Regardless of the debated range, I think one core point is that Tesla should build more dense supercharger concentrations in places that get very cold, for safety reasons.
Exactly. I thought certain trips were on the edge of possible, but knowing what I know now, I would _never_ take the Tesla on long trips in these areas. I've sent emails directly to Tesla about building superchargers and I got some form letter about how they use "advanced modeling" to figure out where to put superchargers. Great.
But namely:
1. Stopping in cold weather destroys whatever limited range you thought you had. evtripplanner/etc estimates do not include warm-up consumption.
1.a. Pack heater is small, can't use regen power for heating when regen is disabled, and the pack is not insulated or using other means of heat preservation (like Prius has a coolant thermos)
2. Snow on the road causes huge unplanned energy usage
3. Charging from AC becomes a serious problem when it's really cold out, adding multiple hours to charge times
4. If you turn range mode on, you're going to be really cold. It's not like it's California and you can just crack open a window because of "reduced climate control performance".
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I agree with the above. This winter with 7.1 I sometimes leave for work with a car that is charging or has just finished, in a heated garage, and still have a regen limiter somewhere between 30-60 kW. Pre-heating the cabin while plugged in does not seem to change anything.
It often stays present during my entire commute.
I did not see this with previous FW (this is my 3rd winter with my P85).
The pack heater will shut-off before long before full regen temperature. I've also done commutes with regen basically off for the entire duration, let's say if you've left it in range mode.