371 Wh/km (600 Wh/Mile) consumption in the deep freeze

[Braumin]

Real cold snap here. Like really cold. Saturday was -36°C and was like -52°C with the wind chill. If you ever wondered how a Model 3 can handle the cold - it does VERY WELL!

Today was a balmy -32°C when I left for work and -28°C when I left the office. This is my 3rd winter with the Model 3 so I knew what to expect, but check out this consumption over the last 50 km of mixed city/expressway driving:

Battery at this point was just over 50% left. I started the day with close to 80%.

Yes, the consumption is nuts, but in case anyone was concerned how a Model 3 with a heat pump can handle arctic air, let me tell you it handles it with aplomb. I was toasty warm. It feels like some tweaks have been made to the heating over the last year too because the compressor doesn't seem to run quite as hard as previous winters. Maybe they are letting the battery stay a bit colder now or something.

As I drove past the 7 cars that had died due to the cold weather I was very happy and comfortable, even if it is going to take me hours and hours to recharge overnight.

Saturday when I was out my consumption was a whopping 420 Wh/km, but I didn't grab a pic of it, so maybe it never happened.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Yikes! Where in Canada are you? We’re in the Toronto area and it got pretty cold here too, but not that cold. Thank goodness for my underground parking spot and WC3

 

[Braumin]

Yikes! Where in Canada are you? We’re in the Toronto area and it got pretty cold here too, but not that cold. Thank goodness for my underground parking spot and WC3

Sask! This has been a mild winter but this last week has been brutal!

 

[vogz]

Not quite as cold down here in the Chicago area but consumption is definitely up in my PTC heat car. Car works flawlessly despite the cold.

 

[XPsionic]

Sask! This has been a mild winter but this last week has been brutal!

Some people say regen braking causes the rear end of the car to feel unstable especially when braking down hill or around corners, what's your experience in that regard? And I assume you have winter tires on your car?

 

[Braumin]

Some people say regen braking causes the rear end of the car to feel unstable especially when braking down hill or around corners, what's your experience in that regard? And I assume you have winter tires on your car?

I do have winter tires and I have experienced this, but since they added all wheel Regen in the 2022 Christmas update it's been fixed for me since I have a performance model and therefore dual motors.

It's also flat here. I'm not sure how the downhill would be especially with a RWD model only.

The first winter before they changed it to regen on both axles when it's slippery it was quite scary.

 

[pnwadventures]

This is awesome.

Here in western WA state, USA, it never gets “real cold” and only rarely gets “cold”. This week we bottomed out at about -16°C. This is winter #6 for me, proper snow tires every season (lots of snow driving in the Cascades). I love how the car handles in the winter (lots of prior experience with Torsen Quattro Audi). I’ll tolerate the range hit; we have great DCFC infra here in general, and I have L2 in the garage.

 

[electrons4u]

Last Saturday night it was -21.7°C (-7°F) in Denver, and I went to a birthday party, then downtown for coffee, then a late-night snack, then out to the far east side of town. Round trip was 87 km (54 mi) and my energy usage was 391 Wh/km (630 Wh/mi), but that includes sitting out in the car jabbering for 30 minutes with the heat full blast. Not sure what it would have been without the jabber session. The heat pump was really making a racket, more so than usual, but nothing seems to be broken.

 

[karlos22]

Do you get any regen at all in temps like that? Especially at high SOC I imagine it would be almost zero!

 

[ResHacker]

I can add that driving with my MS 85D upgraded to 100kWh, with temps around -5°C, highway driving at 115kph + big 650l cargo box on the roof results in +-300Wh/km Enjoy the winter in your Teslas, guys, what an experience is that!

 

[kpanda17]

Real cold snap here. Like really cold. Saturday was -36°C and was like -52°C with the wind chill. If you ever wondered how a Model 3 can handle the cold - it does VERY WELL!

Today was a balmy -32°C when I left for work and -28°C when I left the office. This is my 3rd winter with the Model 3 so I knew what to expect, but check out this consumption over the last 50 km of mixed city/expressway driving:

View attachment 1009222

Battery at this point was just over 50% left. I started the day with close to 80%.

Yes, the consumption is nuts, but in case anyone was concerned how a Model 3 with a heat pump can handle arctic air, let me tell you it handles it with aplomb. I was toasty warm. It feels like some tweaks have been made to the heating over the last year too because the compressor doesn't seem to run quite as hard as previous winters. Maybe they are letting the battery stay a bit colder now or something.

As I drove past the 7 cars that had died due to the cold weather I was very happy and comfortable, even if it is going to take me hours and hours to recharge overnight.

Saturday when I was out my consumption was a whopping 420 Wh/km, but I didn't grab a pic of it, so maybe it never happened.

At -52C compare and contrast your M3 to your past ICEv experience:

ICEv had its engine block heater plugged in in order yo start/turn over, what about the battery? Occasionally dead?
M3, just precondition before getting in a leave?
Trying to understand then and now for you

 

[rpiotro]

Some people say regen braking causes the rear end of the car to feel unstable especially when braking down hill or around corners, what's your experience in that regard? And I assume you have winter tires on your car?

