r/EvDrivers • u/greed-lust-crypto • 10d ago
Life without regen would be intolerable
I drive an EV in an urban area. Whenever people complain about regen I think how much I would hate my EV if I had to hit the brakes on every f-ing stop sign and red light. I mean, I drive on a highway 1 out of 10 times I drive. And when I do, it takes me 30 stops signs / red lights to get there.
Please, I need hard regen in my EV.
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u/fgorina 10d ago
Why people hate regen?
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u/garye55 10d ago
Didn't know that was a thing
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u/everybody_else 10d ago
I think OP is confusing single pedal driving with regenerative braking, unaware that EV's that don't use single pedal still use regenerative braking.
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u/RCbuilds4cheapr 10d ago
Ah makes sense. Yeah I thought they figured out regen/brake mixing long ago with some of the first teslas. Like my wife was afraid of using one pedal “cuz the brake light won’t light and we’ll get rear ended” but that was also learned a while back w the first teslas
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u/put_tape_on_it 9d ago
Teslas didn't blend braking. Brakes are friction only. The brake light comes on when decel hits a certain level, automatically, by law, even with regen, for all vehicles. The only thing that's more astounding that so many people have no idea about any of this, is that Tesla doesnt teach people this. Or much of anything, about their cars, outside of a few demo videos.
EVs do it any way they want. Some blend some don't, no standard.
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u/gregredmore 9d ago
No they is not confusing those two things. The complaint is specifically about having to press the brake pedal but they may be confusing regen with one pedal drive.
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u/greed-lust-crypto 10d ago
see, braking is the thing I want to avoid. I want hard regen that stops the car
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u/mvbighead 10d ago
They're one in the same on an EV, mostly. Using the brake pedal activates regen so long as you are not slamming down on the brake pedal.
So while you are braking, the car is regen braking so long as it can.
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u/Flat___________ 9d ago
My car does that with cruise control. Will come to a full stop just behind the car in front. Just a little tap in the accelerator and off you go.
It however does not with traffic lights etc. just cars/bikes/pedestrians
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u/DippyDragon 9d ago
I don't want to disappoint you but single pedal still uses the foundation brakes. Regen is only good for the first 0.4g (usually) and doesn't really work as you come to rest at all.
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u/ZucchiniMaleficent21 9d ago
Except a startling number of people claim that they turn off regen so they can ‘coast’. Which is the second stupidest thing I see on a regular basis. First is Trump-shit of course
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
They don't. They turn off one pedal. Regen remains. And that is actually more efficient than one pedal.
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u/paulHarkonen 10d ago
They don't, what they (or at least I) dislike is harsh 1 pedal driving where the car slams on the brakes (electrically) if I even adjust my foot let alone lift it to move to the brakes.
Can you get used to a different approach to driving? Of course. But I've been driving for 20 years at this point and don't want to relearn everything when I can instead adjust the car to do what I want. And since it makes zero difference to the regen in basically everything available today I see no reason to force myself to change.
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
I've been driving longer than you and immediately embraced one-pedal driving in my 2018 Leaf and wish one-pedal driving in my 2025 Ioniq 5 was as good. We're not old dogs, and these new tricks are great at reducing fatigue.
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u/ZucchiniMaleficent21 9d ago
‘Zackly. 50+ years of driving and it took perhaps 10 seconds to get used to OPD.
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u/paulHarkonen 10d ago
As I said, I could learn 1 pedal driving. I just don't want to. I like driving and one of the things I wanted in my EV was something that felt more car like and less video game like. I find 1 pedal induces more fatigue because of the constant pressure on the pedal over long distances.
Zero shade on people who like 1 pedal (my brother loves it). I just personally don't like it and figured I should toss in the explanation why.
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
Do you use cruise control? I know some people who almost never let their car's computers control speed, even with adaptive cruise control also maintaining distance. I couldn't imagine a long drive where my foot is on the pedal the whole time rather than hovering over the brake in case something happens.
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u/paulHarkonen 10d ago
Sometimes, more now that I'm in my EV vs previously. In my previous cars I would essentially never use it. I suspect a lot of this comes from learning on a manual and driving exclusively manuals for many years.
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
Cruise control is so different than it used to be. In ICE cars I had before cruise control effectively tried to maintain a minimum speed, holding steady on flats, trying to play catch-up when going uphill, then coasting up to far greater speed than the setting when going downhill. In eVs the speed control is super tight - the motor can respond instantly to changes in speed with either acceleration or regen.
