Some electric vehicles have a function called “one-pedal driving” where, in most cases, you only use the accelerator pedal to accelerate and decelerate. Only when a forceful halt is required does the brake pedal come into action.
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What are the advantages of driving a Kia with just one pedal?
What advantages are there? Driving with just one pedal increases a car’s brake life, battery life, and overall performance, especially when combined with the “eco mode.” Because you use your brakes less when driving with one pedal, this helps them last longer.
Does the Kia Niro EV support one-pedal operation?
A single electric motor that generates 201 horsepower powers the Niro EV’s front wheels with a one-speed direct-drive transmission. The Niro EV accelerates to 60 mph in under 6.2 seconds, beating the Chevy Bolt EV and the Hyundai Kona Electric by a significant margin. Regenerative braking allows the Niro EV to be driven with just one pedal because it recharges the vehicle as you brake. We appreciate that the steering-wheel-mounted paddles let us to switch between the four regeneration levels. Additionally, compared to rivals like the VW ID.4, its brake pedal feels more linear. The Bolt EV, Kona Electric, and Tesla Model Y all provide less smooth rides than the Niro EV; wind and road noise are much more barely audible.
How does a one-pedal vehicle operate?
When you release the pedal while driving with one pedal, the car will slow down or come to a stop. This contributes to offering a solution for changing pedals in circumstances like stop-and-go traffic. In some circumstances, you can even gently bring the car to a stop without applying the brake.
Can one-pedal driving be disabled?
Even if you are in one pedal driving mode, you should always use the hydraulic brake system in an emergency if you need to stop rapidly. At any point, the hydraulic braking system can be used to override the one pedal driving mode.
You won’t have time to let off the gas in an emergency and let the one pedal braking system slow you down; instead, you’ll need to stop swiftly by using the hydraulic brakes. Your life can be saved by knowing when to apply your conventional brakes.
Is driving with one pedal better?
Although I must agree that I prefer manually operating the brake pedal, I feel that one-pedal driving in EVs has its advantages in some circumstances. Is this really wrong? Regardless of my own choice, I needed to determine if one approach truly and unmistakably produced better results. Although I think I’ve found the solution, it’s not as definitive as one might like.
Every “real EV enthusiast” it seems extols the virtues of one-pedal driving, where relaxing off the accelerator causes the car to slow downoften to a complete stopby using resistive magnetic forces in the EV’s engine or motors, creating electricity to recharge the battery pack.
My one-pedal driving style allows me to cruise for days without using the brake, which guarantees that the friction brakes are never applied. In theory, this should result in some of the best levels of deceleration efficiency possible for an EV.
Having said that, I like to depress the brake pedal. When I choose when and how much to apply the brakes, I feel more in control. Additionally, if you must know, I enjoy extending my right foot while I coast down hills. And when one-pedal driving is disabled or decreased, it doesn’t look like all EVs merely freewheel with no regen; rather, it seems like many EVs regen a little in order to resemble the engine-compression braking found in ICE vehicles.
But even though I like to use the left pedal to brake, I think there’s a drawback: One-pedal driving will make more people safer drivers because they won’t wait until the last second to apply the brakes; instead, they’ll look ahead and plan their moves because they know the car won’t decelerate suddenly. In the long run, this results in more time spent slowing down, which means the driver is not on the gas as long (which is more efficient), and it should decrease rear-end collisions (which is, obviously, safer for everyone).
However, applying the brakes doesn’t necessarily mean you’re employing friction brakes. EVs use mixed braking, with there appears to be one (very notable) exception, where the brake pedal initially uses regen to slow the car and only engages the friction brakes when necessary.
For instance, the Ford Mustang Mach-E blends in the friction brakes if necessary after activating regen when the brake pedal is depressed. This appears to be the case with a number of other vehicles, including the Rivian R1T, Porsche Taycan, Polestar 2, Chevrolet Bolt, and Hyundai’s Ioniq Electric and Hybrid. Heck, blended braking is used by the Prius as well.
The efficiency of one-pedal driving and using the brake pedal should, in theory, be similar for those vehicles if you can match the deacceleration rate of one-pedal driving.
Before I answer, I should mention that Tesla is the prominent EV exception to blended brakes. Tesla chooses not to use regen when applying the brake pedal; rather, Tesla only uses one pedal while driving for regen and the brake pedal for friction brakes. With this knowledge, it is unlikely that a Tesla can be made to operate as efficiently with low regen settings. Turn on the one-pedal regen in a Tesla if you want to drive economically. (Read on if you don’t drive a Tesla EV.)
This subject has been covered in a few studies and simulations in an effort to determine the most effective way to operate electric vehicles with blended brakes. Energy efficiency increases by 2-9 percent when one-pedal driving is used, according to one study that used simulations in addition to a specially built EV, the TU/e Lupo EL BEV built by the Eindhoven University of Technology (it’s a converted VW Lupo). Another study pegged that number at 5 percent through its research with a Chevy Bolt.
To put it into perspective, that equates to somewhere between 5 and 23 miles over the length of the whole battery range on an EV with a 250-mile range. For EVs with blended brakes, using one pedal instead of manually depressing the brake pedal could result in a 1.2- to 5.4-mile advantage if you only travel 60 miles each day (ie: nearly every EV except Teslas).
Despite my best efforts, it appears that the simulations used in the initial study did not take into account the minimal regen that certain EVs provide even when one-pedal driving is disabled. Therefore, that 29% gain in efficiency for one-pedal driving may be a little high in some situations. A little, but not much.
However, I did appreciate learning from the second study that foot weariness is a common problem:
Depending on the level of traffic, the driver can select from a variety of driving modes. To help prevent foot tiredness brought on by prolonged deep pumping on the accelerator, the classic driving mode should, for instance, be chosen when driving at high speeds over long distances.
There are also less rigorous real-world experiments, albeit these involve more variables and should be viewed as anecdotal. One-pedal driving and using the brake pedal have no discernible differences in real-world situations, according to this test conducted in a Polestar 2, presumably because of integrated brakes.
The efficiency level probably changes depending on whether you’re driving in a city or on a motorway, as the Chevy Bolt’s efficiency increase of 5% occurred when the road was congested.
To my dismay, it seems that one-pedal driving, in blended-brake EV scenarios, is either equally as efficient or more effective than manually pressing the brake pedal. Nevertheless, the efficiency difference is so negligible that you shouldn’t likely care which option you choose.
So, I advise choosing your preferred way and using it; that’s what I’m going to do.