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Regenerative Braking May Be Making Teslas More Prone to Aquaplaning

Tesla vehicles may be adored by some of their owners, but they have their fair share of problems, most of them caused by manufacturing defects. However, the way they work may also cause issues, as some owners are currently discovering due to heavy rains. One-pedal driving may represent a higher risk of aquaplaning.
Tesla Model Y had aquaplaning episode due to regenerative braking 7 photos
Photo: EM
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Although that is not exclusive to Tesla cars, recent cases have happened more with the brand’s vehicles, particularly with the Model Y. Owners are sharing them in Facebook groups. Still, we suspect most will probably avoid that from now on due to the public bashing they are facing from Tesla’s fans and investors.

One of them said that he was driving his Model Y on December 3 when the rear end started to sway a little. We’ll call him EM to protect his identity. To avoid problems, this Tesla customer took his foot off the accelerator pedal, which immediately activated regenerative braking, causing the vehicle to hydroplane. Although the Model Y was below the speed limit, it hit the car in front and drifted into the grass median, where the EV eventually stopped. The airbags did not deploy, but the front right wheel almost fell off, which made this owner curious.

Tesla Model Y had aquaplaning episode due to regenerative braking
Photo: GL
He is probably not aware of “whompy wheels,” an expression created by Keith Leech, aka Keef Wivaneff. The British engineer started investigating Tesla and was surprised by the amount of crashed vehicles with collapsed suspensions. That made him suspect that they could have been damaged because of these failures. In this aquaplaning case, the owner wondered if the suspension may have broken before the vehicle spun.

A lot of abuse followed. EM eventually closed his thread to new comments because most of them were about how someone should drive in the rain, blaming him for going too fast (without even knowing how fast he was) and for having worn-out tires on the car (which he denied). Someone even said he was victim-blaming: the EV was the victim. Imagine hearing that when you have your family going through such an episode: EM had his two kids in the car with him.

Tesla Model Y had aquaplaning episode due to regenerative braking
Photo: EM
One Tesla fan urged EM to order a new one. The now-former Model Y owner – his car is probably a total loss – said he was not sure he wanted another Tesla because of how scary that all was. In a typical reply, someone else told him he would not find anything safer.

Sympathetically, some other commenters shared similar concerns and crashes and thanked EM for bringing up the problem so that they could be more careful themselves. Thanks to his thread, we also learned that this is an old problem in Norway and Canada.

Ole-Petter Rong created a Change.org petition for Tesla to add snow/ice mode in its vehicles. Canadian customers said they have the same issue and seized EM’s thread to share the petition. As if these guys did not have enough to worry about concerning the heat pumps

Volkswagen set coasting as the standard
Photo: Volkswagen
That is probably why Volkswagen decided to have coasting as the standard setup in the ID.4. Taking the right foot off the accelerator pedal will not trigger any decrease in speed. On the contrary: the vehicle will just sail, which is more efficient than trying to recover energy. Tesla removed the option to adjust how intense regenerative braking is from more recent cars, which makes them brake whenever the driver is not accelerating. It should at least warn drivers about that. Otherwise, more people will learn the dangers of one-pedal driving after crashing their EVs.

Despite closing comments in his thread, that did not prevent EM from getting more bashing in the same group. One member said that it was raining in SoCal (South California), which would force him to brace for everyone blaming Tesla for aquaplaning events. The best answer he received was another Model Y crash image, without comments, from someone who probably got there due to hydroplaning. The airbags deployed in his car.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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