Wife got carsick while test driving a Model Y.

I’m a coaster and wonder what energy is actually regained regenerative braking vs allowing coasting.

In the coasting scenario, you’re already up to speed, or based on your conditions you don’t want to go any faster. No energy spent on the battery throttle response, just allowing the car mass to coast.

In the regen scenario, you have to constantly keep your foot on the accelerator or else you start to slow down right? Constant application of the accelerator means battery energy spent. When you regen you slow down and then need to use energy again to speed up.

Basically I’m wondering if regen actually saves much in a coasting scenario like the highway. I’d wager you’d use less energy allowing the car to coast than to accelerate/regen constantly.

/r/teslamotors Thread