Freezing and braking

Jep it's too cold to recuperate. When the car gets warmer it starts to recuperate

Yep. You'll see a green regen reduced symbol on the left as well when this happens. Battery needs to be above zero or thereabouts to regen at all.

Before driving your vehicle, turn on the climate from the app and let the battery heat up. You’ll see an icon that looks like 3 orange bacon strips on the main screen, when it disappears you’ll have full regen. Your battery percentage will drop anywhere from 5-8% usually.

Which is why you are WARNED…. The energy meter shows more or less orange dots on the lower end = limited regen. Just like when: • the pack is 100% full • prolonged strong regen causes overheating In contrast prolonged driving at Vmax causes limited power DELIVERY = orange dots at the top of the energy meter.

It's more efficient to use the scheduled departure because then the car only heats the cabin just before leaving.

Not in my experience. Scheduled is the same as manually turning on Climate. You can even see when the battery is preheating during the Scheduled Departure event if it’s cold enough.

It's not the same. The scheduled departure will first heat only the battery and then turn the climate on like 15 minutes before departure time and keep heating the battery too. By turning the climate on from the app you lose some heat from the cabin if the departure time is more than like 15 minutes away.

If you need regen, precondition the car before journey, preferably while plugged in.

If you're unaware, under 'pedals and steering' in settings there should be an option 'apply brakes when regeneration is limited'. I'm surprised it isn't on by default.

Thank you for this explanation, I had assumed it was warming the pack along with the cab but was never sure that was the case.

Yes, high charge and cold = low to no regen. There is a stark difference to my wives model Y. The Y almost always has some regen, even close to 100% charge. My model 3 has zero at 100% and below freezing also zero down to like 70-80%.

TIL

Yes it’s normal.

5-8% ? Starting from how many degrees? I did it this morning, -8°C to 20°C for 2% (14 to 12%) (M3 LR)

That's not true in all countries. In Europe it's not authorized and the option does not exist.

Sitting cold for around 8 hours, -20C with cabin temp set to 21C, about 8%. Long Range AWD with SoC around 75%

I don't know for sure if it's optional but what I can say is that my Model 3 Highland does this, and I live in Europe. It was added through a software update at some point in the last 3 years. My old 2019 Model 3 didn't have it at first but then got said functionality through the update. Just to make sure: you mean the green brake icon that turns on if the battery is too cold, right?

We talk about the functionality that allows the car to brake with the physical brake, like when you hit the brake pedal, when there is the green icon that you talking about. This to compensate for the loss of regenerative braking due to cold.

Yes, exactly. Can confirm my car does this, in Europe. So did my previous Model 3 after that update.

I'm surprised. Witch country?

Belgium

Incredibly shocked 😲 and jealous 😅. If you can send me in private a screenshot of the option that I can see where it is. I'm surprised that we haven't the same software and the same regulation for cars with euro norm everywhere in Europe. I'm from France and we can't have this option. It's prohibited.

Sure, I'm driving it tomorrow morning so I'll see if I can find it! It definitely does the functionality you've described, the only thing I'm not sure about is whether it's always on and can't be changed, or if it can be enabled optionally. Will get back to you!

Thanks!

It's normal. If you have a very short trip, just break with your pedal. If trips are longer, start climate 5-10 minutes before you enter your car. Having regen will actually recover the energy you lost while it heats up your battery, and you will also have a heated interior, seat and wheel.

For a limited time they used to mix in the traditional brakes when regen wasn't available. They pulled it in some countries (I'm in the UK). Shame.

I hate that setting. I want full control over which kind of brake gets used. Glad it's off by default. We don't need to hide more of the way things work from users

To avoid losing regenerative braking during freezing temps, I’ve scheduled my M3LR to precondition in the AM, before I leave for work. Just prior to heading home, I turn on climate control, which I sometimes forget to do. I wish Tesla would allow for more than one scheduled preconditioning setting. Or do they???