Question re: Regen Braking

[DanDi58]

Ok, this is a dumb question but.... Obviously, one of the biggest differences between driving a Tesla and an ICE vehicle is the regen braking. I was really surprised at how 'heavy' it is, even compared to a manual transmission ICE car, which I've driven all of my life. So mu dumb question is, do the bright lights come on when you take your foot off the accelerator?! I almost feel like they should, the car slows so much and so quickly....

 

[Puma2020]

Yes, having driven a standard for many years and to save fuel I got real good at coasting up to lights. The standard regen is very heavy. You can adjust that (somewhere) to go to low regen which is significantly lighter. But you also do not recharging the batteries as much. I rented a model 3 in CO last year as a worst case test (no garage, no overnight charging only superchargers) and I put it in low regen the first 2 or 3 days. Once I got to the mountains, I put it back into standard regen and never noticed after that. You can train yourself. PLUS, pressing the accelerator doesn't mean you are pulling energy from the batteries. If you are slowing down or going downhill, you'll notice a thin green line near the speed value. Pressing the accelerator will shorten the green line meaning you are regen'ing less but still doing some. If you see a black line, that means you are pulling energy from the batteries. Now I sort of coast up to the lights by using the accelerator to regen less. Plus as a bonus every MPH that you do not bleed off by the time the light turns green, means more energy saved. Of course, flooring it to get up to speed as fast as possible, while enjoyable, means wasted energy. Fun energy but wasted.

 

[captanzuelo]

Easy way to see is on the miniature car "depiction" under your speedometer. The brakes on that depicted car light up to match what your brake lights are doing.

 

[RossBrindleyAU]

I think I read in the manual, and my testing confirms, if you are slowing at a rate less than an ICE car would in similar conditions the brake lights come on.

If I gently slow to a crawl using re-gen there are no brake lights. If I slow a little more than would be expected by other drivers the brake lights come on.

I don't know the formula used by Tesla but it works.

 

[Georgia_Y]

I will say, after driving mine and seeing how it behaves when braking, I owe a lot of Tesla owners an apology for getting agitated with them riding the brakes in traffic.