A little bit but the stability control deals with it very well. I never felt like the car was out of control. Just don't do anything radical to test it.

 

[Braumin]

Do you get any regen at all in temps like that? Especially at high SOC I imagine it would be almost zero!

No regen at all, and this is one of the things that seems to have changed (for the better). In paster winters the heat pump would work super hard to keep the cabin warm and warm the battery. Now if I start my journey with regen (preconditioned in my garage which isn't heated but is a lot warmer than ambient) that regen will disappear as I am driving. I think it's no longer spending the energy to keep the battery warm enough for regen which is the right call. You would spend way more power to keep the battery warm enough to grab a couple of kWh when stopping.

None of this is in any patch notes of course. It's just what I've experienced over 3 winters. In the past, it feels like the heat pump was working harder and I would get more regen as I was driving. Now it seems like the compressor is working a bit less and I am losing battery temp, which is again I think the right decision here.

 

[Braumin]

At -52C compare and contrast your M3 to your past ICEv experience:

ICEv had its engine block heater plugged in in order yo start/turn over, what about the battery? Occasionally dead?
M3, just precondition before getting in a leave?
Trying to understand then and now for you

My last two cars did not have block heaters, which was frustrating when it was cold. The Telsa is a million times better in the cold for heat and comfort and it always starts (as long as it has power left obviously). Even if I do not precondition, I get heat within minutes. It's WAY better.

Mileage in a gas car is also crap when it is -30, but as always, the % change is not as dramatic as it is in an EV. I will admit this was the first day since I have owned the car that I was ever worried about range for my daily driving. I used about 50% of my battery in my normal trips, and on a nice day, that would be maybe 20%. I could not take the car anywhere outside of the city at these temps and hope to get home.

Recharging at the end of the day also took significantly longer since some % of my power was being used to keep the battery warm. Most weeks I use $5-$10 of power for the car and last week was $34. Still way less than gas of course since I do all my charging at home.

 

[ashlynch]

Not quite as cold down here in the Chicago area but consumption is definitely up in my PTC heat car. Car works flawlessly despite the cold.

Funny to read this alongside the news today concerning Chicago. I don’t want to sound like one of those Tesla owners spewing rainbows despite the circumstances, but seems like there is more to the story than all of the news outlets let on. I live in the Colorado Rockies and Tesla’s are everywhere. I’ve also read about folks who love in even colder climates and they seem happy with their Teslas.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

I saw the “371” in your picture and thought that isn’t so bad. Then I saw the wh/km instead of wh/mi.

I don’t know how you all can stand those winters. It got down to 20 degrees F here in NC this morning and the schools were on a 2 hour delay because of it. No snow. Just “cold” and they shut the schools down here.

One thing that helps a lot with winter efficiency is if you can get away with all season tires instead of true winter tires.

I have the Hankook iON EVO AS tires on my 2022 Model 3 Performance. I was thinking how bad my efficiency was this morning because it was below freezing. However, that was at 269 wh/mi. I am typically around 200 wh/mi for this drive when it is warmer with these tires.

This is what my commute looks like when it is just above freezing.

 

[EatsShoots]

This car isn't too bad. I have 2023 RWD and my wife normally gets to work in the summer with 74% (rarely 75% and never higher). Today, with pre-warm in garage and about 10 F or -12 C she arrived with 68%. It's mainly highway and she drives a touch slower when it's this cold, but she's also on pirelli winter tires. I honestly expected a bigger drop based on experience with a nissan leaf (which gobbles up battery when it's cold, at a precipitous rate). In these temps honestly the 2020 Leaf we had would consume at 2X the rate it would in the summer.

The Leaf, like this car, did get heat cranking out fast in cold temps--something that no ICE car can do unless it's pre-started. The engine block just has too much damn mass to warm up quickly.

 

[indyjaco]

I'm around 370 to 420 w/h right now in Indiana. -5 to 10 degrees out so far this week.

Usually i'm 220 to 265

 

[Braumin]

I saw the “371” in your picture and thought that isn’t so bad. Then I saw the wh/km instead of wh/mi.

I don’t know how you all can stand those winters. It got down to 20 degrees F here in NC this morning and the schools were on a 2 hour delay because of it. No snow. Just “cold” and they shut the schools down here.

One thing that helps a lot with winter efficiency is if you can get away with all season tires instead of true winter tires.

I have the Hankook iON EVO AS tires on my 2022 Model 3 Performance. I was thinking how bad my efficiency was this morning because it was below freezing. However, that was at 269 wh/mi. I am typically around 200 wh/mi for this drive when it is warmer with these tires.

View attachment 1009719

This is what my commute looks like when it is just above freezing.

View attachment 1009720

l ask myself the same thing every year when it's this cold. Why do I live here? Never came up with a good answer yet.

I have to run full winters. It's way too much snow and ice for all seasons.

 

[KenC]

371, not bad! Then I too, realized it was km and not miles. 600Wh/mi!!! Then again, being able to get out and do anything at -33°f is impressive to me. How do you even start your ICE without an engine block heater? At those extreme temps, I would think even if low efficiency, it must be far easier to get going in an EV than an ICE.

As for running all-seasons, is it even legal in Canada? I know several provinces require snow-rated tires.