Battery depletion in winter

[brasil-tester]

Hi,

New user/buyer. Took delivery of Range plus with white interior and FSD. Love the car so far.

The battery however, spends a lot more energy than I thought. I had heard 20-30% loss in the winter but this past Saturday night, almost came home empty. It was about -8C, snowing... before going out, I had 139KM left. Went to restaurant, 8 kms. On the way back it was snowing hard and I had to take an alternate route of 12KM to come back. All in all, 20kms ride. I came home with 23km left on the battery.

Is this normal ? 100KMS in a city outing ? It's not an isolated incident. Battery depletion is awful.

Joe

 

[Garlan Garner]

Hi,

New user/buyer. Took delivery of Range plus with white interior and FSD. Love the car so far.

The battery however, spends a lot more energy than I thought. I had heard 20-30% loss in the winter but this past Saturday night, almost came home empty. It was about -8C, snowing... before going out, I had 139KM left. Went to restaurant, 8 kms. On the way back it was snowing hard and I had to take an alternate route of 12KM to come back. All in all, 20kms ride. I came home with 23km left on the battery.

Is this normal ? 100KMS in a city outing ? It's not an isolated incident. Battery depletion is awful.

Joe

Well....it could be normal. Somewhat depends on your driving habits. Are you heating the interior strictly with air heat or are you using the seat heaters on HI with the air heat. Air Heat will strongly deplete the battery range.

Its -14C in Chicago right now. 16 hours of being outside by itself in the wind I lose about 24KM.

 

[MGCan]

Yes, heating the vehicle to a comfortable temperature along with reduced battery effectiveness due to the cold does have a dramatic impact on range. It was -25C to -35C here all week in Alberta and I get only 25% to 50% of the posted range, People will suggest turning down the heat and using the seat heaters only, but when it is so cold you need heat on to keep the inside of the windows free from ice.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Yes, heating the vehicle to a comfortable temperature along with reduced battery effectiveness due to the cold does have a dramatic impact on range. It was -25C to -35C here all week in Alberta and I get only 25% to 50% of the posted range, People will suggest turning down the heat and using the seat heaters only, but when it is so cold you need heat on to keep the inside of the windows free from ice.

I understand 50% of driving range, however what is your range loss when your car is just sitting there doing nothing?

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Yikes. I just wouldn't buy an EV to use in those climates.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Yikes. I just wouldn't buy an EV to use in those climates.

My car is rated at 325 miles. 170 miles is 50% of my battery charge ( could be due to cold ) ....which is still farther than I need.

Free remote pre-heat through app / Free interior temp monitoring through app / Free seat pre-heat through app.....etc

No gas / No oil changes / No transmission / No emissions test / No car warmup / No - car not starting due to cold / = No brainer.

I would definitely buy an EV for those climates.

 

[Biscuitman]

Hi,

New user/buyer. Took delivery of Range plus with white interior and FSD. Love the car so far.

The battery however, spends a lot more energy than I thought. I had heard 20-30% loss in the winter but this past Saturday night, almost came home empty. It was about -8C, snowing... before going out, I had 139KM left. Went to restaurant, 8 kms. On the way back it was snowing hard and I had to take an alternate route of 12KM to come back. All in all, 20kms ride. I came home with 23km left on the battery.

Is this normal ? 100KMS in a city outing ? It's not an isolated incident. Battery depletion is awful.

Joe

My advice would be to home charge it every night so you are never without a full range when you go out for the day/evening.
The car is great but these cold Ottawa/Montreal winter days are brutal, I agree.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

My car is rated at 325 miles. 170 miles is 50% of my battery charge ( could be due to cold ) ....which is still farther than I need.

Free remote pre-heat through app / Free interior temp monitoring through app / Free seat pre-heat through app.....etc

No gas / No oil changes / No transmission / No emissions test / No car warmup / No - car not starting due to cold / = No brainer.

I would definitely buy an EV for those climates.

Depends how your drives go. If you do a lot of short trips and let the car sit for a while between trips per the experience of the poster above, I bet you won't get close to 170 miles.

320 is more than 250, but with a 50% loss, you still only have about 35 more miles than an SR+. Not a lot more.

