So I finally took my FEH on the trail we all use to go Hang Gliding around here. It is rocky, steep, twisty, and goes on about 2.5 miles. The altitude gain is about 2000 feet. You have to sign a waiver with the park to drive it and if has rained recently they will close the trail anyway because the surface becomes virtually frictionless. At some stretches you have a 600 foot sheer drop to one side and a cliff face on the other. Most places you can pass two cars but there are spots where you don't.

First the good part. With three guys aboard, three hang gliders and gear, makes up a payload of about 900-1000 pounds, we went up the hill like a champ. We couldn't of one any races against a Xtera or Cherokees, or Tacomas, or F150s or whatever else, but the FEH did not balk at anything. It just went up. The handling was superb, and I had no problem with bottoming-out where I have with some other cards I have ridden in or driven on that trail.

Only pause is about 2/3 of the way up I smelled something burning. Typically on the tach for the steepest parts I would read 2500-3000 RPM, and some EV assist. I can't say just what that was. It didn't seem like anything was straining but unfortunately I didn't have my scangauge set up.

So we get to the top, set up, and launch. There were about 20-30 other hang gliders and para gliders already up there. Great conditions for flying although I came down sooner than I had to since it was cold.

Typically you can find someone who can drive your car down for you but in this case I declined, since this car had never been on this road before so I had no basis of knowledge to instruct the driver from. I knew I could get a ride up with someone else and drive down to the landing zone myself.

So I did. Here is where the bad part come in. I start down the trail with the gearshift in L and right off the bat since the engine isn't up to temperature it insists on running it, and worse it is deciding to charge the battery. However the bigger problem (to make a long story short) is that the regen braking and the compression braking have absolutely no effect below 10MPH and very little below 20MPH. It is simply not safe to go down 80% of that trail faster than 5-10MPH. In any conventional SUV or truck with a transfer case in the low range you simply put it in the low range and ride it down with both feet off the pedals. You don't ever need to touch the brakes except to stop.

Not so the FEH. You simply have to ride the brakes, and in that configuration you are riding the FRICTION brakes almost that whole time. When I had to get out to open gates I checked the rotors, and they were so hot that it was uncomfortable to even put your fingers inside the wheel spokes, let alone touch the rotor. So much for getting 100K miles+ on a set of pads.

Not good. In my opinion the FEH is not safe for this kind of mission for any but an expert driver and with new-condition brakes. If you have to use the car for that kind of driving on a routine basis, you will have to buy new brake pads regularly. I'm wondering if any kind of fix for this is possible in software, or if it is going to take a significant re-tooling of the CVT/EV system.