Tesla brings back regenerative braking options on its electric cars

Tesla is releasing a new software update to bring back regenerative braking options on its electric cars.

Tesla used to offer drivers options in the strength of the regenerative braking, which is one of the coolest features of electric vehicles.

Instead of using your regular brakes, an EV’s electric motor can reverse power in order to slow down the vehicle and recuperate the energy in deceleration. This feature can even enable one-pedal driving since other than in emergency situation, you don’t need to touch the brake pedal and activate the regular brakes.

The feature has become such an important aspect of electric driving that Tesla decided to not even give a choice of regenerative braking strength in 2020 and made the strongest regenerative braking standard.

It forces drivers to use the most efficient way to drive the automaker’s electric cars.

But now Tesla is bringing back the option in a new software upgrade it is starting to push to its fleet.

The automaker is again offering “standard” and “low” settings:

Standard: Provides the maximum amount of regenerative braking. When you release the accelerator pedal, your vehicle will slow down.

Low: Limits regenerative braking. When you release the accelerator pedal, your vehicle will take longer to slow down and coast farther than if set to “Standard”.

Tesla owners simply have to go to Controls > Pedals & Steering > Regenerative Braking to choose the settings.

Electrek’s Take

While I think people should be driving on “standard” the vast majority of the time, I also like options.

Some drivers argue that lower regenerative braking when driving in the snow or other bad conditions is safer.

Others also believe that a lower setting offer an option that new electric car drivers can see to ease their way into using regen braking.