So, not sure if anyone has thought of this, just figured I'd share a thought I had while driving my cold Model S this evening... As we all know, when it gets cold or when you're at a high state of charge regen is limited. No way around this, and it changes the feel of the vehicle for a while until max regen is available. Well, I wonder if it would be possible to utilize the new electric-mechanical braking system to make the car behave the same in all conditions by applying friction braking to make up for the power not able to be absorbed through regen? The dash could perhaps show a green line up to the the regen point and grey beyond there where the car is using the brakes to "simulate" regen. This is a feature I personally would keep enabled if it existed... thoughts?
Why not use the regen power to warm the battery so it can then absorb further regen? Or at least, use the regen to heat the cabin?
Pretty sure it does this already, but those loads are negligible compared to the 60kW produced at full regen. (Battery heater + cabin heater is only something like 4-6kW if I recall correctly).
Cabin and battery heaters are each capable of 6 kW. In my experience regen limit doesn't take this load into account.