2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

I'll take those brakes on Low, thanks.

Read the full story here

stovt001_

Great photo!

zhangrenhou

Nice feature!

olanmills

You really should get used to Standard. It's not really that difficult. It's way better and more convenient as you almost never have to use the brake pedal.

I honestly hate going back to driving cars without strong regenerative braking. It doesn't feel as good.

If it doesn't feel good to you, then it probably just means you need to learn that finer muscle control when using the accelerator pedal. You're right, unless you're trying to stop suddenly, you don't normally want to have that heavy feeling that something is trying to drag down your car when slowing down. You need to regulate how much you let off the pedal with better precision.

stephenpace_

So, in short, Tesla provides an option to give you exactly the feel you want out of the box, and you just aren't happy with the 'default setting'. Got it. But I'm with @olanmills, driving in Standard is a bit more like driving a manual transmission car and using engine braking, which many people like. I find one pedal driving very enjoyable (not to mention nice to get increased range), and it will be fun to see if I can get 100k miles on my original brakes.

mayhemm

The author gets a bit of sympathy from me on this. I don't really like the uncertainty it introduces; now I have to estimate whether the regen alone will bring me to a stop or if I'll need to add brake as well. Having choice when a split-second decision may be necessary is not a good thing. All through my test drive, I just could not get the hang of the regen. As soon as I came to a stop, my foot left the accelerator and hovered over the brake, which resulted in a very jerky stop and my copilot cursing me. It's pretty much muscle-memory at this point. However, I will be trying again and making a stronger effort when I actually get the car next year.