Liv's BeehiveI recently bought a Renault Zoe electric car and when I saw the Technology Connections video about electric car brake lights it made me wonder how my car handles the brake lights. In particular, I wanted to know whether the brake lights do actually illuminate if you slow down via regenerative braking rather than applying the friction brakes.
Unfortunately my google skills failed me and I wasn't able to find a definitive answer online, only forum posts where people were asking and didn't receive a satisfactory answer. So I decided to test it myself by driving around in the dark and looking for the reflection of the brake lights!
There are still a few cases I need to test, and I'll update this post once I do.
In regular driving mode (D)
- The brake lights illuminate when you press the brake pedal.
- When you lift off the accelerator without pressing the brake pedal, the brake lights do not illuminate.
In regenerative braking mode (B)
- The brake lights illuminate when you press the brake pedal.
- When you lift your foot off the accelerator to slow down, there's a short delay (~1 second) and then the brake lights illuminate.
With auto-hold enabled
- When auto-hold engages, the brake lights stay illuminated until the brakes are released.
- Yet to be determined: What happens when the car automatically applies the parking brake?
When the car is in neutral (N)
- Yet to be determined: What happens when the car automatically applies the parking brake?
When the car is in park (P)
- When you manually engage park, the brake lights turn off.