[Norton]

UPDATED: Yes it does have blended braking, just a different tech and supplier, see how and why here http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...ended-brakes-via-Bosch.&p=3725649#post3725649
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I asked Chevy Communications for clarity on a press release from 9-6-16 talking about Regen Braking.
http://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/...6-bolt-ev.html

None of the media reviews ever talked about just driving the Bolt in D and using the Blended Brakes to get Regen,
the way it has always been in the Gen1 and Gen2 Volts, the ELR and the Spark EV.

After a few emails, here's the clarification:

Bill – Happy to review the facts described in the referenced press release. In answer to your questions:

> Are you saying the Bolt DOES NOT have the blended brake pedal exactly like the Volt and the Spark EV?
Correct - Bolt EV brake pedal operates hydraulic brakes and does not have a blended braking system.

> You get NO varying Regen when using the brake pedal?
There is some benefit, as result of decel, until brake pedal depressed hard enough

> You are forced to adopt to this new ‘1 Pedal’ driving style if you want to take advantage of regen?
The Bolt EV offers benefit from regen in default ‘D’ and every time accelerator input is removed and before brake pedal is depressed (described above). If owners/drivers who are comfortable with a more aggressive regen braking feel so choose, you can capture even greater benefit from regen by:
• engaging ‘L’ mode
• depressing the Regen on Demand paddle (on steering wheel)
• or do both
In any of these three latter modes, the regen is enough to bring vehicle to a complete stop. The use of the hydraulic brakes (the pedal) remains an option at all times.

Feedback from many Volt owners, who we learned enjoyed utilizing L in their vehicles and Regen on Demand Paddle (in Gen 2 Volt) to maximize regen benefit, led our team to improve upon that functionality for Bolt EV.

Thanks for your feedback and I’ll pass it along to our engineering team.

Fred Ligouri
Chevrolet Communications


Well Blended Brake Fans, it's the end of driving like a normal person, in a normal car and getting Max Regen from the Brake Pedal.

Now there is a learning curve to get max regen from the Bolt.

Chevy took a big step back in technology. The Bolt Brake Pedal is just a Friction Brake Pedal,,,
Just like and your father's Oldsmobile,, and your neighbor's Tesla.

Why Chevy? This is NOT "an improvement upon the functionality".
You had high-tech Blended Brakes on all your other EV's.
Now you have low-tech Brakes on the Bolt.
There has to be a better reason than just copying Tesla's low-tech approach.

 

[BAZINGA]

After owning three Volt's since March 2012 I have found that I prefer the "blended brake" mode over L and now the paddle. Why because my wife complains about the undulations during braking that causes her to get car sick. Trying to time a stop in a nice smooth linear fashion is difficult in L and with the paddle.

I have always prided myself in uber smoother driving. I technique I first read about and adopted in a Road and Track article about the late great Jackie Stewart picking up some R/T journalist at the London airport and driving a couple hundred of kilometers on a motorway in a big Jaguar saloon at triple digits in a pouring rain and the passengers never felt the speed or unsafe as it was so smooth and talked at length about that, and how Jackie said it allowed him to driver faster.

Later when I started tracking my Corvette's I always drove as if there was an egg between my foot and the pedal and always felt more comfortable and safe driving like that. And of course that carried over to my winter driving growing up in Wisconsin with big rear drive V8 powered cars.

Oh well time marches on and change happens.

 

[Bacardi]

Why Chevy?

To support their "strong franchise dealerships" service centers...

First, what comes to mind is Josh Tavel saying on ACC "you would need the blended brakes to do that and we didn't want to do that with this car" back in January 2016...Now think to when the Gen2 Volt was put into customer hands, October 2016, that's only FOUR MONTH of Volt feedback...

The Bolt EV mules were out before the Gen2 Volt release, here's one from June 2015 or a few months before customers received their Gen2 Volts: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/06...ypes-exceeding-200-miles-of-range-per-charge/

Point is the Bolt EV probably never had blended brakes including the mules (otherwise the mules would have had blended brakes and someone decided to axe it, based on Volt paddle feedback)...Furthermore where are gaining this Volt paddle feedback from? I bought (and sold one) and did all the surveys, I didn't see one mentioning the paddle...Four months sounds like an awfully short amount of time to make a major decision on regen/braking...

Unfortunately blended brakes may have been a casualty of fast tracking the Bolt EV which the service managers greatly supported...

 

[Dutch]

I wonder if the blended braking system has shown itself to have some vulnerabilities that GM doesn't want any part of.

Sure there may have only been a microscopic fraction of issues, but since it's the brakes... well I suspect that GM is shying away from that liability hard.

 

[Qinsp]

There has been complaints about what a Volt does when one front tire hits a slick surface, or you go into ABS mode. The regen shuts off completely and gives the illusion of a brake failure, which isn't what is happening.

I'm puzzled why they dropped it though. It would not affect me, as I'm a L+Paddle driver.

 

[caskConditionedAle]

Every time I hear someone say "using L to maximize regen" I cringe. They don't understand how it works.

 

[DonC]

Personally this would be OK with me. I more or less only use the paddles. In fact the lack of paddles on the Volt is one thing I miss. Not everyone will be a paddle fan though.

 

[Aseras]

There has been complaints about what a Volt does when one front tire hits a slick surface, or you go into ABS mode. The regen shuts off completely and gives the illusion of a brake failure, which isn't what is happening.

I'm puzzled why they dropped it though. It would not affect me, as I'm a L+Paddle driver.

THIS, the LRR tires have very little traction and when they sense slippage they shut off regen braking, and it's sudden, it feels like you mashed the gas pedal for a second and then slammed on the brakes.

