Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Regenerative braking not working in cold?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Page 55 of the Model S manual:

"The amount of energy fed back to the Battery
using regenerative braking can depend on the
current state of the Battery and the charge
level setting that you are using. If regenerative
braking is limited, a dashed yellow line
displays on the power meter. For example,
regenerative braking may be limited if the
Battery is already fully charged or if the
ambient temperature is low."

This service brought to you by the Tesla Owners Club Mechanical Turk. "Cut and pasting from the owners manual for customers who won't RTFM since 2013." (c) 2017, all rights reserved.
 
We live at altitude and park our Model S outdoors, where it is frequently soaked in below-freezing temperatures. The trick is to pre-heat and/or charge the car shortly before driving it. That causes the car to heat the battery pack which means that we usually have at least 30 kW of regen available when we start driving. Even at 80% state of charge, we're then able to drive down the mountain (4900' / 1500m descent) with enough regen to stay off the brake pedal.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: BigMskiman
ahh I see. I usually have my battery set to daily driving charge so it won't ever charge fully and it'll leave about 20 miles to full charge. Here in central Texas there are those rare days where it hits about 35 degrees or so and thats when I can tell that regen is slow to kick in. Nonetheless, Im glad you guys helped ease my mind!
 
This past Sunday in NYC, I didn't get any regenerative breaking until I was about 20 miles into a drive. It was in the teens all day, so pretty cold. Previously with 40s temperature, I had at least a tiny amount of regenerative breaking at the start, so was surprised I had completely none. Side note, I discovered this car coasts like a boss, never felt so low of friction before even when putting my previous cars into neutral.
 
Anyone else experiencing regen brake not working in the cold? I'm here in Texas and it gets no where near as cold as up north and I find it surprising that regen brake isn't kicking in till i hit about 20-30 mph.

Thoughts?
Im in Austin and I just noticed the same thing. Its about 35 degrees today. I was going to call the repair center. Ill just keep an eye on it for now.
 
Im in Austin and I just noticed the same thing. Its about 35 degrees today. I was going to call the repair center. Ill just keep an eye on it for now.

Don’t worry, it’s normal. You’ll start noticing regeneration limits when temperatures drop below about 45F. Overnight in 35 degree weather, expect very little regen to be available if you haven’t preheated the vehicle.
 
Anyone else experiencing regen brake not working in the cold? I'm here in Texas and it gets no where near as cold as up north and I find it surprising that regen brake isn't kicking in till i hit about 20-30 mph.

Thoughts?
Hi, I’m outside of San Antonio... Regen stopped working Friday when it was HOT Mid to high 80’s Mine are hardly engaging at any speed. This morning it was 49 degrees no difference. I’m down to 80 miles and only charged it to 170 last Thursday night. Feels like rolling at Max Charge!
 
This service brought to you by the Tesla Owners Club Mechanical Turk. "Cut and pasting from the owners manual for customers who won't RTFM since 2013." (c) 2017, all rights reserved.

To be fair, my V9 has completely wrecked the manual feature of the car. Can’t access it, all I see are white blank sheets every time I try to access a section.
Not saying that there isn’t a hard copy, but it’s definitely less convenient
Maybe give him the benefit of doubt?
 
It just got colder here in NYC, and for some reason, I have limited regen with just 56F outside, and it's limited for like 15 minutes of driving with like 10 minutes of preheating before drive.

regen.jpg

Is that normal? in this time 20 minutes I am burning 50% more energy (Avg. more then 600 Wh/m)
 
It just got colder here in NYC, and for some reason, I have limited regen with just 56F outside, and it's limited for like 15 minutes of driving with like 10 minutes of preheating before drive.

View attachment 344627
Is that normal? in this time 20 minutes I am burning 50% more energy (Avg. more then 600 Wh/m)

Yes, in my experience, temperatures in the mid-50s are enough to limit regeneration for the first few miles of driving. The battery heater won't come on until the battery temperature drops below 45 or 50 degrees and it will only heat it back up to that level, so you'll always have limited regen when starting out in the cold, even if you preheat.