Regen beaking feels "varied"?

[Grenex]

I just bought my MS used last week. I have Regen breaking set to standard but I have noticed the feel of it varies each time I drive the car. Sometimes it's really strong when I take my foot of the pedal and other times it's much less and I coast a lot further.

Does this depend on some factors? I drove the car yesterday afternoon and really felt the Regen drag and then a few hours later that evening on my next trip it felt less impactful.

 

[David29]

Yes, the strength of regenerative braking depends upon the condition of your battery. If the battery is cold, it cannot absorb as much energy, so regenerative braking will be somewhat reduced. The amount of reduction will depend upon the temperature of the battery, which in turn depends upon the ambient temperature and how much driving you have done. If you put the energy application in one of your side windows in your instrument cluster, you can see whether or not the regenerative braking is reduced and how much by a little diagram that it will show. The other factor that can affect regenerative braking is charging. If your battery is fully charged, it cannot absorb any more energy, so you won't get any regenerative braking effect. So if you charged your car to 95 or 100%, you will experience a restriction in braking until you use up some of the energy in the battery and free up space for energy to go back into it, so to speak. Hope that helps! Reading the manual also should help. The manual is available in your center screen.

 

[SilverGS]

How cold was the temperature later in the day? Regen is limited below a certain temp (usually about 10 to 15 Celsius) to protect the battery

 

[Barry]

When I read your title, I thought to myself, "he must be new here."

Since a firmware update a month or two ago, regen is all over the place based on temp and SoC. I keep the energy graph on the IC full time now to avoid surprises. I think this is the worst update Tesla has made in my 5 years of ownership. And they did it with no warning or explanation in the "What's New in this Update" screen.

Musk transferred his ADD to the car.

 

[Grenex]

Yesterday afternoon the high temp was 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I had supercharged the car in late morning to 85% and then drove 10 miles of range to my home. I felt the strong breaking.

That next trip about an hour later, the Regen was still strong, I assume because the battery was warm from charging and driving an hour earlier? I drove the car for short 15-minute errand and return home.

the car then sat for several hours and I took it out again in the late evening hours. Clearly the temperatures had dropped down below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The regenerative braking felt sluggish, and again this morning the same feeling. Am I correct to assume that it is just too cold out currently for the battery and it hasn't warmed up enough on my short drives to use the regenerative braking?

 

[FatherTo1]

I get what the OP means. I thought I was just imagining it until I saw this thread.

Sometimes full regen doesn't slow the car down the same way. This is with the battery sufficiently warmed, below 90% SoC, only 55-60 degrees F, and no dashes on the regen scale. You see green extend across the regen curve but don't really feel the car slow down as much as expected. It is sporadic and I've only noticed it 2-3 times in the past month but enough to catch my attention.

I also notice the regen meter bounce a little. I don't recall that happening in the past. I would see it gradually grow and then sort of drop back a little then resume growing green even though the whole time I'm progressively letting off the pedal.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Yesterday afternoon the high temp was 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I had supercharged the car in late morning to 85% and then drove 10 miles of range to my home. I felt the strong breaking.

That next trip about an hour later, the Regen was still strong, I assume because the battery was warm from charging and driving an hour earlier? I drove the car for short 15-minute errand and return home.

the car then sat for several hours and I took it out again in the late evening hours. Clearly the temperatures had dropped down below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The regenerative braking felt sluggish, and again this morning the same feeling. Am I correct to assume that it is just too cold out currently for the battery and it hasn't warmed up enough on my short drives to use the regenerative braking?

yep 100% normal

 

[Grenex]

Ok so I am NOT going crazy then. LOL

 

[Barry]

Ok so I am NOT going crazy then. LOL

Maybe you are, but the car has nothing to do with it.

 

[Grenex]

Maybe you are, but the car has nothing to do with it.

Hahahahah!!! Too true.

 

[Big Toys]

Yep, normal, depending on outside temp and State of Charge. If you charge to 100% at night or at supercharger the regen decreases. Bring up that energy graph thing on the right side of your small screen. Look for yellow dashes at about the 4-5 o'clock position. If you see it, you will have limited or no regen and your car will coast. At least you will be ready for it instead of it being a sudden surprise. the yellow dashes go away and your regen resistance increases when the temps increase and the SoC decreases.

 

[2101Guy]

your cluster display (depending on which option you have set to display) will show when you have full regen avail vs when its limited (or none) regen.
Again..all covered in the owners manual

 

[Barry]

instead of it being a sudden surprise. the yellow dashes go away and your regen resistance increases when the temps increase and the SoC decreases.

Surprises can still happen. Multiple times, I've experienced driving with no limit on regen per the energy graph. However, when hitting an extended down hill where regen goes above 50 kW, the dashed yellow line suddenly appears, limiting regen to 30 kW or so, and stays there for an extended period of time.

 

[rooter]

Wow, impressive. Not only did (s)he misspell 'braking' as 'breaking' (smashing), (s)he left out the 'r' in the title! "Beaking". What birds do. "Yeah, same thing. Accuracy doesn't matter. Nobody has to be precise. Close enough."

How do these ppl hold down a job?

 

[arghx7]

set the regen to low in winter and the driving experience is much more consistent. When on TACC or autopilot it will still regen as much as it can.

 

[TFCooper3]

Since a firmware update a month or two ago, regen is all over the place based on temp and SoC... I think this is the worst update Tesla has made in my 5 years of ownership..

Then again maybe not. Maybe this update protects the battery better (from too much damaging charging current) when it's cold.

 

[ewoodrick]

On the display, where it show the instantaneous power use (below the speedometer in the Model 3), there is a line with two colors, the representing how much power you are using and the left how much regen is being created.
When regen is limited, the leftmost shows as dots, indicating how much regen is available. It also happens on the right, indicating how much power is available.

 

[Barry]

Then again maybe not. Maybe this update protects the battery better (from too much damaging charging current) when it's cold.

Perhaps you're right, but does it make sense for the older cars? Seems to me that it's like putting an 80 year old on statins for high cholesterol when he's been eating steak all his life.

The way I look at it is before I bought the car, I did some very specific test drives in the mountains to be sure the car could handle them. If I did those test drives today with today's regen, I never would have bought the car. Today, I drove my clunker SUV to the mountains because it's going to be parked outside overnight, and the brakes can't handle 40 miles of constant down hill driving on the way home with no regen.

 

[David29]

Yesterday afternoon the high temp was 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I had supercharged the car in late morning to 85% and then drove 10 miles of range to my home. I felt the strong breaking.

That next trip about an hour later, the Regen was still strong, I assume because the battery was warm from charging and driving an hour earlier? I drove the car for short 15-minute errand and return home.

the car then sat for several hours and I took it out again in the late evening hours. Clearly the temperatures had dropped down below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The regenerative braking felt sluggish, and again this morning the same feeling. Am I correct to assume that it is just too cold out currently for the battery and it hasn't warmed up enough on my short drives to use the regenerative braking?

Normal, as others have said.

As a reference pint, I have noticed that the first regen limitations occur in October or November each year, when the overnight ambient temperature first drops to about 50F. That might seem quite temperate, but the overnight temps can be even lower when the daytime temp is 50, and the battery management system definitely starts to protect the battery by limiting regen at about that point each year.