Driving a car there are a few components that you would think are pretty essential: Wheel, Accelerator, Brake Pedal.
Well Nissan’s brand-new version of its electric car the Leaf will let you drive without a brake pedal thanks to what it’s called a “revolutionary new technology”.
It’s called an “e-Pedal” and while Nissan are remaining pretty tight-lipped on how it works you’ll probably be surprised to learn that it’s actually not as terrifying as it sounds.
If you take your foot off the accelerator in a petrol car the engine itself will force the car to slow down.
Electric cars don’t have this, so car manufacturers often include a regenerative braking feature that essentially brakes the car every time you release the accelerator. This not only slows the car but then generates electricity from the movement of the wheels.
Now they certainly wouldn’t be able to replace the brake pedal, which suggests that Nissan’s e-Pedal is a considerably more aggressive version of this feature which means that as you bring your foot up you are in effect increasing the amount of braking force you want to apply.
Now Nissan’s not suggesting that this style of driving could completely replace the brake pedal. However it does believe that the e-Pedal could become the most efficient way of driving over 90% of the time.
If at this point you’re still feeling a bit nervous about the whole idea then don’t panic. Nissan certainly isn’t getting rid of the brake pedal, in fact the e-Pedal will simply be a feature that can be activated at the push of a button.
Nissan’s Leaf was one of the first fully-electric cars to be released to mainstream consumers
While it had a relatively low range of around 100 miles, its low price combined with government grants guaranteed its place as one of the founding cars in the electric revolution.
The Leaf is seven years old however, and now Nissan is looking to bring the 2010 up to date.
The 2018 Nissan Leaf will be unveiled on the 6 September and will feature fully-autonomous driving, autonomous parking and potentially a considerably improved range, placing it more realistically as a major competitor for Tesla’s first ‘affordable’ electric car the Model 3.