[dfault7]

I'm finding S-pedal to be somewhat unreliable. I've encountered the "S PEDAL DRIVE Temporarily Unavailable Press Brake to Decelerate" on at least a dozen occasions. The manual says this can happen if traction battery is too hot or too cold, battery fully charged, electric motor or control unit too hot, regenerative breaking overused,EV malfunction, and a few other reasons. So it is 30 degrees outside, S-pedal is on and working fine on a short shopping trip. Then I release the GO pedal and I get the message and no slowing down. This forces a quick reaction to break. A fair percentage of time I got the message, I was going downhill. Anyone else experiencing kinky behavior from S-pedal. I've added the dash to S-pedal since autocorrect of spelling kept stripping the S.

 

[JayEM]

That is super annoying! I wish they would just do what other EVs do when regen is not possible, electronically apply the friction brakes to get the same rate of deceleration. It's not rocket science!

 

[n6nl]

That (somewhat) unexpected behavior is concerning from a safety point of view.

But while I like one pedal driving for the ease, I don’t like how it fails to condition the driver to have his foot immediately ready to use the brake pedal, should conditions require it.

 

[md.]

I'm finding S-pedal to be somewhat unreliable. I've encountered the "S PEDAL DRIVE Temporarily Unavailable Press Brake to Decelerate" on at least a dozen occasions. The manual says this can happen if traction battery is too hot or too cold, battery fully charged, electric motor or control unit too hot, regenerative breaking overused,EV malfunction, and a few other reasons. So it is 30 degrees outside, S-pedal is on and working fine on a short shopping trip. Then I release the GO pedal and I get the message and no slowing down. This forces a quick reaction to break. A fair percentage of time I got the message, I was going downhill. Anyone else experiencing kinky behavior from S-pedal. I've added the dash to S-pedal since autocorrect of spelling kept stripping the S.

That seems to be how they're "working" right now. I would think it would be a programming upgrade to allow regen to work over a wider variety of conditions. On my test drive, it seemed to be the ambient temperature, around 35F, rather than the battery SoC, around 80-85%. Regen at level 4 worked all the time. S-Pedal failed every time after a second or two.

Sounds like Toyota decided to sacrifice safety in their quest to very tightly control how the battery is charged.

 

[JayEM]

To be fair, if you're wanting to stop in a hurry, you're not going to just lift your foot off the go pedal.

 

[md.]

To be fair, if you're wanting to stop in a hurry, you're not going to just lift your foot off the go pedal.

No, but as @dfault7 mentioned, it results in somewhat of a panic situation to stop the car if you were expecting different behavior.

 

[Edwardj0007]

I'm finding S-pedal to be somewhat unreliable. I've encountered the "S PEDAL DRIVE Temporarily Unavailable Press Brake to Decelerate" on at least a dozen occasions. The manual says this can happen if traction battery is too hot or too cold, battery fully charged, electric motor or control unit too hot, regenerative breaking overused,EV malfunction, and a few other reasons. So it is 30 degrees outside, S-pedal is on and working fine on a short shopping trip. Then I release the GO pedal and I get the message and no slowing down. This forces a quick reaction to break. A fair percentage of time I got the message, I was going downhill. Anyone else experiencing kinky behavior from S-pedal. I've added the dash to S-pedal since autocorrect of spelling kept stripping the S.

The car main battery needs to warm up or cool down depending on the climate.

 

[R P]

The only time my regen didn't work was after charging to 100%. And all EVs are that way, even my e-Bike. But have not been in any cold weather yet with my Solterra so not sure how it works with that.

 

[poodlemaster]

Mine just did it to me after its first charge. It goes away in a just few miles.

 

[md.]

Mine just did it to me after its first charge. It goes away in a just few miles.

What's the temperature?

 

[DougK]

I had the problem with a 100% charge, so then changed to a max charge of 90%. Still had issues for the first short drive after charging to 90%, but then worked fine after that. About 40F outside, but starts in a garage that is at about 55F.
I will probably change the max charge to 80% and see if that enables S-pedal under the current conditions. 90% was so close I would have liked some finder granularity, like at least the option for 85%? But other conditions may be a huge factor so 80% may be better anyway for reliable s-pedal operation.

 

[R P]

I only charged mine once to 100% to balance the battery cells (recommended to do periodically) and did a short trip right after to use up the top charge. And as I expected that's when I noticed the S-pedal not working. My max charge is now set to 80%, and will keep it until the next longer trip when I might need it, or time for another battery cell balancing.

 

[md.]

I had the problem with a 100% charge, so then changed to a max charge of 90%. Still had issues for the first short drive after charging to 90%, but then worked fine after that. About 40F outside, but starts in a garage that is at about 55F.
I will probably change the max charge to 80% and see if that enables S-pedal under the current conditions. 90% was so close I would have liked some finder granularity, like at least the option for 85%? But other conditions may be a huge factor so 80% may be better anyway for reliable s-pedal operation.

I think the thing to do would be to run it down to about 50% and then see if it works. If it still won't fully function, then it's something other than SoC that is controlling it. Most likely battery temperature, I would think.

 

[dfault7]

Driving tonight, Temp around 30, driving 55 MPH, S-pedal is on and have been driving about 5 miles. I see light turn red ahead. Lift foot off the GO pedal and it starts slowing down to about 30 and S-pedal turns off with the message. Given all the reasons for S-pedal shutting down, how are you supposed to know what is going on. It seems like using the paddle to set regenerative breaking to level 4 is a better alternative.

 

[TheMarc]

Is level 4 the same strength regeneration as the S-pedal, or would that rather be equivalent to a level 5?
I test drove the car at a dealership and could never get the S-pedal to work, but it did work through the paddles. I was a bit annoyed not to be able to have it work (mostly not to be able to understand what was "wrong" with it), but I'm also wondering if it's really a difference (a level more)?

 

[dfault7]

It is hard to tell the difference between S-pedal and level 4. They both slow the car down a noticeable amount and both cause the break lights to come on. I was talking to a friend in Arizona with a MachE. He drove it over the Rockies and the battery depleted quickly going up the hill, but was able to regenerate on the other side going down. Clearly regenerative breaking is not meant to give up with a little bit of use. I will need to do more tests with level 4 to see if it gives up like S-pedal. Hopefully Subaru can fix this with a software update.

 

[Dave]

It is hard to tell the difference between S-pedal and level 4. They both slow the car down a noticeable amount and both cause the break lights to come on. I was talking to a friend in Arizona with a MachE. He drove it over the Rockies and the battery depleted quickly going up the hill, but was able to regenerate on the other side going down. Clearly regenerative breaking is not meant to give up with a little bit of use. I will need to do more tests with level 4 to see if it gives up like S-pedal. Hopefully Subaru can fix this with a software update.

So my dealership does a thing called "Love Encore" where they have someone who's well versed in all the features on the car show you all the things buried in the manual you might not have found yet.
Anyways - the guy who did it with me (and who had driven around in the demo Solterra a lot) says that Level 3 regen braking is most like driving with the s-pedal. YMMV of course, but I think I agree with him, 4 feels a bit too aggressive to me.