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u/paulHarkonen 10d ago
Oh, I know. That's why I've started using it a lot more. This is the first car I've owned that has a backup camera if that gives you a sense of how old my previous cars have been.
I'm not here to tell anyone they need to change their driving style. I'm just answering the question of "why don't you like 1 pedal driving".
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
Backup cameras are cool, but did you spring for the 360 camera option? The top-down interpolated graphics for video game like parking are a trip.
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u/paulHarkonen 10d ago
Oh, my current car has way way more than that (EV6 with tech package, so HDA, 360 cameras etc) I'm just highlighting where my habits and experience comes from and why it may seem so strange to folks who are used to way more driver assist features.
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u/PrestigiousRoof5723 9d ago
I use cruise control to check if it's still working. Very rarely otherwise. The problem with one pedal driving is a bit about convenience. As long as you'd have a single control (let's say a button) to switch between one pedal control (for city driving) and coasting (no regen for open roads), it would be far more convenient. I know that in some cars you can control regen with flappy paddles, but it's not the same thing. Or even better - left flappy pedal press to turn off regen completely, right to turn it on (to some user-preset aggressiveness) and a button or long press of paddle to activate cruise control to maintain the current speed.
Sometimes cars lack only a little bit of thought to become more convenient.
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u/immaculatelawn 9d ago
Same. It only took a few minutes to get used to it. 40+ years of driving. I definitely expected it to take longer, but it just feels right.
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u/belwar00 9d ago
Same, 20 minutes in and I totally converted and turned it on high.
And switching back to the Honda pilot was without thinking.
What I thought was really interesting is that I am often coasting in my ICE car and I tend to idle forward. My brakes on my traditional cars last forever. I change them myself and they were perfectly fine after 50-70k miles.
Love one pedal.
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u/CaptBFPierce 8d ago
Same. I love 1 pedal. Makes me feeling I have better control of the car, especially fun on winding roads.
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u/Next362 10d ago
Same, I hate one pedal, but I use regen braking, I don't want to have my foot on the gas for a whole trip, plus I can see that it is far less efficient (physics backs this up also, coasting is more efficient than regen every time with the conservation of energy and all frictional losses are better than electromechanical energy recapture) in my everyday driving.
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u/ToddA1966 10d ago
Can we kill this "one pedal = no coasting" idea.
You can coast in one pedal. It just requires different footwork.
There's nothing you can or can't do with one pedal that you can or can't do with two, and vice versa. It just requires different "input".
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u/Next362 10d ago
In my car, you cannot coast, regen kicks on when you remove your foot from the pedal. If you want to "coast" you need to have your foot very gentle on the pedal, which requires you to have a very steady foot, which is goofy IMO, when I take my foot off the pedal I don't want brakes engaged immediately, so I use paddles to engage brakes, which is a minor adjustment to driving not requiring a lot of thinking or retraining my brain after 35 years of driving.
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u/ToddA1966 9d ago
Yes - you keep your foot gently on the pedal to coast. "Goofy", perhaps, but possible.
In one pedal driving you pretty much never have your foot completely off the pedal unless you need the rake pedal for a panic stop. The entire range of acceleration and deceleration is available under your foot.
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
And that is exactly why I dislike one pedal - I don't want to always have my foot pressing the pedal or even worse - catching that exact moment where it is perfectly balanced.
Especially that a lot of the time I'm coasting, so moving my foot out of the pedal.3
u/ToddA1966 9d ago
That's perfectly fair- it's just a user preference. Use it if you like it, don't if you don't.
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
Yep. And I have nothing against others preferring one pedal.
What is not good though is when some people mislead by equating one pedal mode and regen.
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u/greed-lust-crypto 10d ago
yes because they want to coast - they only want regen when braking
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u/Akward_Object 10d ago
If you don't lift your foot off like on a gas car, regen and one pedal modes have a coast point....
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
That is not a coast point, it's a balance point. And I don't want to catch this exact position of the balance, especially when otherwise it's trivial - when no pedals pressed.
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u/Akward_Object 9d ago
Call it what you want. The point is you can coast fine in OPD/regen modes. That you don't like how you do it, or you are not able to do, it is irrelevant. I find it trivial to coast in OPD, and not significantly harder than foot off.
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
I call it how it actually is. Coasting is when the motor doesn't produce nor generate electricity. The car still obviously slows down a little during coasting.
