Regen braking stopped working [2021]

[SanDiegoJ]

Same here... along with some other issues. Regenerative Breaking will work at one red light, and not at the next, or will work to decelerate going into a turn, and then fail at the last second, causing me to have to jump on the break to not take the corner dangerously fast.

Fails completely randomly. Works at 50 degrees, fails at 70 degrees. Fails more often at like 75-80% charge, but almost never at like 30% charge.

Tesla is blowing me off and keeps saying "that is how it is supposed to work" and saying it is too cold.

 

[SanDiegoJ]

Same here... along with some other issues. Regenerative Breaking will work at one red light, and not at the next, or will work to decelerate going into a turn, and then fail at the last second, causing me to have to jump on the break to not take the corner dangerously fast.

Fails completely randomly. Works at 50 degrees, fails at 70 degrees. Fails more often at like 75-80% charge, but almost never at like 30% charge.

Tesla is blowing me off and keeps saying "that is how it is supposed to work" and saying it is too cold.

 

[CarlThompson]

Isn't the regen cutoff based on the charge limit? So if you set your charge limit to 70% it will limit regen so that regen doesn't charge your battery past 70%. I would personally prefer to have regen allowed to charge past the charge limit in order to have a more consistent driving experience but I don't think it works that way.

 

[jjrandorin]

View attachment 749803

This display with all those regen dots mean regen is limited for some reason. it definitely could be because its cold, but all those regen dots mean limited regen.

 

[MaxEffort]

I'm getting significantly more warnings about regen being reduce with the latest update. As a result significant uptick wh/mi per trip... this is with driving in "chill mode" and trying to maximize regen.

 

[ucmndd]

Isn't the regen cutoff based on the charge limit? So if you set your charge limit to 70% it will limit regen so that regen doesn't charge your battery past 70%.

No.

 

[MrG_NY]

Looking at your screen, your at 90ish percent so regen is significantly reduced.

 

[ucmndd]

Looking at your screen, your at 90ish percent so regen is significantly reduced.

Exactly. 90% battery, car sitting overnight, battery cold soaked at 66 degrees or less. Yeah, regen gonna be limited.

 

[CarlThompson]

No.

My Model 3 which I had for 4 years routinely would have limited regen straight off the charger at 80%. Below 80% regen was fine. I'm in CA where cold weather is not a factor. How would you explain that?

 

[ucmndd]

My Model 3 which I had for 4 years routinely would have limited regen straight off the charger at 80%. Below 80% regen was fine. I'm in CA where cold weather is not a factor. How would you explain that?

The car does not limit regeneration to respect a set charge limit. Full stop (pun intended).

 

[CarlThompson]

The car does not limit regeneration to respect a set charge limit. Full stop (pun intended).

I hear you claiming that. But that does not explain why my car had limited regen when charged to my limit well below 100%. I am not talking theory but the actual behavior of my car in weather that was not cold. Do you have an theory why that might be? I'm not saying you're wrong but my car seemed to do something that suggested that it did do that. But perhaps there was something wrong with my car; I don't believe it did it when I first bought it. I assumed it was a "feature" added in an update.

 

[RayK]

@CarlThompson An overnight cold soak at 40F (or below) is usually good enough for my 2018 LR RWD to experience limited regen in the morning here in San Jose. And that's with my car below 80% charge.

 

[CarlThompson]

@CarlThompson An overnight cold soak at 40F (or below) is usually good enough for my 2018 LR RWD to experience limited regen in the morning here in San Jose. And that's with my car below 80% charge.

I've noticed it in temperatures well above that in all seasons. Generally I would leave in the mornings so it would be cooler than later in the day but I'm certain it happened at least into the 60s. Perhaps the battery temperature sensor in my car went bad making it think the pack was colder than it was?

 

[ucmndd]

I hear you claiming that. But that does not explain why my car had limited regen when charged to my limit well below 100%. I am not talking theory but the actual behavior of my car in weather that was not cold. Do you have an theory why that might be? I'm not saying you're wrong but my car seemed to do something that suggested that it did do that. But perhaps there was something wrong with my car; I don't believe it did it when I first bought it. I assumed it was a "feature" added in an update.

