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      05-10-2025, 11:01 AM   #1
StrykerRan
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The “brake” effect

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(From the context of a first time EV driver)

My last car was the X5. Powerful and great brakes. At least it’s enough juice for me and I only had the 40i.

Why is it that when I am coasting at 60ph or
I’m accelerating and then I go to brake, that first split second or so feels like that car did not brake but still going and then it starts “feeling” of braking?
I can only remove this feeling when I set at least MEDIUM for the regen brake. I understand the car is heavier so I really miss that gasoline type brake when I feel I can grab the road to a halt.

I’m wondering if this is to be expected from all EVs. A main pointer why I chose the IX was the ability to remove the regen feeling (LOW setting feels like it’s not there). But I do have to add the one feet driving in the local city is proving more and more enjoyable.
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      05-10-2025, 11:11 AM   #2
exxxviii
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StrykerRan View Post
(From the context of a first time EV driver)

My last car was the X5. Powerful and great brakes. At least it’s enough juice for me and I only had the 40i.

Why is it that when I am coasting at 60ph or
I’m accelerating and then I go to brake, that first split second or so feels like that car did not brake but still going and then it starts “feeling” of braking?
I can only remove this feeling when I set at least MEDIUM for the regen brake. I understand the car is heavier so I really miss that gasoline type brake when I feel I can grab the road to a halt.

I’m wondering if this is to be expected from all EVs. A main pointer why I chose the IX was the ability to remove the regen feeling (LOW setting feels like it’s not there). But I do have to add the one feet driving in the local city is proving more and more enjoyable.
I haven't really noticed braking in my iX. It is all just really smooth.

But the major thing to keep in the back of your mind that both the natural "engine braking" while coasting and pedal braking are intentional simulations, so they will not be the same as a gas car.

An electric has no engine braking while coasting. So, BMW programmed several options in its D Mode to try to simulate that gas car experience. I rarely use D, and I set mine to Low a while ago because that is what my wife prefers when she drives my car. (She is a die hard gas car captain.)

Braking is the same. When you use the pedal, the car will not engage friction brakes but use electrical regen until regen is insufficient for the braking call. Therefore, there is no directly linkage from pedal to hydraulics like in a gas car. The feel is a software simulation of legacy friction-only braking. Again, I rarely use the brake pedal in mine, but when I do it feels pretty close to the other gas cars I drive.
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      05-10-2025, 11:15 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by exxxviii View Post
I haven't really noticed braking in my iX. It is all just really smooth.

But the major thing to keep in the back of your mind that both the natural "engine braking" while coasting and pedal braking are intentional simulations, so they will not be the same as a gas car.

An electric has no engine braking while coasting. So, BMW programmed several options in its D Mode to try to simulate that gas car experience. I rarely use D, and I set mine to Low a while ago because that is what my wife prefers when she drives my car. (She is a die hard gas car captain.)

Braking is the same. When you use the pedal, the car will not engage friction brakes but use electrical regen until regen is insufficient for the braking call. Therefore, there is no directly linkage from pedal to hydraulics like in a gas car. The feel is a software simulation of legacy friction-only braking. Again, I rarely use the brake pedal in mine, but when I do it feels pretty close to the other gas cars I drive.

That is very insightful. Explains a lot why it doesn’t feel like braking.
Now I wonder if I can learn to press the brake where it feels smooth and purposeful (gradual strong stop without jerking).
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      05-10-2025, 11:26 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StrykerRan View Post
(From the context of a first time EV driver)

My last car was the X5. Powerful and great brakes. At least it’s enough juice for me and I only had the 40i.

Why is it that when I am coasting at 60ph or
I’m accelerating and then I go to brake, that first split second or so feels like that car did not brake but still going and then it starts “feeling” of braking?
I can only remove this feeling when I set at least MEDIUM for the regen brake. I understand the car is heavier so I really miss that gasoline type brake when I feel I can grab the road to a halt.

I’m wondering if this is to be expected from all EVs. A main pointer why I chose the IX was the ability to remove the regen feeling (LOW setting feels like it’s not there). But I do have to add the one feet driving in the local city is proving more and more enjoyable.
The initial part of the brake pedal will max out the regen and generally speaking, if you stay within the regen area of the brake pedal, it doesn't quite have the same initial bite as you can have on a sporty brake pad. I also had a msport X5 40i before the iX and when doing a quick but not super heavy brake pedal application would get more initial bite out of it compared to the iX. Coupled with how the car would prime the brakes if you suddenly lifted off the gas and it was sometimes unexpectedly too harsh given the brake pedal travel used.

The iX brakes are tuned to be smoother when using the blended brakes but I have never felt like they were inadequate when needing a quick stop.
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      05-10-2025, 11:36 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ggalanis View Post
The initial part of the brake pedal will max out the regen and generally speaking, if you stay within the regen area of the brake pedal, it doesn't quite have the same initial bite as you can have on a sporty brake pad. I also had a msport X5 40i before the iX and when doing a quick but not super heavy brake pedal application would get more initial bite out of it compared to the iX. Coupled with how the car would prime the brakes if you suddenly lifted off the gas and it was sometimes unexpectedly too harsh given the brake pedal travel used.

The iX brakes are tuned to be smoother when using the blended brakes but I have never felt like they were inadequate when needing a quick stop.

So your note on “doing a quick but not super heavy brake pedal application would get more initial bite out of it” hits the nail on the head. And it’s the feeling I did not know I would lose from an EV. Let’s just theorize that I am a very experienced driver (I really like that feeling for when I do a little more fun driving).
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      05-10-2025, 12:43 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by exxxviii View Post
An electric has no engine braking while coasting.
An electric has no engine. It's a motor. Look up the difference.
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      05-10-2025, 12:57 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry123 View Post
An electric has no engine. It's a motor. Look up the difference.
Lighten up, Francis.

Re-read what I wrote. You responded to something I did not say. "Engine braking" is in reference to an engine in a gas car. "Electric" is referencing an electric car. Maybe, if I add a bunch of extra words for you, it could be more obvious. For example "An electric car has no gas car engine braking while coasting.
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      05-10-2025, 01:00 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry123 View Post
An electric has no engine. It's a motor. Look up the difference.
Hey Barry, I am very sure Exxx.. knows this. He was responding to my post about the “feeling of engine braking”. So we are all talking in that context.
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