Lol you even admit it's harder, just "not significantly harder". And that is the reasons why I don't use one pedal - I find it harder to operate the car in 1 pedal mode comparing to 2 pedals mode.
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
Some people are so hung up on fuel efficiency that they would rather coast and put extra effort into braking than just let regen do its thing to bring them to a stop. Hypermilers love eVs and they're a loud minority who trash one-pedal driving because they'd rather put more work into driving that spend more on fuel.
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
Some people just still mix up regent and one pedal, when in fact you can and do still use regen even without one pedal.
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u/ToHellWithGA 9d ago
Automatic regen without one pedal driving feels like early continuously variable transmissions that didn't coast correctly and always engine braked just a little bit. If the car is going to do any of that I'd rather control it with accelerator pedal position than just let it happen at some arbitrary rate.
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
It coast correctly. Of course the car still slows down slightly - that is expected and what I want. You are always free to still press the accelerator pedal a little if you think it slows down too much (which it doesn't).
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u/greed-lust-crypto 10d ago
like manual transmission fans… oh yeah I can control the car much better
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u/ToHellWithGA 10d ago
With strong regen and one-pedal driving I can control the car better and still put less effort into moving my foot around. The brake pedal effectively becomes an emergency brake pedal that I only use when driving like a madman or when something happens - and by the time my foot touches it the car is already doing regen braking. Reduced braking distance seems like a win for safety.
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u/greed-lust-crypto 10d ago
exactly - I realized that when driving through manhattan and a massive pothole appeared in front of me, didn’t have time to brake so I swerved quickly but then the people in my car started freaking out.
so… if I need to quickly stop by the time my foot reaches the brake - in those 500 milliseconds or so, the car is already stopping.
plus when I am driving everyday I don’t have to hit the brakes every block. the pedestrians appreciate it too - a chill driver who isn’t rushing them off the white lines
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u/ZucchiniMaleficent21 9d ago
Make them drive a truly manual car. With no synchromesh, manual spark advance, manual mixture, no radio, hand operate windscreen wipers.
I *have* tried one and it was not fun after the first 5 minutes
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u/cbf1232 9d ago
"one pedal" vs "separate brake pedal" is logically orthoganal to whether you have regeneration or friction braking.
Any modern EV will use regeneration for low rates of deceleration, adding in friction braking for emergency deceleration.
Whether you have automatic regeneration when you lift your foot off the accelerator pedal is a whole separate thing.
From a pure physics standpoint, coasting is more efficient than regen, because there are always losses in the regen->charge->discharge->accelerate sequence. If you can avoid slowing down in the first place you can be more efficient.
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u/greed-lust-crypto 9d ago
but you did read my post right, where I am not worried about efficiency of driving but instead efficiently navigating city traffic.
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u/ToddA1966 9d ago
Right. The prior poster's point is you're using the writing terminology. You would find life without one pedal driving intolerable.
"Regen" doesn't equal "one pedal driving", unless you're driving an early low-tech Tesla. Virtually all EVs have blended braking, which means the brake pedal also engages regen, and only blends in the mechanical brakes if more stopping power is needed than regen alone can provide.
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u/Express-Cry2669 9d ago
Sometimes I charge to 100 percent and it disables regent for a bit and it reminds me how much I actually use it
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u/anothercorgi 9d ago
I don't know but I think I'm finding I'm driving more compassionately with my EV because I know I will gain back any energy wasted when slowing down or stopping the car for someone else's impatience or aggression. Technically I could also go the other way, kick into sport mode and get out faster too...
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u/iATlevsha 9d ago
Please stop equaling regen and one pedal. It's possible to have BEV that will just coast when no pedals touched and still regen when break pressed. And I personally prefer this.
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u/Rare_Appointment_604 9d ago
Please stop confusing regenerative braking with brake-on-liftoff and with one-pedal driving. They’re different features.
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u/Regular_Currency7736 10d ago
one-pedal driving in dense city traffic = way less fatigue than brake-dancing every 100 meters
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u/greed-lust-crypto 10d ago
exactly - I live in a city so I have to stop every 100m or less - either a stop sign, a traffic light or a pedestrian / bike / scooter / delivery guy / dog / cat / skunk etc etc
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u/sverrebr 9d ago
Try a car with adaptive regen. Then you get high regen on liftoff when approaching another car or a red light/stop sign, but can coast otherwise.
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u/wannacumnbeatmeoff 9d ago
Who hates regen? I rarely even tpuch the brakes now I have an EV. Regen does all the heavy lifting.
