When I drive an electric car for the first time, I’m always struck by how different it is from EVs that I previously experienced. More often than not, what separates them is not how they accelerate or handle – but how they brake.
In the last couple of months, I’ve been able to get behind the wheel of these six EVs:
- 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric
- 2019 Audi e-tron
- 2018 Nissan Leaf
- 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance
- 2017 and 2019 Chevy Bolts (The 2017 model is my personal ride)
The key question for me is whether or not these EVs offer one-pedal driving. That’s the use of strong regenerative braking in which lifting your foot off the accelerator – but not touching the brake pedal – is all it takes to slow the car down to a complete stop.
The idea is to maximize the amount of energy you put back into the battery in the braking process. But the makers of these EVs take very different approaches.
Brakes Like a “Normal” Car
The brake-feel of the Audi e-tron and Hyundai Kona EV is aimed at familiarity with conventional drivers. It’s not that one-pedal driving is impossible. But it takes some work to set things up via a buried menu mode in the Audi or by using steering-wheel paddles in the Hyundai.
Continue reading at insideevs.com.
