Limited regen conditions? Cold temps? Heat? Too many KW's?

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IslandLife

Active member
Joined
Sep 11, 2019
Messages
43
It's ski season where I live and we've started making frequent weekend trips to our local mountain. First, i should mention I've been very impressed with the AWD and traction control systems, they have been stellar (with good winter tires). Just this last weekend the road had some "issues" and I passed 8 or so struggling vehicles and 3 trucks in the ditch/snowbanks. Didn't even experience a wiggle in the PHEV!! (pushed the 4wheel lock once things started getting dicey).

But, I wanted to ask about regen limitations and I realize SoC and battery temp seem to be playing a part, just wondering if anyone has any specifics so that I can plan my trips more efficiently. I generally try to arrive at the bottom of the long steep hill with as much battery power as possible and usually use all of it by the time I'm close to the top... and/or I'll charge a bit at the top just so I have some power reserve for driving around the resort and warming the car before coming back down.

What I've been experiencing with regen on the way back down: So it's about an 19km drive and gains about 1100 metres. Temps when I'm driving back down are usually around -5 Celsius and the car has been sitting at that temp for 6 to 7 hours. I haven't bothered trying any pre-heating as depending on what we're doing, our departure time could vary by an hour or more. This is when I really wish this car had a proper app (like Tesla). Anyway, on the way back down, sometimes I'll experience full regen until the battery is at or about 80% full, then it seems to be limited to about B2 or 3-ish? This seems like a max 80% charge on a cold-ish battery as I also experienced this while driving around town (bottom of mountain) when it was cold (-7), when using the charge button, the SoC wouldn't go above 80%. Other times, when it's a bit warmer (-1 to +2) it feels like the regen limited earlier than 80% SoC and seems to me it's being limited by too much high regen for too long (heat? or to protect the battery?). This feels like it also dependent on traffic as well which can alter how much regen I'm using. But it seems if it's warm enough and the road is clear and I'm using a lot of regen, it gets limited about half-way down no matter the SoC. And other times when it was colder (-10)... felt like regen was somewhat limited from the start.

Again, not complaining. I did some googling, and it seems this is a normal part of EV ownership. It's obviously software protection put in place to protect the battery from harm. Think I have anecdotally figured this out, but, as I mentioned, just wondering if anyone has anymore specific info.

I'll be doing these trips many more times through the winter months so I may be able to provide a bit more info and run a few tests while answering some questions. But please note, detailed info gathering may be limited as generally I've got enough to do keeping my family safe while navigating a busy, steep mountain road in various weather states while at the same time avoiding the ill-prepared and over-confident drivers around me.

Thanks!
 
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