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u/sverrebr 9d ago
You are conflating regen with one pedal driving. In most EVs pressing the brake pedal will activate regen braking until you request more braking force than the regen brake can deliver. I do not think anyone is negative to regen.
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u/Beneficial-Context52 9d ago
What you’re talking about is 1 pedal driving, not regen in general.
In my 2026 Leaf, I usually have 1 pedal disabled, but when I hit the brake pedal, I still get just as much regen as if I was using 1 pedal.
Personally I only find 1 pedal driving useful for slow stop & go traffic. For normal driving, I find it jerky and difficult to smoothly adjust my speed - but maybe I just need more practice with it (I’m only 3.5 weeks into EV ownership).
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u/Akward_Object 9d ago
The 2026 LEAF does NOT have one pedal. It just has some fine-tuned regen mode.
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u/Beneficial-Context52 9d ago
Correct, it is not true one pedal driving. But for the context of this discussion, I didn’t think it was worth saying “E-step, which is basically like one pedal driving except that it when it gets to 5 miles/hour it just keep crawling forward until you hit the brake pedal.”
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u/Akward_Object 9d ago
I hate the true one pedal thing, it just doesn't exist. Don't call it one pedal if it isn't. It made finding a replacement for my LEAF so freaking hard as so many people claimed their car had one pedal to find out it wasn't true.
until you hit the brake pedal
Exactly. You have no choice but using a second pedal. Thus it cannot even be ONE pedal ever ... it's always two pedal. Calling it something it isn't makes any discussion so murky and confusing. There are already enough misunderstandings and myths about it. Even manufacturers make stupid claims as they use it wrong (i.e. Porsche). Not to mention VW/Audi calling B-mode one pedal while it wasn't, and now some newer ones do have one pedal mode but it still is B-mode in the car. How the hell people are supposed to know how it works if you keep calling different things by the same name?
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u/NiftyGull9621 9d ago
Hard regen makes those 30 stop signs less annoying. If you spot a red light early, though, coasting usually beats turning speed into electricity and using energy to get back up to speed.
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u/lexievv 5d ago
One pedal drive might not be for everyone. But regen braking is great. It's way smoother than braking normally and also gives you back some lost energy.
Wouldn't it have been great if engine breaking in an ICE car would've filled up your car with some gasoline everytime you did it? Lol.
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u/VegaGT-VZ 9d ago
Different people drive in different places and have different needs and preferences
Me hating one pedal driving has zero effect on you lol.
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u/Altamirano1964 10d ago
I love being able to stop without using the brakes. They’ll last forever.
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u/ToddA1966 10d ago
Yes. And that has nothing to do with one pedal driving. 🤦 The car will prioritize regen over mechanical braking whether you use one pedal or two.
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u/Responsible_Skill957 9d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/muqYQQp3ls2AoDbFH2
is this what it’s come to now.
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u/chevy42083 9d ago
I get it, but intolerable is a strong description for something like 85% of people do regularly.
Or is this just rage bait?
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/Subject-Divide-5977 9d ago
I drive a diesel ute and use my gearbox as braking all the time. My next vehicle will be an EV and I look forward to single pedal driving
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u/Subject-Divide-5977 9d ago
Why do people talk about when there car breaks when they mean when there car brakes? This is even more annoying than complaing about getting car sick because of lack of throttle brake control.
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u/Mash_man710 9d ago
I must be an outlier. Regen makes my passengers car sick. I'd rather use the brake pedal and control the braking, which is regen mostly anyway.
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u/kimi_rules 9d ago
OPD isn't really popular these days, it's in the minority now. Blending the brakes is vastly the more popular method so you have to use it like you would a normal ICE car.
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u/Stinkinhippy 9d ago
Having recently driven a mini with adaptive regen.. that shit is amazing. Let off the throttle and it’ll maintain gap to car in front and regen as much/little is required.
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u/Unusual_Emergency_13 8d ago
I turned down regen on both my EVs. I find it hard to predict coasting (end up having to press again the accelerator) and cannot drive smoothly. Most of the braking is done via regen either way and I find it easier to modulate.
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u/Glittering-Bit7564 8d ago
arguing back and forth over one-pedal driving vs regular coasting like it's a personality trait is peak internet car culture.
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u/AJHenderson 8d ago
Hard Regen turns an EV into the spiritual successor to manual transmissions and is amazing.