I got that a lot on my volt as I live off a dirt road.

I can easily see how it could cause an accident if it happened to someone and they let off the brake because of the sudden change in deceleration. It really feels like you mashed the gas for a split second instead of the brakes.

 

[Loboc]

Blended brakes feel different than friction brakes. I'm guessing this is a customer awareness/satisfaction issue instead of a design issue.

I'm good with either way since I don't really use blended braking. I'm either stopping or not stopping. A little regen within the brakes is more annoying than useful to me. I use ACC and paddles to drive while in 'L'. All the time. I would REALLY like to have the paddles bring the car to a complete stop like Bolt.

 

[bro1999]

Interesting.... especially since GM boasted about how the Gen 2's blended braking felt like any regular car's brakes.
I'm a L + paddle guy, so no biggie for me.

 

[eDreamin']

Disappointing. I can only hope this applies just to the Bolt, and not any future Volts or other models.

 

[Norton]

I'm hoping it's SW configurable and can be added later, after the EV nerds have their way with the Bolt.
The Brake Booster assembly might still have the pedal pressure sensors to allow this.

Fred at GM said he'd pass on some of my observations to the EV engineers.
I pointed this out during some of our email exchanges:

As I said earlier I don’t think Chevy is doing itself any favors with all this talk about “Driving in L, Regen Paddles and the now configurable regen rates... etc.” Most new owners just want a car they can drive normally.

I work in Aircraft Certification. You don’t want multiple choices for the pilot to do one job. It’s called cockpit work load. It should be easy and come naturally.
Like using the brake pedal and getting Max regen in the first generation of Chevy EV’s.
And then if MAX braking is needed in an emergency you are ready. No other action is needed.


Blended Brakes…. RIP…..

 

[OhioEE]

There has been complaints about what a Volt does when one front tire hits a slick surface, or you go into ABS mode. The regen shuts off completely and gives the illusion of a brake failure, which isn't what is happening.

I'm puzzled why they dropped it though. It would not affect me, as I'm a L+Paddle driver.

^ This...

On my 2012, the blended braking did indeed create the illusion of brake failure when ABS kicked in with light to moderate pedal pressure when going down hill with icy spots. Perhaps they weren't able to come up with a feasible solution.

 

[Norton]

...On my 2012, the blended braking did indeed create the illusion of brake failure when ABS kicked in with light to moderate pedal pressure when going down hill with icy spots. ...

But doesn't every car with ABS have this feeling somewhat?
Patchy ice is the worst.

 

[Sean Nelson]

> Are you saying the Bolt DOES NOT have the blended brake pedal exactly like the Volt and the Spark EV?
Correct - Bolt EV brake pedal operates hydraulic brakes and does not have a blended braking system.

I raised this issue here before and *** (I'm pretty sure it was him) assured me that the Bolt uses a Bosch braking assembly or braking controller that does blended braking. So I had pretty much considered the matter settled. And now this.

Why is it that there are so many details about the Bolt that are so hard to get simple, clear answers on?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well, poop.

Tesla and GM both? I want a long-distance BEV so I'd like either a Model 3, or the Bolt if the Model 3 doesn't work out. My wife drives in D in the Volt, and I think it'd be tough to convince her to go for 1 pedal driving, and that means more brake wear; and that means more pollution from brake dust and more cost from brake work.

I'm sure that they think it's not worth the cost of development, but it's disappointing to me because in my opinion different settings suit different people and places. For our Gen 1 Volt, with the light traffic and undulating hills around here, I only make occasional use of L since the regen in D is almost always enough. If I had a Gen 2 Volt I'm sure that I'd be using D and the paddle almost exclusively. But on the occasions when I've been driving in stop-and-go traffic or in a more hilly area L mode has been a godsend.

 

[Neromanceres]

> You get NO varying Regen when using the brake pedal?
There is some benefit, as result of decel, until brake pedal depressed hard enough

This is a mixed message. This sounds exactly like blended braking (need to push "hard enough" on the brake pedal). I wonder if the customer service people you talked have even the slightest clue what blended braking is. It sounds like your questions confused them.

Heck even experienced Tesla people have no idea what blended braking is.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions and declare the end of the world just yet. (Though the US election might be cause for that)

We will find out soon enough on our own.

 

[Barry]

I will also be sad to see them go. I can see how regular brakes are much simpler and therefore cheaper to make and warrantee. Possibly more reliable. Along with EREV, blended brakes are a good example of what a highly engineered vehicle the Volt is. But I really think blended brakes should be kept around.

 

[emv]

Say it ain't so, Joe!

Blended braking works on the Spark and works well. Even my Prius (sorry dirty word here) has a form of blended braking. Just because Tesla can't figure out how to make it work. What's next, going back to a rotary contactor on a tiller because that's how electrics worked 100 years ago?

 

[Bacardi]

Just because Tesla can't figure out how to make it work.

According to this, "Sonnad pointed out that in 200,000 miles, Tesloop('s Tesla model S) hasn’t even had to replace the brakes."
http://insideevs.com/200000-miles-tesla-model-s-experienced-6-battery-degradation/ That's very impressive as you can book the service at anytime and while traffic can be smooth sailing, it can be absolutely BRUTAL and is one of the most traveled routes...

Just some thoughts, multiple Gen2 Volt owners stating that smooth braking is better than using the paddle...

Do we know if there have been any blended brake improvement from the Gen1 Volt, to the Spark EV, to the Gen2 Volt?

Is it possible GM's engineered more benefit from aggressive regen vs blended brakes?