Talking Cars Bonus: EVs Slowing Without Brake Lights

CR’s experts discuss what happens when some cars don't turn on their brake lights when expected

Main theme: In this bonus podcast episode, the expert panel dives deep into a peculiar trait of a handful of EVs: They don’t turn their brake lights on when using regenerative braking, or when the operator employs one-pedal driving.

When a car is slowing down without its brake lights illuminating, traffic behind might have no idea that the car in front is reducing its speed and potentially coming to a halt. Recent CR testing found potential safety issues with brake lights on EVs from Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, and Mercedes-Benz. We discussed how we went about testing all the EVs in our fleet to find out which ones did this, as well as our efforts to reach out to manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Administration for comment.

Read the full story.

Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports

As with other “Talking Cars With Consumer Reports” episodes, this one is available free through Apple Podcasts. (Subscribe to the audio or video.) You’ll also find the audio on Spotify (log-in required) and video on YouTube.

We’d love to include it in a future show. Upload your video questions to our Dropbox folder. Please send high-definition (1920x1080) MP4 video files with high-quality audio. Or send an iMessage question to our [email protected] account.

Browse the complete podcast archive for past shows.

Mike Quincy

Mike Quincy is a writer, editor, podcaster, and tester with the Consumer Reports autos team. He has been with CR since 1993, purchasing more than 160 cars for the test program. Previously, Mike wrote for Automobile Magazine. When he’s not working, Mike can be found training for a long-distance bicycle ride, honing a wide variety of baked goods, or studying the world of mixology in search of the perfect martini.