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Brakes feel underwhelming, anyone else?

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Anyone else feel the brakes are underwhelming?

I'm not talking about regen, I'm speaking specifically about the physical brakes themselves. When you look at the calipers and rotors from outside, especially with the 22/23 wheel combo, the braking system looks solid. But every time, I go to step on the pedal, it feels weak! I'm not sure if its the pad compound, or the fact that well honestly I don't use the brakes that often so maybe they are not bedded correctly but there is NO bite to the pedal at all.

Why it bothers me. I find myself going to the brakes in two situations: 1. My regen is high but the car in front of my suddenly increases its braking pressure and I have to now apply physical brakes to increase the rate of deceleration or 2. I'm dive bombing a corner and trying to carry as much speed as I can and then get on the brakes.

The pad compound just seems wrong. If the regen is set to high, I feel like when I go to step on the pedal I should get a relatively equal rate or reduction from the brakes. Every time this happens, my brain instantly throws !!!!!! when the input is not producing any meaningful change in deceleration.

I've also turned regen completely off to play with the physical brake system itself and find the initial bite very underwhelming.
 
I wonder if the hydraulic system needs to be bled? What happens if you turn off regen and just step on the pedal in park to try and prime it a bit?
 
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illopp00 said:
I wonder if the hydraulic system needs to be bled? What happens if you turn off regen and just step on the pedal in park to try and prime it a bit?
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Good idea. I'll dig around under the plastic in the front for a reservoir and see if I can bleed the brakes.
 
NoseyReporter said:
Good idea. I'll dig around under the plastic in the front for a reservoir and see if I can bleed the brakes.
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@NoseyReporter I just sent you a DM. We advise against owners bleeding their brakes themselves. Any concerns regarding brake performances should be directed to your service center for proper evaluation.
 
Brakes feel like they have no bite. I believe that is how they are. These EVs are heavy. Looking at the stopping distance from car and driver test, braking performance is not that great. Looks can be deceiving.
 
Bdr100 said:
Hopefully he was kidding.
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Why would I be kidding? It just a brake bleed. I've done it several times on my track car with fixed 6 piston calipers. I'm not unfamiliar with it.

But genuinely I don't think this is a bleed issue. I genuinely think this is a pad compound issue. The pad compound just sucks and has zero bite to it. I have to really GET into the pedal for anything to happen.
 
Is this a pedal feel problem or an actual brake performance problem?

In general, both the accelerator and brake pedal require more force than any other car I’ve driven, reinforcing the sense that the Gravity is heavy. I wonder if this was intentional or just a byproduct of the engineering.

I haven’t noticed any softness in normal driving, although I’ll admit I mostly use regen braking. I did have to do one emergency stop with ABS (75 miles an hour to an unexpected dead stop on the highway) and I just stomped hard. Brakes pedal was firm and stopping distance was fine.
 
This is a very heavy vehicle. Have you driven some other heavy EVs? It potentially could just be that for you. Only so much they can do to hide that weight. Even the Taycan with its great driving dynamics couldn't hide all that weight.
 
My brakes are fine on 19s. You should be very careful braking in corners. Not even Porsche CCBs can be as effective in corners as in a straight. The Air is a very heavy car so calibrate your performance expectations accordingly.
 
victoryroad said:
My brakes are fine on 19s. You should be very careful braking in corners. Not even Porsche CCBs can be as effective in corners as in a straight. The Air is a very heavy car so calibrate your performance expectations accordingly.
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I think he was talking about the Gravity, as the Air does not have the 22/23" staggered wheel set up he mentioned.

AlignTrex said:
Brakes feel like they have no bite. I believe that is how they are. These EVs are heavy. Looking at the stopping distance from car and driver test, braking performance is not that great. Looks can be deceiving.
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I think the Gravity has exceptional braking performance for a vehicle of its size and weight. Here are some Car & Driver test results of some 70-0 mph braking distance of high-performance SUVs:

Gravity Dream Edition: 163 ft
Audi SQ8: 173 ft
Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat: 165 ft
Porsche Macan Turbo: 156 ft
Maserati Levante Trofeo: 156 ft
Mercedes AMG GL63 S: 161 ft
Porsche Cayenne Turbo: 150 ft

It should be noted that all the above cars except the Lucid are ICE vehicles that weigh considerably less than the Gravity Dream Edition, which is the heaviest Gravity trim level. While the Porsche Cayenne looks the most impressive against the Gravity, it weighs almost a thousand pounds less.

Even the Chevrolet Corvette Z06's braking distance was 139 feet. That's only 24 feet shorter than the Gravity's . . . a vehicle that weighs over 1,500 pounds more than the Corvette and with much wider tires.
 
I think everyone is confusing performance with feel. I'm not talking about pedal feel. I'm talking about pad bite. The pads just don't feel like they bite enough on initial application. So if I'm on high regen then need to decel more, I feel like I'm having to overly step down on the pedal.

Maybe it's just me. I'm sure calibrating regen with pad compound and brake feel isn't easy.

It feels "off" to me. It's not responding in the way I expect so it unnerving because it feels unpredictable.
 
