Battery heater

[Buggle]

The #1 thing I was could be fixed on my M3 is the loss of range in winter, and it's not close. Losing 40% of advertised range is a massive deal Apparently the Bolt has a built in battery heater to deal with this issue, but the M3 doesnt. Why? It seems like a fairly minor thing, and given all the other ways in which the M3 is vastly superior to the Bolt, why would this massive issue be overlooked?

I'm thinking this may be a case of Tesla specific Californiaitis?

 

[wenkan]

The lost range (energy) is used by the battery heater to keep your battery warm.

 

[voip-ninja]

The #1 thing I was could be fixed on my M3 is the loss of range in winter, and it's not close. Losing 40% of advertised range is a massive deal Apparently the Bolt has a built in battery heater to deal with this issue, but the M3 doesnt. Why? It seems like a fairly minor thing, and given all the other ways in which the M3 is vastly superior to the Bolt, why would this massive issue be overlooked?

I'm thinking this may be a case of Tesla specific Californiaitis?

Chevy Bolt EV electric car range and performance in winter: one owner's log

 

[Funkmobile]

The lost range (energy) is used by the battery heater to keep your battery warm.

So you are going to "spend" the energy either way? If that's the case I would rather "pre-spend" that electricity and have full regen and thus decrease the use of my brakes.

 

[SSedan]

I am on the middle of a 280mile return trip home across northern Wisconsin today and the 40% range hot is not a thing on road trips.
Daily driving where cabin and battery are constantly warming yes you see a massive energy use increase, but the warming plateaus on long trips and the range hit is much lower.

 

[Buggle]

Chevy Bolt EV electric car range and performance in winter: one owner's log

I gotta say, I do feel better having read that...

It's just that... you know those hand warmer things you can get where once you use them they stay warm for 24 hours? With the current state of chemistry, I just find it amazing that no-one can figure out how to keep a battery, that's already encased in steel, warm. I just keep thinking it really can't be that hard... put a big fuzzy blanket around it for all I care...surely SpaceX has some really cool military grade thermal warming stuff they can share?

 

[PoitNarf]

I believe I have read that the Model 3 gets around having a dedicated heater by instead using excess heat produced by the power train to heat the battery. This has a few advantages: likely lower cost, less overall vehicle weight, more efficient than a stand alone heater, one less component to break and possibly lower heating system complexity. It’s definitely more efficient to have the car use waste heat from the power train to warm the battery than use more juice from the battery to power a stand alone heater. This alternative battery heating system can also be turned on while the vehicle is parked and charging, which is why many of us in colder climates will turn on the cabin heating before a longer drive while plugged in to start pre-heating the battery as well. Timing your charges helps a lot as well. In these colder months I have changed my charging schedule so that the charging completes right before I start my commute to work so that the battery charging itself helps pre-heat the battery pack. Despite all of these ways to keep the battery warm you’ll likely see an impact on range when it’s cold enough, it’s pretty much unavoidable. This Electrek article goes over the battery pack architecture and how Tesla uses the power train to heat the battery pack: Tesla Model 3: Exclusive first look at Tesla’s new battery pack architecture

 

[SSedan]

So I reset a trip in hopes of capturing the distance and average energy use but there seems to be a glitch as it claims like 7kwh.

Now one thing I did realize is that in a 3 the cabin heat will be a bigger percentage of total use vs. my P85 but still I am only seeing 40-50kwh over rated while traveling at 70mph average so the speed is part of that extra use. Even if once warm the car uses 50kwh to maintain 40f rise that is way short of 40% hit.

Preheat aggressively while connected to the wall or supercharger, makes a huge difference in winter travel.

 

[nvx1977]

what I've found is that the Model 3 cabin envelope is very well-sealed compared to my S. This means that once the cabin and interior materials are brought up to temp, the heater does not work hard at all to maintain temps. But starting from cold soak, the heater is on full blast for 5 min, which shows up as a huge hit on efficiency.

Realizing that preconditioning the car is also energy lost, I prefer to get into a more comfortable car. So I generally will precondition 5 min before I drive. That is enough time for the cabin air temps to get up to the set point, and the draw on the heater will be much less while driving.

 

[mswlogo]

Try a Range Race at any temperature with a Bolt and even a MR Model 3 and watch who wins.

Then do it again after 150K miles and watch who wins.

Why do people keep comparing other EV's that have no where near as extensive proven track record for longevity, battery degradation, range and performance.

Oh and then try a cross country range race as well.

Also compare actual total energy cost. Not what your butt is telling you with "lack of regen".