It’s my general belief and experience that the regenerative braking behavior has changed dramatically (and sometimes erratically) over the 5 years that I’ve owned my car. In broad strokes it seems like Tesla has gotten much more conservative with the amount of regen allowed under vatious sorts of conditions, presumably in response to better fleet battery data and a general desire to increase longevity of the packs and reduce warranty expenditures.

Anecdotally my car has much less regen power now than it did 5 years ago. It doesn’t come on full strength until lower SoC. What used to constitute a “warm” battery has changed significantly. The most recent reports I’ve seen suggest full regen isn’t available until the pack temp is north of 80 degrees. All of those changes in aggregate have led a lot of fair-weathered Californians to think they’re having regen problems that aren’t related to the “cold”, despite average temps right now a good 20 degrees below the pack temp necessary for full regen (and people also seem to vastly underestimate how long it takes to actually bring the pack to temp in normal driving).

 

[CarlThompson]

The most recent reports I’ve seen suggest full regen isn’t available until the pack temp is north of 80 degrees.

Ahh, that must be it then. I charged my car overnight and didn't precondition so my pack would definitely have been less than 80 degrees when I left even in the summertime. I assumed it must have been because of the charge limit because I didn't think temps in the 60s or so would be any limitation. But if the cars now want temps in the 80s for full regen then that would explain it.

 

[ucmndd]

I assumed it must have been because of the charge limit because I didn't think temps in the 60s or so would be any limitation.

Yeah, I don’t think it used to be the case. But it sure seems to be now. Again, presumably incremental firmware changes meant to improve battery longevity.

 

[RayK]

@CarlThompson @ucmndd In my case, it could be due to the fact that I'm still on 2020.44.8.

 

[jjrandorin]

My Model 3 which I had for 4 years routinely would have limited regen straight off the charger at 80%. Below 80% regen was fine. I'm in CA where cold weather is not a factor. How would you explain that?

Cold weather is a factor here in southern california. Its just not as cold as other places, so we dont see the snowflake icon that much, but its still cold enough overnight to have regen dots (extensive).

I have said this a few times on the site in various threads, but I live in Temecula, and where I work is in Oceanside CA. Its 39 miles driveway to parking lot, for me to drive to work. I park in a fully enclosed, drywalled garage, that has garage doors with extra insulation on them. My garage is never above 90 degrees, nor below 50 degrees, at any point during the year, even though it sometimes goes "slightly" below freezing in temecula on the coldest winter nights.

If I charge my car to 90%, I can drive almost all the way from home to work before the regen dots are gone, and thats with driving a large portion of that drive on the 15 freeway at 80ish miles an hour (traffic permitting) in a model 3 performance.

This OPs user name is "SandiegoJ" and they put a zip code that is in inland sandiego county (weather likely very similar to temecula).

The reason I say all this, is because I have seen other people say "I am in southern california, and weather isnt a factor here" and it actually is, just not as much as like minnesota in the winter or something. My winter wh/mi is higher than summer, same roads, same driving style, etc.

 

[CamRam]

Same here... along with some other issues. Regenerative Breaking will work at one red light, and not at the next, or will work to decelerate going into a turn, and then fail at the last second, causing me to have to jump on the break to not take the corner dangerously fast.

Fails completely randomly. Works at 50 degrees, fails at 70 degrees. Fails more often at like 75-80% charge, but almost never at like 30% charge.

Tesla is blowing me off and keeps saying "that is how it is supposed to work" and saying it is too cold.

The fact there is no straight answer or communication from Tesla on this is concerning. The change is actually dangerous as drivers get used to the breaking when foot of the pedal and instead the car launches forward!. It's been happening a lot lately these past weeks and hence whey I looked it up. I'm sure if I go to Tesla they'll give me some bs, but I was hoping for a fix - some software update or some recalibration they had to do. Not happy with all these explanations about cold batteries as this is only happening now 3 years after I bought it.

 

[MikeyC]

The only thing I have to offer is a data point. My 2021 LR has never experienced reduction in regen. I charge to 80% and in the winter, I often drive when it is in the 40's or 50's F. Even when I drive it in those lower temps, I've not seen any reduction in regen. I always install the most recent software when available: currently on 2022.12.3.2.

Mike