Nissan Wants You to Drive With Just One Pedal!

Tired of using both your legs while driving? Buy an automatic. Or even better, you could buy the upcoming second-gen Nissan Leaf with an e-Pedal! 

Ever wondered why car buyers these days prefer automatics to manual transmissions in India? Well, to put it simply, it’s because they let you relax your left foot completely, a handy feature considering the ever growing stop-and-go traffic conditions in most of our cities! While automatic transmissions removed the clutch pedal from the car, how cool would it be if you could just drive with one pedal? A pedal that could function both as an accelerator as well as for applying the brake. Nissan seems to be ahead of us and has announced that it will equip the upcoming second-generation Leaf electric vehicle (EV), set to make its world debut on September 6, 2017,  with what it calls the ‘e-pedal’.

So how does the e-Pedal work?

The e-Pedal is essentially your accelerator pedal, which at the flip of a switch now takes on the duty of slowing the car down as well. The e-pedal interprets the way you lift your foot off the accelerator to slow the car down accordingly. While we are used to cars coasting or rolling ahead unless brakes are applied this could be an intuitive way to control forward movement! The reason for debuting this on the Leaf would be that on electric vehicles the electric motors are also largely responsible for braking duties and would blend into one seamless and efficient operation. 

While other electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt utilises paddles to activate stronger regenerative braking, Nissan is taking the concept into another dimension. It sounds a bit sci-fi and spaceship cool. And, we like it. Sure, it might take some retraining of the brain to get it right at first. However, the right foot, unlike the left, is used to making many fine modulations of the brake and throttle pedals, and should cope just fine.

While the system may seem a bit mystifying, there is no need to worry as the Nissan Leaf will still have a dedicated pedal to apply the brakes, especially in aggressive braking situations. Once you flick the switch, the braking effect will depend on how you ease off the accelerator pedal. Releasing it completely will bring the car to a complete halt. This effectively means that you can drive the car with just the accelerator pedal. Nissan highlights that the e-Pedal will turn out to be convenient and can cover 90 per cent of driving needs. Pretty impressive, isn’t it?

The Nissan Leaf will also be equipped with ProPilot, its semi-autonomous driving technology, which made its debut recently in the India-bound X-Trail facelift. 

• India-Bound Nissan X-Trail Facelift Revealed

A Quick Recap Of the Nissan Leaf

Nissan introduced the first-gen Leaf EV back in 2010. It’s not only the world’s first mass market EV, but also the best-selling electric vehicle with more than 2,77,000 units sold so far.

Nissan is reportedly mulling on launching the second-generation Leaf in India. It’s arch rival, the Tesla Model 3, will be launched here by next year when the Elon Musk-owned brand makes its official entry.

Check out: Tesla To Roll Out First Model 3 on July 7, Will Deliver 30 Cars On July 28