So I'm the guy who totaled beautiful Red 2020 Prius eAWD going straight. I was thinking that my rear motor randomly came on but after talking with my brother I think I know what happened. My brother recently bought a Tesla, Model Y. He sad that the Tesla often skids in the snow when he lets up on the accelerator - if the car is NOT in "Snow" mode. He said that in a Tesla you are effectively braking when you let up on the accelerator. I think, what happened is that I was getting close to a group of cars and I wanted to fall back a little. I let up a little bit on the gas pedal. That sent me into a gentle skid and I instinctively released all pressure to the gas pedal. This threw the car - which I've observed in the past - a more severe regenerative mode, braking the front wheels and throwing the car into a uncontrollably skid. Question: does anyone know if the rear wheels do regenerative braking on a eAWD model? Cricky
yes, the prius also effectively brakes when lreleasing the go pedal. no offense, but i think you need to drive with more caution on bad surfaces.
The Prius does some regeneration when you let off the pedal, but not really like a Tesla, as I understand it. I haven't driven a Tesla, but from what I've read here, the Tesla has "one pedal" driving, where the go pedal completely controls regen braking and letting off the pedal gives you a lot of it, and the brake pedal only controls the friction brakes. In the Prius, both regenerative and friction braking are controlled by the brake pedal, and there is a small amount of regen braking programmed in when you release the go pedal, but only enough to match the slight drag you would feel in a car with a familiar automatic transmission in the same circumstances. So the road conditions where you'd have to worry when backing off the go pedal in a Prius should be just about the same conditions where you'd have to worry about it in a conventional car.
Earlier that day, I remember taking a risk and driving through a less-shoveled lane but I didn't bake-off the accelerator and and did not experience any sliding. Cricky.
Lots of cars can lose traction just by closing the throttle, doesn't have to involve hybrids or regen braking at all. On an icy-enough road I could reliably put either of my AWD Outbacks into an understeer slide just by lifting the throttle too quickly. AWD is nice, but it isn't magic.
