OV9

Just been having a conversation on the Lotus forum with Eletre owners complaining about weird / poor braking behaviour. One complaint seems to centre on a "comfort braking" feature that automatically rolls off the brakes in some driving modes to make your stop smoother - which can surprise folks trying to bring the car to halt at a specific point and the car sails past that - but most issues seem to be due to surface corrosion on the discs causing poor initial mechanical braking.

One Eletre owner was quoted £3k for new front pads and discs as they were corroded by the first service. Their response has been to switch off regen completely - which seems like a pretty extreme reaction.

I've mentioned before that - back in 2018 - the Lotus Drivers Club arranged a visit to the Tesla service centre in Edinburgh - where the techs were advising that they replaced more brake discs due to corrosion than they did due to wear : under the majority of "normal" driving situations regen provided sufficient retardation, hence the mechanical brakes just don't get used (or are barely used).

I was very conscious of this when mrs mik got her E-Tron - I only drive it about once a week, but always perform at least one 60(ish)mph to 5mph stop with the drive slipped to neutral - so the regen doesn't kick in, and I am only using the mechanical brakes. If I don't drive it for a couple of weeks the discs are always covered in a light layer of surface corrosion....

The obvious issue is replacement of parts that rust prematurely, but the other is performance : if you need to brake hard enough to bring in the mechanical brakes then you simply don't get the same retardation whilst the pads are clearing the initial surface corrosion off the discs..... which could be dangerous.

It seems like this is such an avoidable issue - don't certain manufacturers already have a feature that dries off the discs when it's raining? I'm sure a similar feature could be programmed in to mix regen with braking every so often to ensure the brakes are used sufficiently to keep them in working order.

GG. wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2026 10:05 am It seems like this is such an avoidable issue - don't certain manufacturers already have a feature that dries off the discs when it's raining? I'm sure a similar feature could be programmed in to mix regen with braking every so often to ensure the brakes are used sufficiently to keep them in working order.

Absolute agreement. And maybe some do (and I am not aware)

I must check the R5 brakes to see if the pads ever come into contact with the disks. And I wonder how much the M5 will use its physical brakes? To be honest that's probably a very good reason for spending thousands on the carbon ceramics; they won't corrode when they're never used

Feels like a non issue and a way for Tesla to justify selling their annual brake lube check. In winter when there’s the greatest amount of corrosion you also have a cold battery pack with barely any regen so you’re mainly using the friction brakes which sorts that issue.
I guess there are people who drive slowly everywhere to the point of barely needing to touch the brakes but they’d get the same problems on the rear brakes of any car.

The Smart doesn't use regen when the battery is 100% and it tells you this the first few miles to allow for a different brake feel.

I suppose this is also a cleaning and maintenance exercise.

If you have a battery charged to 100% and drive away, it will always produce less energy on regeneration braking than it took to accelerate you to that speed. So there's never actually going to be a time when the battery is too full to regen - with a full EV at least.

Maybe just slather grease on the brake disks to keep them from external contaminants if regen does everything

I do at least one stop hard enough to activate the ABS in both the Kuga and the Golf once a month to clean the disks up.

The Golf especially seems to use the friction brakes very sparingly, the rear pads are still like new after 38000 miles.

Kuga regen isn't the strongest so it seems to use the friction brakes more, but the rears still look proper rough after a couple of weeks.
Hardly any wear front or back brake wise after 27500 miles of use.

Never had an issue on the Zoe, but then the regen is very weak. You have to use the brakes to stop.

Never had an issue on the three I've had, I just make sure I give it a hard brake (push through any regen) once in a while. Also noticed it'll always use the brakes in reverse.

So the answer is, buy ICE and save a fortune on not replacing brake compoents every 12-18 months?