Saksak said:
In general, both the accelerator and brake pedal require more force than any other car I’ve driven, reinforcing the sense that the Gravity is heavy. I wonder if this was intentional or just a byproduct of the engineering.
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I find this to be a feature, the pedals feel exceptionally linear and let me modulate both acceleration and deceleration smoothly in all normal traffic situations, particularly with regen set to high. Great for family duty and schlepping leftovers (even soups). I appreciate that I have to earnestly petition the car to unleash 800+ hp, and that I can do that with the same pedal mapping that enables limo stops. I rarely use the brakes but yes I feel that I have to “get into it” to add meaningfully to max regen, but perhaps that is a byproduct of linearity.

On the flip side, there is no chance I would be able to accurately nose-dive a corner like I‘d do with my Miata with any sort of regen enabled.
 
NoseyReporter said:
I think everyone is confusing performance with feel. I'm not talking about pedal feel. I'm talking about pad bite. The pads just don't feel like they bite enough on initial application. So if I'm on high regen then need to decel more, I feel like I'm having to overly step down on the pedal.

Maybe it's just me. I'm sure calibrating regen with pad compound and brake feel isn't easy.

It feels "off" to me. It's not responding in the way I expect so it unnerving because it feels unpredictable.
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Can't hurt to bring it in (or have them come out) for service to be sure. What you are explaining sounds exactly like what I mentioned. It's a very heavy vehicle. The bite on the initial brakes, unless you are coming from another 6k lb vehicle with 800+ hp, is about as good as can be expected from the couple of vehicles I test drove and my own Gravity. It drives and brakes FAR better than any other EV SUV I've tried (EV9, Escalade, VistiQ, Buzz, Macan) but not as good as an actual sports car or the Taycan I used to own. I have taken the Gravity on some...spirited...runs and it has it's limits for sure, but for what it is and what it weighs, I have not felt the brakes were not doing all they can to bring that big boy down to a stop as best they can. Like I said tho, have them take a look at yours to be sure. Rather you be safe than sorry!
 
victoryroad said:
My brakes are fine on 19s. You should be very careful braking in corners. Not even Porsche CCBs can be as effective in corners as in a straight. The Air is a very heavy car so calibrate your performance expectations accordingly.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure the effectiveness of brakes themselves are significantly affected by lateral force;, however, the ability for tires to provide grip during lateral and longitudinal forces experienced during cornering.while braking, especially with heavy vehicles, is certainly reduced.
 
marqie said:
@NoseyReporter I just sent you a DM. We advise against owners bleeding their brakes themselves. Any concerns regarding brake performances should be directed to your service center for proper evaluation.
Click to expand...

But can I bleed the software?
 
mister_caroline said:
.I rarely use the brakes but yes I feel that I have to “get into it” to add meaningfully to max regen, but perhaps that is a byproduct of linearity.
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You have a point. Maybe if the pad has enough bite to match max regen it would have too much bite. It does have a lot of linearity and it is a luxury car after all. But it's very unnerving when I have to go to the pedal. More than once the emergency brake is one, and the pedal retracts away from my foot. It makes me mad. 😆
 
NoseyReporter said:
I think everyone is confusing performance with feel. I'm not talking about pedal feel. I'm talking about pad bite. The pads just don't feel like they bite enough on initial application. So if I'm on high regen then need to decel more, I feel like I'm having to overly step down on the pedal.

Maybe it's just me. I'm sure calibrating regen with pad compound and brake feel isn't easy.

It feels "off" to me. It's not responding in the way I expect so it unnerving because it feels unpredictable.
Click to expand...
IDK. All I have to go on right now are comparisons to our R1S and X and the Gravity, to me, has far more “bite” than the R1S and seems on par, or better than, our X.

I also don’t find myself using the brakes much except for if some buffoon in front of me decides to jam their brakes.

As others have said, can’t hurt to take it in to SC. Though unless it’s a big issue for you, I’d put it on a list as it can take a while to get int SC depending on location.
 
NoseyReporter said:
I think everyone is confusing performance with feel. I'm not talking about pedal feel. I'm talking about pad bite. The pads just don't feel like they bite enough on initial application. So if I'm on high regen then need to decel more, I feel like I'm having to overly step down on the pedal.

Maybe it's just me. I'm sure calibrating regen with pad compound and brake feel isn't easy.

It feels "off" to me. It's not responding in the way I expect so it unnerving because it feels unpredictable.
Click to expand...
I do tend to agree; I did some more aggressive 40-0 stops to try to warm up the brakes to see if that changes things. I think it's the initial pedal calibration is set that way to be very smooth and luxurious for most daily conditions. Although I do see in the flyover videos it seems they try to bed in the pads at the factory, but since I almost never use the brakes on a new EV I am not sure how else to get the pads and rotors bedded in....
 
Michelin All Season 4 - 11/25 on square 22’s

Emergency braking felt fine.


I am in “creep” mode so the brakes always get some bite to them when I drive. In “hold” mode I can picture the rotors being less friendly once actual braking starts. My guess.
 

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