 

[ewoodrick]

30% loss in cooler temps is expected.
Short trips also reduces range die to heating

 

[Fresnel]

Are you preheating the battery before going out? What speeds are you driving? And you should also look at the avg Wh per mile usage for that trip.

 

[vjason]

We haven't spent much time below 40F this year but here are my results.

Note that I do limit cabin heating when alone so my results are better than those who use it every trip. I do drive fast on highways but I don't floor it very much at all these days.

 

[Big Earl]

Hi,

New user/buyer. Took delivery of Range plus with white interior and FSD. Love the car so far.

The battery however, spends a lot more energy than I thought. I had heard 20-30% loss in the winter but this past Saturday night, almost came home empty. It was about -8C, snowing... before going out, I had 139KM left. Went to restaurant, 8 kms. On the way back it was snowing hard and I had to take an alternate route of 12KM to come back. All in all, 20kms ride. I came home with 23km left on the battery.

Is this normal ? 100KMS in a city outing ? It's not an isolated incident. Battery depletion is awful.

Joe

Suggestions:

1. turn off Summon Stanby (keeps car awake)
2. turn off Sentry Mode (keeps car awake)
3. don't pre-heat more than necessary (preheating heats both the cabin and the battery)
4. pre-heat the car when it's plugged in (consumes power from the wall instead of from the battery)

Short trips in cold weather will consume a large amount of power due to heating up the cabin and battery from cold. Multiple short trips are the worst. Snow also adds a lot of consumption. My experience in -15 to -20C temperatures with heavy snow has been a 40% reduction in range on a moderate-to-long trip. Short trips in those conditions can use even more energy depending on the circumstances.

For a standard range plus, I'd recommend keeping it plugged in and topped off whenever possible in the winter.

 

[brasil-tester]

Thanks everyone for all the useful info. I was afraid my car had a problem...

 

[Garlan Garner]

Depends how your drives go. If you do a lot of short trips and let the car sit for a while between trips per the experience of the poster above, I bet you won't get close to 170 miles.

320 is more than 250, but with a 50% loss, you still only have about 35 more miles than an SR+. Not a lot more.

There is a 130 mile difference. That's a lot. or at least to me it's a lot.

 

[JamstationP85D]

The shorter the ride the larger the overall ride efficiency will be. Drove 5km this morning at %28 efficiency (teslafi). This is because my battery was close to 80% lastnight and my scheduled ride only topped it off by 3-4% which barely warmed the battery. Note to self - lower battery charge level on the weekend so I get more pre-trip charging. Also.. I am averaging 50% efficiency for rides between 25-50km and 60% for 50-100km due to the cold. 80% average when its warm.

 

[moorej999]

I suggest Tesla use a heat pump in addition to resistive heat in future models. Heat pumps are much more efficient than resistive heat, but we still need resistive heat for fast heating and for extreamly low temperatures.

In addition, perhaps they could use low cost, low weight heat energy storage in winter to store raw heat energy when plugged in and then use it for heating (instead of battery). Perhaps an after-market option here?

Would love the option to upgrade my M3 SR+ battery for longer range, now that I have experienced the cold weather battery degregation. Only if someone could convince Musk to allow for it (at a reasonable cost).

 

[JamstationP85D]

You are welcome

 

[super20g]

What kind of efficiency loss is there with a modern gas car in cold climates? Say you warm it up a few minutes and then drive to work. Rinse and repeat. Do you lose roughly 50% of range like you do an electric?

 

[JamstationP85D]

Having an SRT8 and an Escalade in my driveway (and the S).. I dont think there was any perceivable difference in gas mileage through the seasons. 80% of an ICE engines power goes to heat so the starting point of efficiently is already garbage.

 

[MarkNW]

I'm not convinced this is normal. You used up 116 km of range in two trips that were in total 20km. That's a lot worse than 50% efficiency. I think it's reasonable to assume each start requires something like maybe 10km of range to heat the car up and then you run at 20% less efficiency. I'd suggest two things. 1) check tire pressure. That should be checked automatically but can have a big effect and 2) look at the energy app and find out how much energy you are using per km.