Energy Graph Warning

[baw]

The energy graph comes up at random times with a yellow triangle warning exclamation mark on bottom right corner (snapshot below). It pops up after being in park mode and disappears after ~5-20 seconds. It seems like it only happens when temperature outside is a little cooler or when I charge to full charge for a trip.

Any idea as to what this is or means? Thanks in advance.

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

Regen is limited.

This is probably either temperature is too cold or you are too full in State of charge to get full regen.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Believe this indicates you have a full battery, and that regeneration braking is not available as there is no place for the extra energy to go.

Once you have depleted the battery a bit, the regeneration will again be available as the battery has a little extra room.

 

[boaterva]

So, the question is, not doubting either of the above answers, as I seem to recall seeing this elsewhere, don't you feel the difference in driving the car? In that regen is noticably absent? I would think it feels like an ICE car, and coasts a lot further....

Edit: The manual just shows the dashed lines for 'limited regen'. I bet they added the warning triangle as a reminder that 'you can't go there' in charging via regen 'at this time'.

 

[demundus]

Dashed lines on the regen side of the meter indicated either a full SOC (car cant regen any additional power into the pack at "those rates" below the dashed lines) OR its too cold out and the pack hasn't warmed up.

Regen braking performance is affected, and can catch you off guard if you're not paying attention.

 

[chillaban]

The yellow triangle shows up when regen limits recently changed. It's supposed to draw your attention to the fact that your regen will feel different compared to before, so you don't get surprised by it.

 

[appleguru]

Btw, you can also see this at the top end of the range under hard acceleration if pack/junction temps are too high or battery SoC is too low for full acceleration.

 

[ReturnZero]

So, the question is, not doubting either of the above answers, as I seem to recall seeing this elsewhere, don't you feel the difference in driving the car? In that regen is noticably absent? I would think it feels like an ICE car, and coasts a lot further....

Edit: The manual just shows the dashed lines for 'limited regen'. I bet they added the warning triangle as a reminder that 'you can't go there' in charging via regen 'at this time'.

It definitely feels different, the car just coasts a ton when you may be expecting it to slow down. I think you get even less regen braking in this state than you do with "low" regen selected, though I haven't tried either in a while (full charge or low regen).

 

[boaterva]

It definitely feels different, the car just coasts a ton when you may be expecting it to slow down. I think you get even less regen braking in this state than you do with "low" regen selected, though I haven't tried either in a while (full charge or low regen).

Right, you should get no regen, a plain coast, as there's no place for it to 'go'. It has to have a place to go (in the not-full battery) or the motors can't create the field that slows the car down.

 

[kavyboy]

Does the length of the dashed line vary? I've been seeing that triangle, but I haven't noticed a dashed line. My theory is that it's limiting regen due to the battery being hot (Southeast Texas in July), but the limit is so low that the arc doesn't appear dashed and/or I'm not noticing a color difference.

 

[somnambule]

So, the question is, not doubting either of the above answers, as I seem to recall seeing this elsewhere, don't you feel the difference in driving the car? In that regen is noticably absent? I would think it feels like an ICE car, and coasts a lot further....

Edit: The manual just shows the dashed lines for 'limited regen'. I bet they added the warning triangle as a reminder that 'you can't go there' in charging via regen 'at this time'.

I don't think I've noticed any difference in driving feel during limited regen. I would guess the mechanicals are all the same (so it feels the same) but the charge is just not being stored.

 

[boaterva]

I don't think I've noticed any difference in driving feel during limited regen. I would guess the mechanicals are all the same (so it feels the same) but the charge is just not being stored.

Then why do they *tell* you about it?

 

[somnambule]

Then why do they *tell* about it?

It affects range (esp. in city driving), ability to recapture energy when going downhill etc.

 

[ReturnZero]

I don't think I've noticed any difference in driving feel during limited regen. I would guess the mechanicals are all the same (so it feels the same) but the charge is just not being stored.

Do you keep your car in standard or low regen mode?

 

[ReturnZero]

Does the length of the dashed line vary? I've been seeing that triangle, but I haven't noticed a dashed line. My theory is that it's limiting regen due to the battery being hot (Southeast Texas in July), but the limit is so low that the arc doesn't appear dashed and/or I'm not noticing a color difference.

I think I have seen this dashed line at different lengths. It basically shows you how much of the regen is unavailable, and as the battery depletes it gives you more until you have it all back.

It's been a while, though, so this is all from memory...

 

[demundus]

The dashed line varies on how much or how little it will let you regen based on SOC. If you are sub zero temps or recently 100% SOC, the regen will be near zero... and thus the car will feel like a ton of bricks coming to a stop. It gradually goes away (SOC is faster than temp, as its easier to burn energy than heat up a pack) and you're back to normal before you know it.

 

[brianman]

energy graph ... yellow triangle warning exclamation mark on bottom right corner .... It seems like it only happens when temperature outside is a little cooler or when I charge to full charge for a trip.

Your instincts are correct. Exactly this.

 

[baw]

Thanks for all the replies on this.

A couple of followups:
1) I am in Chicago area (cold). Just got my car 4 months ago (warmer weather so far). Am I to expect this warning/graph to pop up every time I start my car when weather shifts to colder seasons?
2) If the answer to 1 is yes, is there a way to disable this from coming up?

It would be helpful if Tesla added some verbage to this to warning (ala "regen is temporarily inactive..") . Unnecessary anxiety with not knowing what's going on.

 

[clostridium]

Thanks for all the replies on this.

A couple of followups:
1) I am in Chicago area (cold). Just got my car 4 months ago (warmer weather so far). Am I to expect this warning/graph to pop up every time I start my car when weather shifts to colder seasons?
2) If the answer to 1 is yes, is there a way to disable this from coming up?

It would be helpful if Tesla added some verbage to this to warning (ala "regen is temporarily inactive..") . Unnecessary anxiety with not knowing what's going on.

When the warning comes about solely because of cold weather it appears to be entirely related to how long after you get in the car it takes the batteries to reach some temperature the car wants them at. How long that takes depends on many factors like:
1) what temperature the battery starts at (is car inside, outside, how cold is it, etc.)
2) how much preconditioning you did of the car (can shrink the regen loss time essentially to zero potentially)
3) driving style (theoretically, I haven't done controlled tests to further sort this out).

I live in a colder climate too though I suspect Chicago runs a little colder than NE Ohio. I had times it took 5-10 minutes to stop restricting the regen and times where it was only very briefly restricted (when I preconditioned). If you have your car stored outside and cannot precondition it ahead of time I don't know how long it would take to clear. My garage isn't heated but even in the coldest weather here it's almost never below 40 degrees and is often nearly 50. I sometimes had the car outside at work for 10-12 hours but usually found a way to precondition it some since the trip home isn't far so didn't worry about using up battery too much.

I didn't get enough of the winter to test out a variety of theories about managing the regen loss time but next winter I want to try things like delaying the charging so that it runs up until right when I want to leave. Others have said this helps the battery heatup time. I'm also experimenting with how long of a precondition I need to have the batteries ready. It appears that having the car in range mode will increase the time it takes to warm the batteries but I don't have enough data on that and learned that mostly from others on the forums.

The warning message is a good idea. I wouldn't seek to disable it nor do I think you can. The car performs considerably differently when coming to a stop without regen. It's a good reminder of that before your first stop.

 

[somnambule]

Do you keep your car in standard or low regen mode?

Standard.