Jonathan123 said:
I just purchased a 2020 Bolt. I was driving in L mode, came to a full stop, and I was trying to back in to a parking spot to charge the car.
I don't know exactly the sequence of events after that, but all of a sudden the car drove forward and crashed into a wall.
Has anyone experience this? This appears to me to be a major flaw with this car.
I did some testing after this and found that in L mode if you come to a full stop. Do not have your foot on the break or the accelerator pedal and switch the car to D mode , the car just drives forward. - I think it should not let you do that without your foot on the break or at least pressing the button on the side, or a least it should not drive forward without pressing on the accelerator pedal.
I don't know for sure that this is what happened when I hit the wall with my brand new car, but I suspect that while I was looking around to see how I should maneuver my car into the parking spot, I may have inadvertently hit the gear leaver and switch to D mode.
Congratulations on your purchase of a 2020 Bolt EV, and I am so sorry to hear of your accident.
I highlighted your passage above that is unclear to me and hope you can restate that sentence; I believe you are speaking about your brake and/or braking, and not that something is "broken" or will "break."
Here are my general observations:
1) Unfortunately, you were not properly educated about "regenerative braking" and how to set the Bolt EV to maximize or minimize this feature.
2) Regenerative braking is a feature of all Electric vehicles, where instead of having to completely use the friction of brakes to slow down the vehicle, the principle of "every electric motor can be a generator in reverse" is used to slow down the vehicle and return some of this energy back to charging the battery.
3). The lowest level of regenerative braking on the Bolt EV is when you are in D mode.
This mode is also known as the "simulated gasoline" mode and the one I have my daughter use when she drives my Bolt EV, because in D mode, the Bolt EV will simulate a gasoline vehicle and "creep" forward instead of a complete stop, when your foot is still on the accelerator pedal and not pushing the brake pedal.
It is a "feature" and not a "bug" for the vehicle to emulate how a gasoline engine vehicle acts as you slow to a stop without your foot on the brake: the vehicle will continue to drift forward, as a gasoline engine is still firing and is still "in gear" (leaving out the newer gasoline engine technology that shuts down the engine at stops).
4). L Mode both accentuates the effect of regenerative braking and allows the vehicle to come to a complete stop (on a flat surface) without the need to actually press on the brake pedal. This feature is generally known as "one pedal driving" and to those of use who use it (including me as an Uber driver), it is a major positive benefit to lessen the "work" of driving all day.
5) Of course for full safety (and I believe mandated by the vehicle code in California), I move my foot over to and press the brake pedal at red lights; and I also use the brake pedal when the brake lights in the vehicle in front of me light, as I do not know if it will "panic" stop, which will require my vehicle to stop at a faster rate than the amount of regenerative braking will allow (even if I increase the rate of regenerative braking by using the steering wheel paddle; which I use often, for example, when I am taking an exit ramp from a freeway.
6) For further safety, if you are in L mode, but unlatch your seat belt, the Bolt EV will assume you are leaving the car and start to "creep" so as to warn you that you are still in L mode and not N or P mode.
7) Also, the Bolt EV's brake lights will come on when you use one pedal driving to slow the vehicle.
What I think happened is this:
When your Bolt EV came to a complete stop, you subconsciously thought that you were no longer in a "drive" mode and that you had already shifted to R mode; so that when you pushed the accelerator pedal, the car lurched forward instead of moving backward into the charging station.
