[MadVolt]

Hello, all, new Volt owner here. (Edit to mention it's a 2011)

When driving in L, and letting off the acceleration to slow the car down- do the brake lights activate?
Having been rear ended in a bad accident in the past, I'm a bit more hypersensitive to the possibility.
Slowing down as much as the Volt can without using the brake pedal has me worried about catching other drivers off guard if there's no indication.

 

[MadVolt]

No AFAIK the brake light do not go on when decelerating in L (Had my wife follow me to check). Only when brake pedal is actually depress, or in the case of my 2018 the paddle is used.

FYI you did not put model year in your post.

Thanks. I thought the model year under username on left would be enough but I've added it to the post as well.

 

[MadVolt]

I will indeed be driving this in the Wisconsin winter, and will prob stick to D for the brake lights.

I've seen it said that lightly braking (aka riding the brakes) is the same regen anyway if same deceleration rate as L, can anyone confirm? I.e., using brakes on D doesn't just rely on friction braking, regen is still involved (or so the dash graphic suggests)
My goal is just optimizing energy usage, if I don't miss out at all by using D carefully, I won't bother with L

I've also noticed I sometimes forgot I was in L so when throwing into R with 2 clicks I only ended up in N

 

[MadVolt]

One thing that I did find out that's pretty cool with a gen 1 volt that has forwarded collusion alert. If you have it in L with cruise on if you get close enough to turn on a warning it will automatically kick it to high regen just like automatic braking.

Surely it would do the same in D?

 

[MadVolt]

Tapping brakes in L means hitting the full decel speed as you fully take your foot off the go pedal. I'm not about to bring the left foot into the equation lol.
Must've been a big enough issue to have introduced the paddle in later years.

 

[MadVolt]

Either I ran out of nerve or the car didn't do what another poster had claimed, saying the volt will automatically apply braking when on cruise and approaching a car in front using proximity sensor info.
I got uncomfortably close to the car ahead on cruise/L before I manually eased off, I'd say 10 feet at 65mph (less than a car length). 🤷‍♂️