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Why is my Regenerative Braking limited?

I really like the regenerative braking feature of my Tesla. No wear on the brakes, and I "fill up" my battery. I live on a hill and when I leave home and go down the hill I "regen" - at least some of the way. Often I get the green indicator light that says: Regenerative Braking temporary reduced. I looked it up and found out the following. It happens when:

  • The battery is fully charged 95-100% (I hardly do that)
  • The battery is cold or not at a perfect temperature (I guess that is my case) - this happens either because the battery is cold because the car was just sitting there, or it is (and stays) cold because the outside temperatures are extreme.
I further read that you can "pre-condition" the battery (via your app) before you leave. But then the question is if the pre-conditioning takes more energy than the energy you could gain by having full "regenerative braking" available. In any case, after a few minutes of driving the indicator light goes away and I can brake with the motor again. In certain cases, driving a coastal winding road, I had the indicator light coming on after 20 minutes or so. Not sure why that happened. Maybe because the fog was moving in and "cooled" the battery? Not sure. But it also goes away after a few minutes. A mystery!



 

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