MINI E regenerative brakes will turn on brake lights without hitting the pedal

An interesting question came up the other day regarding my quick drive review of the new battery powered MINI E. I noted that the MINI uses much more regen than other electrically-driven vehicles that I've tried, with deceleration on the order of about 0.4 g. That's actually pretty heavy braking. The deceleration from most braking by drivers in typical operation is less than 0.2-0.25g. With conventional friction brakes, as soon as the brake pedal is applied, a switch on the pedal arm turns on the brake lights, warning following drivers that you are slowing down. Since most cars with regenerative braking usually don't give that much decel without applying the brakes, it's not a problem. We checked MINI spokesperson Nathalie Bauters who told us the brake lights come on when the deceleration tops about 0.15-0.2 g, or just a bit more than you might get from engine braking. So with the MINI E you need to adjust your driving to modulate light braking by adjusting pressure on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.

[Source: MINI]
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