Driving in a hilly city like SF or Seattle?

[Zacster]

I have a M3 here in NYC, but we don't have any hills. How do they handle steep hills like in SF or Seattle? How do they respond from being at a stoplight pointing uphill? Does regen braking work well? Does the stop and hold work? Will it stop, hold, and then just release at the press of the pedal?

I had a stick when I lived in Seattle and we learned to use the hand brake so the car wouldn't roll backwards as we put it into gear with one foot on the clutch and the other on the gas. I vaguely remember learning how to do it without the handbrake but you had to be quick with the clutch. And it wore out a lot of clutches.

Just curious really. I'm going to Seattle in a few weeks and I don't think I'll need a car but if I did I'd consider a Tesla since I drive one at home. My son lives there and more likely I'll just use his car if I want one. Or my old Seattle standby, my custom built Davidson bicycle that my son absconded with when he moved there. It was built for me in 1981 and it still rides just fine. I let him take it there so I'd have something to ride when I visit, but it rains in Seattle and I hate riding in the rain.

 

[E90alex]

Absolutely zero issues. The instant torque makes hills feel like flat land. Regen is enough to stop on hills.

 

[karkrazy]

It’s a non-issue. Everything works fine as designed… uphill, downhill.

What would be tiring is to see the number of Tesla’s on the road out here I forgot now the most I counted at one intersection (NorCal)… 9? Or 10?

 

[bruce4000]

Works fantastic on hills. I live at the top of a long hill and I can go down the whole way just adjusting the accelerator and using regen and not the brakes. With my ice car, it keeps trying to run away from you as you have to repeatedly apply the brakes but can’t just leave them on or will overheat them.

 

[kilpatds]

To say explicitly what others aren't...

One pedal driving will hold you on most hills. Effectively the car has great hill assist. You will basically never slide backwards unless you put the car into neutral or something

 

[Zacster]

Thanks all. That's what I would think but never seem have experienced with mine.

 

[gearchruncher]

Regen is enough to stop on hills.

While they are amazing on the hills overall, I'll say that I often experience hills steep enough out here that regen will not bring you to a stop.

 

[ForeverFree]

Great car on mountain roads.

I drove nothing but stick from 1986 until I got my first Tesla. Among other things, loved the ability to downshift on descents to minimize brake usage.

Regen feels exactly like that.

Model 3 is my favorite hill and mountain car ever!

 

[kilpatds]

While they are amazing on the hills overall, I'll say that I often experience hills steep enough out here that regen will not bring you to a stop.

Facing down, yes. On steep hills, you'll have to actually hit the brake pedal sometimes. (although once it comes to a stop, hold will keep it stopped in my experience, even on steep hills). But there to get going again, you just do the normal thing of easing off the brake and lightly touching the accelerator as required.

Facing up, I've never had one roll back, even on extremely steep hills... and that's usually the concern of people driving on hills.

 

[E90alex]

While they are amazing on the hills overall, I'll say that I often experience hills steep enough out here that regen will not bring you to a stop.

I haven’t had that experience but maybe I haven’t been on steep enough hills. It will of course take longer to stop on regen than on flat ground, but given enough time and space it can bring it to a full stop. Obviously add in physical brakes as needed if regen is not enough.

 

[gearchruncher]

It will of course take longer to stop on regen than on flat ground, but given enough time and space it can bring it to a full stop.

You're probably right that it would eventually stop- but when the stop is 10X longer than usual, that's hard to judge or use as a driver, and creeping to a stop over 1000 feet is not very friendly to other drivers.

It really doesn't take that steep of a hill to change regen dramatically. Some (highly simplified) math:
Regen is limited to about 50kW. That's 67 HP. At 30 MPH, 50kW is 825 lbs of force.

If your Model 3 weighs 4,000 lbs, then even a 10% grade uses up 350 lbs of that 825 lbs of deceleration, and Seattle has many 18% grades. SFO lots of roads over 30% grade.

On level ground Regen will stop you from 30 mph in about 150 feet. It's 300 feet on a 10% grade, and 1,880 feet on a 18% grade. At about 24% grade or above the car will actually accelerate under regen.

This was just fun math exercise though- the car of course has normal brakes and stops on these hills just fine, and like others have said it's better going up hills than basically anything else.

 

[Sti-g]

If the slope is >10% or so, regen struggles to slow down the car rapidly. So if you know the roads, then you start regen ahead of time. I have one such, short & steep hill in my commute. I usually lift of throttle before starting to decent and I usually need to tap the brake to bring the car to full stop at the bottom of the hill. At that point, I'm doing at most 10mph, so not a big deal.

This for winter time though, where regen is limited. I am expecting better stopping power in the summer (which lasts about one week in Seattle).

There is no problem going up the hills. That's the fun part

 

[gearchruncher]

This for winter time though, where regen is limited. I am expecting better stopping power in the summer (which lasts about one week in Seattle).

Matters what battery you have in your car. With the non-LFP packs, you get full regen even at about 45F, so you're really not limited here in Seattle much. I don't notice limited regen unless it's close to freezing overnight and the car was outside and then only for the first mile or two. I hear the LFP packs do limit a lot at lower temps.

 

[MODEL+]

Instant Torque
Auto Brake Hold
Regen Braking

Can't think of a better type of vehicle to drive on hills.


-Danny

 

[Sti-g]

Matters what battery you have in your car. With the non-LFP packs, you get full regen even at about 45F, so you're really not limited here in Seattle much. I don't notice limited regen unless it's close to freezing overnight and the car was outside and then only for the first mile or two. I hear the LFP packs do limit a lot at lower temps.

I have NCA pack. I have the dots on the regen side of the power indicator, which, I believe, means I don't have full regen.
I don't have a garage. I have to drive >30mins in our mild winter weather to get rid of the dots.
My commute is ~20 mins, but the limited regen works fine for me. I pretty much never touch the brake pedals. Though I was not using the brake pedal much in my ICE car either