Did e-pedal contribute to winter driving accident?

W

W T Gardiner

New Member
My wife went into a full skid on a somewhat slushy four-lane divided highway in Pennsylvania on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of straight road. She then struck a 2' diameter tree and the car was totalled.

I have a theory that the e-pedal contributed to the skid, and that Nissan should advise drivers to disengage e-pedal in snowy (and other) conditions. The manual only advises that with e-pedal, under adverse conditions, drivers should expect longer stopping distances.

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

[Further: Thinking about replacing the 2018 with a 2019 +. Will the + charge on the same 50 amp circuit that I had run into my garage for the 2018? Our dealer is useless.]
 
I've wondered how/whether regen braking handles slippery roads. Does it have an ABS mode like friction braking?
 
I was wondering about this myself so this past winter I experimented with my own Leaf. On different snowy surfaces in B mode I took foot off accelerator for full regen. Things went just fine. I must say though that winter tires are an absolute must for good handling in the snow. The stock low rolling resistance tires are NFG on cold slippery surfaces.

I find winter driving to be a Zen experience. "You must become one with the car and the road grasshopper". This being said, on a slushy 4 lane you can get caught in a big truck rut or sudden gust of cross wind and unpredictable things can happen. Be ready!
 
With both our 2015 and 2018 Leaf's I've found driving in the snow to be much better than an ICE car. Being able to apply incremental power from a dead stop you can avoid the usual spinning wheels situation of an ICE car. Using the B mode in the 2015 and e-pedal to brake has been great in snowy road conditions.

I have found the Leaf's ABS braking on wet or corrugated roads when I've had to brake hard sometimes to be a problem as there is a moment when there isn't any braking happening while it adjusts to the road surface. One time that moment of no braking was enough to cause my daughter to run out of room to stop in time when the traffic light turned red and the consequential accident which damaged the front left of the car. Apart from the "drive slower in the rain" message this accident highlighted, I found out that the headlights on a 2015 Leaf cost $700 to replace! Here, too, the car was a write off. I sometimes wonder what happened to the battery which was less than 6 months old.
 
W T Gardiner said:
My wife went into a full skid on a somewhat slushy four-lane divided highway in Pennsylvania on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of straight road. She then struck a 2' diameter tree and the car was totalled.

I have a theory that the e-pedal contributed to the skid, and that Nissan should advise drivers to disengage e-pedal in snowy (and other) conditions. The manual only advises that with e-pedal, under adverse conditions, drivers should expect longer stopping distances.

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

[Further: Thinking about replacing the 2018 with a 2019 +. Will the + charge on the same 50 amp circuit that I had run into my garage for the 2018? Our dealer is useless.]
Click to expand...

Hi, very sorry to read about your wife's accident, I hope she is ok from it.

I can tell you I run e-pedal all year round and thru my first winter just passed, had no issues. Like what's been said, 100% need winter tires if any decent amount of snow or ice/slush occurs in your region. I got the Michelin XICE-3's and they are fantastic. I did a winter driving video (search my YT Channel "EV Revolution Show" for that episode) where I drove in a good amount of snow in winding country roads.

Friction braking thru re-gen can provide the same affect as thru normal disc braking if the force is strong enough, to cause a loose traction situation. ABS and VDC should kick in to override slippages in order to maintain control

Now in stating this, slush can be a whole other conversation. It gets very thick and heavy and sticks to tire channels where the tire cannot expel the slush fast enough thereby creating a hydro-plaining effect (slush on slush), so it's entirely possible in your wife's accident that this could have been a contributing factor.

The use of e-pedal in winter is really the drivers choice depending on road conditions. It acts like compression braking to a degree and sometimes even something like that can start a skid situation (downshifting in a manual from 3-2nd is an example).

I'm not sure I can agree with your theory as I did not experience any issues with e-pedal during my past winter, however I had brand new snow tires and I drive much differently in winter conditions than others.

Hope this helps. Oh an dI still use e-pedal today.
 
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