mmarshall

Seems odd for a hybrid or full-electric to have lousy brakes. In most cases, during braking, the regenerative drag and inductance on the free-wheeling electric motor helps to slow the vehicle without much use of the brake-pedal itself.....in fact, the brakes themselves can sometimes be quite touchy, although most of that has been engineered out of recent electrics and hybrids. That also explains why, on these vehicles, you don't see big gaps between the wheel-spokes for brake-cooling, like on regular gas-powered vehicles....not much heat is produced by the brakes.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Stormwind, knock off the rude personal commentary or do not post.

swajames

The actual CR report, and I looked up the road test too as I am a subscriber, confirms they also tested a second car from a private owner and got similar results. The issue wasn't performance over quickly-repeated stops, it was stopping distance full stop. The car tested delivered results that were beaten by an F150. CR said their car delivered one good stop, 130 ft, and that that car which delivered that result did not deliver it again, even having been left overnight between tests.

"Braking

The Model 3's stopping distances were 152 feet from 60 mph on dry pavement, which is much worse than the class. Those distances are about as long as it takes a heavy-duty pickup truck to stop, and more than 20 feet longer than competitors such as the BMW 3 Series.

Brake pedal modulation is quite good. In Standard mode, with the more aggressive regenerative braking results in a significant decrease of speed when drivers lift off of the accelerator pedal. It's very effective, but takes some getting used to."

Sulu

Regenerative braking will slow you down but will not bring you to a full and complete stop. For that, you need full metal-on-metal contact, in other words, you need full, old-fashioned mechanical braking.

Regenerative brakes are designed in such a fashion that the harder you brake, the less electric motor braking you get and the more mechanical braking you get.

Emergency, panic stopping on an EV is just like on a non-EV -- it uses the mechanical braking.

Stormwind

elon musk has responded along with other publications tests from motor trend and car and driver.

https://electrek.co/2018/05/21/tesla...-tesla-denies/

Freds430

• Tesla's stock is down 20% from it's high. It bonds are now graded junk. It has never come close to making money in any year. In the last four years it has lost over 3 billion. In fifteen years they have never come close to making a profit. Their 15th year was their worst year with a loss of 2 billion. They lost 777 million in the first quarter of 2018. With their 10,000 model 3's in first quarter the 400,000th person on the waiting list will get theirs in 3.3 years. That might be okay however since Consumer Reports ranks them 25th out of 29 in reliability. Hilarious that unreliable and they do not even have an engine and a single speed transmission. Consumer Reports gave the Model X, their over $100,000 SUV, the lowest score in reliability. They listed their ten dogs to avoid based on reliability and the Model X is #1. Tesla owners are like your neighbor who just had to be the first one on the block with a HDTV. The rest waited and bought a much better and more reliable one for a whole lot less. Can't wait until these Model 3's that were rushed out are come back for recalls.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

the 3's are going to get recalled for their brakes. their losses -$$$$ tho

yardie876

Elon seems pretty confident the braking issue can be remedied with an OTA update.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/e...-over-the-air/

jadu

iTrader: (42)

^^^ a braking issue that can be resolved with an OTA FW update worries me a lot the engineering team should have taken care of this in R&D and have no idea how their QA team okayed it. deadlines, milestones, gantt charts i get it

bagwell

I wonder if the tires were different in the braking test(s)….?? on a 2018 Audi A5 Sportback C&D test “In our follow-up test, skidpad grip dropped from 0.93 to 0.89 g, and braking grew from 164 to 189 feet.” Difference was Summer tires vs All-Season tires.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

a year ago stock was at 310. now it's at 275. genius (for shorts).

LeX2K

Why? Cars are recalled all the time and have to go to the dealer for a firmware update.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

yes, agreed, cars do get recalled but for something so mission critical such as brakes? its a rule thumb to not cheap out on brakes and tires. i cant help but think they took shortcuts with the whole, "oh we'll resolve it with an OTA update later" mindset . that doesnt sit well with me-it should have been more thoroughly tested in development and verification and caught by QA.

mmarshall

Yes, I'm aware of that. I've never owned a vehicle with regenerative brakes, but have test-driven many of them. It's remarkable, though, what, under the right circumstances, the regenerative brakes can do.

If you're full metal-on-metal, the pads are worn down past the screechers.....maybe with scored rotors. (Just kidding.....I know what you meant)

Yes.....and that has had to be programmed into the automatic-braking needed with obstacle-detection in many new vehicles.

Yes, that makes sense. Regenerative brakes aren't designed for panic stops.

LeX2K

Agreed, I can't think of too many recalls involving ABS software. Plus this is not Tesla's first car haven't they figured out a braking system by now?