There are a lot of folks that are new to Tesla’s with the big Q4 wave of Model 3 owners.
It was clear early in the Q4 that many people were learning (as was I) and didn’t even know what “Regen Dots” were or what dots they did see on the screen even meant at first. I think most everyone by now knows that the dots mean less regen due to a cold battery. But it recently dawned on me what that whole “power output bar” is saying. This may be totally obvious to a lot of folks but I guess I’m a little slow. So I’m sharing this “light bulb” moment I recently had with other folks maybe as slow as I am.
Say you have the UI half full of “regen dots” (that would be half of the left half of the "power bar" full of dots). That does NOT mean you will get 50% less regen or even close to it. Depending on how and where you drive, you may, and very likely, still get 100% regen. For reference the screen shot below is about 90% Regen limited.
The “Regen Dots” are the max current the battery can accept from Regen. It is not the "amount" of regen loss across all regen braking.
The display is actually showing you exactly where Regen will cut off at with the dots. So, in the 50% regen dots example, if the Green Regen Bar moving to the left, as you slow down, never reaches the dots, you’ve captured 100% regen (assuming you didn't have to hit the brakes). And often you can control it. You can often gradually slow down or aggressively slow down with regen braking. Don’t slow down aggressively (when you can) and you will capture all the energy back even if regen is fairly limited and you can't feel it so much. Even with significant Regen limitation.
Have you ever seen the green bar fully extend all the way to left? I have not come close to that. Or at least I’ve never seen it. In fact, it rarely goes past that 50% point, and if does, it’s not very often or very long. So even when I have 50% “regen dots” your getting nearly 100% Regen (if you drive smoothly).
The “limited power” dots on the righthand hand side is, exactly the same principle. The black bar (for power) will stop increasing when it hits those “limited power” dots on the right. I don’t think I’ve seen the black power bar ever peg all the way to the right. But I’m not usually watching the screen during a P3D launch
So, if your normal conservative (efficient) driving never lets the green bar hit the “regen limit dots” on the left or the black bar hit “power limit dots” on the right you’ve lost nothing in efficiency or power. And if you care about driving efficiently you probably have learned to keep a light foot down. Well, just learn to keep a light foot up too if regen is limited.
Note you can also use the Regen Dots to judge good times or bad times to charge. For me, with a 32 amp circuit, if the Regen Dots stop at around the "D". My charging will go straight to max miles/hour. If regen dots are higher it will spend energy heating the battery. So if I know regen dots will be lower because of a warm garage later, or a trip later in the day, I may decide to wait to charge when it's at or below the D. Depending on your charger capacity your point of no waste heating might be lower or higher.
Note that even with this severely limited regen below, you can still capture a fair bit of regen. You won't ever feel hard regen deceleration but if you ease off the throttle real gentle you can still recapture most of the energy. Think of it as the 120V Charging case. It just all happens much slower. I guess this is sort of like hypermiling with limited regen.
It was clear early in the Q4 that many people were learning (as was I) and didn’t even know what “Regen Dots” were or what dots they did see on the screen even meant at first. I think most everyone by now knows that the dots mean less regen due to a cold battery. But it recently dawned on me what that whole “power output bar” is saying. This may be totally obvious to a lot of folks but I guess I’m a little slow. So I’m sharing this “light bulb” moment I recently had with other folks maybe as slow as I am.
Say you have the UI half full of “regen dots” (that would be half of the left half of the "power bar" full of dots). That does NOT mean you will get 50% less regen or even close to it. Depending on how and where you drive, you may, and very likely, still get 100% regen. For reference the screen shot below is about 90% Regen limited.
The “Regen Dots” are the max current the battery can accept from Regen. It is not the "amount" of regen loss across all regen braking.
The display is actually showing you exactly where Regen will cut off at with the dots. So, in the 50% regen dots example, if the Green Regen Bar moving to the left, as you slow down, never reaches the dots, you’ve captured 100% regen (assuming you didn't have to hit the brakes). And often you can control it. You can often gradually slow down or aggressively slow down with regen braking. Don’t slow down aggressively (when you can) and you will capture all the energy back even if regen is fairly limited and you can't feel it so much. Even with significant Regen limitation.
Have you ever seen the green bar fully extend all the way to left? I have not come close to that. Or at least I’ve never seen it. In fact, it rarely goes past that 50% point, and if does, it’s not very often or very long. So even when I have 50% “regen dots” your getting nearly 100% Regen (if you drive smoothly).
The “limited power” dots on the righthand hand side is, exactly the same principle. The black bar (for power) will stop increasing when it hits those “limited power” dots on the right. I don’t think I’ve seen the black power bar ever peg all the way to the right. But I’m not usually watching the screen during a P3D launch
So, if your normal conservative (efficient) driving never lets the green bar hit the “regen limit dots” on the left or the black bar hit “power limit dots” on the right you’ve lost nothing in efficiency or power. And if you care about driving efficiently you probably have learned to keep a light foot down. Well, just learn to keep a light foot up too if regen is limited.
Note you can also use the Regen Dots to judge good times or bad times to charge. For me, with a 32 amp circuit, if the Regen Dots stop at around the "D". My charging will go straight to max miles/hour. If regen dots are higher it will spend energy heating the battery. So if I know regen dots will be lower because of a warm garage later, or a trip later in the day, I may decide to wait to charge when it's at or below the D. Depending on your charger capacity your point of no waste heating might be lower or higher.
Note that even with this severely limited regen below, you can still capture a fair bit of regen. You won't ever feel hard regen deceleration but if you ease off the throttle real gentle you can still recapture most of the energy. Think of it as the 120V Charging case. It just all happens much slower. I guess this is sort of like hypermiling with limited regen.
