the level 2 charger was installed in our Garage. Trickle charging on a 110v can take a day or two.

Now on the level 2 is can take upwards of 5-6 hours if I run the car very low, but it's never really been an issue, as I don't drive 300+ miles on a typical day.

The issue right now are people that want EV's, but rent or live in condos. There should be infrastructure in such places for those that want EV charging spots.
 
It still seem to me that for many of those disillusioned EV owners, a PHEV would have been a better choice. It was for us. There’s never range anxiety when you can turn into a hybrid at any time. That said, I still see PHEV’s as transitional, filling a gap until the range/charging availability equation improves just a bit.
 
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