Regen limited due to cold today

[sublimaze1]

22F-24F here this morning. My DS (and this thread) had warned me about reduced output and regen in cold weather and the dashed line indicator on the dash display when this occurred. Did notice reduced regen a few days ago, but hadn't noticed the dashed line at the time. Today, though, I had my out for it.

Something interesting to note is that at 22F the line was at about 13kW, but max regen actually displayed was about half of that. Likewise, when the line moved up to 30kW I was getting maybe 15-20kW of regen. But once it got to 60kW for the line I was seeing nearly 50kW of regen...almost full It took around 10 miles of driving for the line to move from 13kW-60kw.

Despite the temps being in the low 20s my max acceleration was not limited.

Dash and touchscreen display by efusco, on Flickr
*I notice the dash says 30F, but other area thermometers were reporting ~24F when I went out at noon.

It is also a known fact that Lynyrd Skynyrd affects regeneration potential if played at eleven.

[efusco]

It is also a known fact that Lynyrd Skynyrd affects regeneration potential if played at eleven.

LOL! I'll try to keep it below 11 then.

[SCW-Greg]

I live on a small mountain that straddles suburbia and the country, all roads off are quite steep and long. A good friend let me drove his Perf config today, since I got my "Time to Finalize" email earlier in the day.

Got to punch it too. Still completely mind blowing to already be doing 30 going up a really steep hill, and then dropping the pedal! I think that might have felt even more impressive than going from a flat road, 0 to 60, fighting the uphill gravity as well... like a true rocket.

Then got to test the regen coming down the same hill at 30mph, and it was actually slowing the car down, and I think it would have brought it to a stop if I were to give it time. Regen maxed out 60kW, and I think the new 4.0 software limits projected range to 999 now. Road is 1.1 miles in length, but most of the hill happens in .6 miles of that. About 500' of elevation change.



Thanks Mike.

[Brian H]

That energy display tells the story on its own! Really dramatic ...

[stevezzzz]

I had my first experience with temperature-limited regen a couple of days ago. It seemed like it took an excessively long time to reach full regen: I drove about 25 miles at highway speeds before the dotted orange line went away. Outside temp was about 28F.

I guess if you're looking for an excuse to drive, ah, 'spiritedly', this could be it.

[sublimaze1]

I had my first experience with temperature-limited regen a couple of days ago. It seemed like it took an excessively long time to reach full regen: I drove about 25 miles at highway speeds before the dotted orange line went away. Outside temp was about 28F.

I guess if you're looking for an excuse to drive, ah, 'spiritedly', this could be it.

Almost ditto here - did not get out of work until 8:30 - ambient was about 31-33, regen started at 13 - made 25 by home (25 miles away) but my dotted never went away. Never had full regen,but also missed every single stop light along the way, so it played almost a zero factor, oddly enough.

[strider]

Something interesting to note is that at 22F the line was at about 13kW, but max regen actually displayed was about half of that. Likewise, when the line moved up to 30kW I was getting maybe 15-20kW of regen. But once it got to 60kW for the line I was seeing nearly 50kW of regen...almost full It took around 10 miles of driving for the line to move from 13kW-60kw.

It could have been reduced traction that was limiting regen below the dashed line. If the car detects wheel slippage it will decrease regen.

[DavidNY]

Just got delivery (Model S P1866, VIN1604) Monday. Had full regen for the first 2 days, but limited to about 14KW today. Did not change in my two 7 mile trips. (Yes, I need to drive this baby more.)

While I agree that better communication is needed in the short term, eventually this is an issue that Tesla and any other EV companies will have to solve before EV's go mainstream. Everyone on this forum is a zealot, or at least an early adopter by definition. We're also quite technical (see earlier posts). This sort of change in the driving behavior of the car will be okay for us as long as we understand it, but the more casual users would be highly troubled by it, and it could be unsafe for some. The difference between 15 and 60 KW of braking when the pedal is release is a huge difference. In my opinion it is much bigger difference in driving feel than and ICE experiences. As evidence, when I called up tech support to ask about this today, the representative after explaining the issue to me and sensing that I was still skeptical of his answer, told me he was quite confident in his response because almost every owner has called with the question.

In the meantime, however, I will continue to absolutely love driving this totally rocking car.

[efusco]

Just got delivery (Model S P1866, VIN1604) Monday. Had full regen for the first 2 days, but limited to about 14KW today. Did not change in my two 7 mile trips. (Yes, I need to drive this baby more.)

While I agree that better communication is needed in the short term, eventually this is an issue that Tesla and any other EV companies will have to solve before EV's go mainstream. Everyone on this forum is a zealot, or at least an early adopter by definition. We're also quite technical (see earlier posts). This sort of change in the driving behavior of the car will be okay for us as long as we understand it, but the more casual users would be highly troubled by it, and it could be unsafe for some. The difference between 15 and 60 KW of braking when the pedal is release is a huge difference. In my opinion it is much bigger difference in driving feel than and ICE experiences. As evidence, when I called up tech support to ask about this today, the representative after explaining the issue to me and sensing that I was still skeptical of his answer, told me he was quite confident in his response because almost every owner has called with the question.

In the meantime, however, I will continue to absolutely love driving this totally rocking car.

1)I'm confident that it is in the owner's manual, so if the owner is unaware then it's their own fault as that goes. 2) My DES did tell me about it before it happened...seems like pretty good communication at least for that particular delivery. Also, it hardly impacts the driving experience at all, so I doubt there'll be many complaints related to it.

[strider]

David,

In the short term, I agree. Though I'm not sure what they can do other than just keep communicating - it's an artifact of the state of the art today in battery tech. Eventually everyone will just accept this like when the controls were finally standardized in the early days of cars - some had the throttle on the wheel, others on the floor, some brakes were operated by hand, some by foot, etc. EVs are a new dynamic so in the same way you have to be told not to rev an ICE too much when cold, you have to learn that regen is limited when cold.