Hi Tom. Hopefully that won't retrain your body into associating braking with the accel pedal since that's already a problem for some - and I have a smashed gate and a mother-in-law to prove it
It hasn't over the last two years, and I've had a couple panic stops in that time.
Not sure why you think it would. The brake pedal is still the brake pedal. Regen works for slowing, or gradually stopping, but STOP
still means BRAKE.
Another thing, if max regen is applied when accel pedal is at 0, does that mean your car won't easily roll back when stopping on a slight hill? If so, doesn't that use energy - like DC injection - to attain max regen? Or maybe the controller doesn't apply regen below a certain RPM?
Not sure what you mean by "0". With the accelerator pedal released, the car will roll backward on a hill with it in gear, as there is no applied torque. I have a transmission so I can also take it out of gear. I usually come to a stop mostly with regen, then apply my brakes near the end - and hold them on if on a hill so the car doesn't roll backward, with the car in gear and zero battery current.
Personally, I wouldn't want the car to behave any differently than current ICE cars so others can drive it without having to adapt.
Yes, I can see that, as it does take some getting used to. Took me about 20 minutes to get comfortable with it the first time I drove, and my first reaction was Hey, this is COOL!
I still get a kick when I drop down from a mountain pass easing the pedal up to slow and pushing it down to accelerate as I go through the switchbacks never touching my mechanical brakes, and watching the "Ah used" decrease.
I also believe max range can be attained by letting the motor freewheel and only only use brake (ie: regen) when you need to stop/slow down. You can probably learn how to keep the motor in a neutral zone and using little power but that's another thing to relearn.
Relying on your imagination again rather than experience. It's easy for me to hold the pedal so the battery current varies by less than +/- 2A for as long as I usually have the opportunity. Usually I can only drive for less than a minute or so before I come up on someone going slower, or someone slows in front of me, or I have to slow for a curve, or slow as I enter a lower speed zone, or speed up in a faster speed zone, or press the pedal further to go up a grade or release it a bit to slow going down a grade to keep pace with traffic over rolling terrain, or stop for a stop sign or traffic light. I use regen to slow in all those cases, and only use the mechanical brakes near the end of stopping typically.
I find in my car that the myth that you can't coast with regen, or it is very difficult to do so, is not true. I have no trouble coasting. I've tested it on a short grade - went down holding the pedal for zero battery current, then went down with the car in neutral. The car attained about the same speed at the bottom in both cases. So I can coast down that grade freely same as you would with a DC motor, or ease up the accelerator a bit to slow if I overtake the car in front of me, or press the accelerator to speed up if a semi is riding my rear bumper.
As I have said before, the only way I see that regen can be less efficient than coasting with a DC motor is if you modulate the kinetic energy of the vehicle, meaning repeatedly slow it up with regen, speed up pushing the accelerator... continually cycling this way when you should be just cruising along at one speed, or you over-correct in slowing, then have to speed up, etc. You loose energy in every period of this modulation since you get back less through regen than it takes to accelerate the car through the same delta v. But if you have good pedal control and hold close to zero current when you want to coast and use regen to slow in all the cases I mentioned above, there is no way it can be less efficient.
But some, like cruisin, prefer regen on the brake pedal and that's fine with me. Just sayin' why I like it on the accelerator.