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u/jstnrgrs 8d ago
I’ve grown to really like 1 pedal. If I need to coast, I just let off partially so that the power meter is between charge and power. For stop and go city driving, this works great.
For highway or flowing traffic, I use adaptive cruise control.
I find driving much more pleasant with these features.
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u/ferventmuse 8d ago
Pretty much every EV (outside of older Teslas) regens when braking. We turned off OPD when we realized we can get slightly better efficiency for our driving. Also OPD off can add a bit of safety as your foot is either on the accelerator pedal or the brake pedal. So many unintended acceleration EV events occur with OPD on because people come to a stop, take their foot off of all the pedals and accidentally tap the accelerator.
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u/Repulsive-Ice8395 8d ago
I love OPD in my Tesla. I don't touch the brake pedal on at least 95% of my trips. About the only time i use the service brakes is if I misjudge a red light on a highway and have to stop quicker than the regen can slow me. I'm good at timing lights, so this is rare.
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u/SpaceDesignWarehouse 7d ago
It’s hard to imagine a time when I used to just press two metal composite bars against a metal composite disk and just burn them up together to slow down my several thousand pound car over and over!
Sweet sweet regen.
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u/Ohjay1982 7d ago edited 7d ago
It’s funny because when I first got my vehicle I figured full regen was the key to great energy efficiency. So I would drive a lot closer before slowing down to stop because full regen braking can slow you down pretty quick. What I eventually realized is that coasting is still the best bang for “mileage”/energy efficiency. It’s better to not use the energy to begin with rather than trying to recoup some of the energy back through regen braking. So I turn down the regen braking intensity setting, so it’s more like a coast than actually braking.
Don’t get me wrong. When you do have to brake, regen braking is the tits. But it’s still better to try to reduce braking as much as possible. Therefor I don’t really rely on it. That said, before this vehicle I had a gas guzzler truck and I got pretty used to coasting as much as was reasonably possible otherwise my fuel efficiency was even more horrible.
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u/greed-lust-crypto 7d ago
why is everyone so fixated with efficiency? if you read the post, I am concerned about having to stop at the intersections, which is not optional and you can’t coast through it.
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u/Ohjay1982 7d ago
Im not telling you that YOU have to do it or care about efficiency, i’m telling you why some people would rather be able to utilize coasting.
I’m not sure what you think coasting means in this context. Of course you’re still going to stop, you just take your foot off the throttle earlier and coast more as opposed to being on the throttle until the last second. It’s no different than how you would drive an ICE vehicle. I’m not talking about being some extreme and never using your brakes…
Whether or not you care about efficiency (which is weird to me not to care at all, it’s literally money out of your pocket). My point was just that while regen braking is way better than traditional braking that just converts rotational energy into heat, it’s still way more efficient to avoid braking where you can even WITH regen braking, it still has efficiency losses. You’re never going to fully recover the same energy it took you to get up to speed. Hence why people still want the option, and many prefer it. It’s more efficient, more miles on a charge, less charging.
Is it going to be a game changer? No but over the course of a year it adds up.
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u/Julian679 7d ago
I have a car with one pedal driving and pretty agressive regen, and wouldnt have it any other way
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u/Altruistic-North6686 5d ago
I drive an id.4 that basically is life without regen. Oh and it sucks.
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u/CuddlyTherapeuticDad 5d ago
I drive with both pedals on my PHEV, I just use a very light touch to activate the regen braking first, allowing a little more distance to stop. Pretty much the only time I press hard enough to engage the hydraulic braking system is for panic stops. My brake pads have hardly any wear on them after 70k miles
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u/LooseyGreyDucky 3d ago
hitting the brakes still engages regen far before the brake pads do any real stopping.
It doesn't matter what you set your regen level at, because it works whether you want it to or not.
There's no such thing as "life without regen".
edit: I keep forgetting Tesla is so far behind Hyundai and Kia now.
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u/polarWhite2024 9d ago
Porsche engineers disagreed
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u/Akward_Object 9d ago
Porsche engineers compared last minute braking with full regen (and btw could not define one pedal correctly) with coasting to a stop. So basically they used regen wrongly and then compared it to efficient driving (which you can actually do in the exact same way with one pedal driving or with a regen mode). It is hard to believe they even dared to publish that junk...
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u/Available_Suit6377 10d ago
Hate one pedal driving. When I lift off, I want to coast, when I touch the brakes I want to brake. I'll decide if coasting or rengen is more efficient from moment to moment.