Battery preheat released

[wayner]

I got my update last night. But I don't know how well this is working.

It is bitterly cold in Toronto right now - about -19 last night but my car said that it was -5 in my garage. I preheated the car for 35 minutes before leaving this morning but I had absolutely 0 regen and I had a power limit of 200kW. Shouldn't those go away with 30+ minutes of preheating?

 

[IT Geek]

Watched a YouTube video on this feature last night. Apparently the little icon which shows the battery warming up in the app will NOT display if you are sitting in the car. I haven't verified this myself...but that's certainly an odd quirk.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Watched a YouTube video on this feature last night. Apparently the little icon which shows the battery warming up in the app will NOT display if you are sitting in the car. I haven't verified this myself...but that's certainly an odd quirk.

Yes. We wasted 20 minutes waiting for it to show up and then found that it would instantly show up when we got out of the car or go away as soon as we got into the car.

 

[Doug_G]

Just showed up shortly after engaging climate control:

This is still simply displaying the status of a feature that has been there over four years...

 

[lunitiks]

This is still simply displaying the status of a feature that has been there over four years...

Really? Massive

 

[David99]

The battery heater only heats the battery up to 8°C, which is not enough to completely eliminate the regen limit. It seems that the new "feature" just shows you when the battery heater is active. 8°C battery temperature is good for about 30 kW of regen. The battery also has a lot of thermal mass and can take longer to heat up than the cabin if it has been cold soaked.

Actually now (after the update) it seems to heat the battery up to 12 C.

 

[Big Earl]

Actually now (after the update) it seems to heat the battery up to 12 C.

That’s a decent improvement and should provide some more regen on cold days (if given enough time to get that warm).

 

[SMSMD]

Limited regeneration gain after preheating. I felt I got the regen full quicker than usual. My car was parked outside as I was in a hotel. The outside temp was showing -15°C .
I panicked when I saw the battery icon for the first time. My update was pushed on Saturday 23th in Vancouver SC.

 

[mknox]

I have noticed a massive increase in shore power draw while the red battery heating icon is on. In the past, my car would draw about 4 kW when I enabled pre-heating which would gradually taper to about 1.5 kW as the car warmed up. (I have a separate sub-meter on my car's charging circuit). With the red icon, it jumps to 9 kW (about the full 40 amps that I have available from my HPWC). The red icon only stays on for a couple of minutes. At the end of a 1/2 hour pre-heat cycle, the cabin is as warm as it always was, and my re-gen limits are similar too. Not sure what this is accomplishing other than consuming more electrical energy.

 

[SMSMD]

Some numbers from today it's -24°C apparently colder than North pole & South pole.

Preheating and Regeneration:

 

[wayner]

How long had your car been heated when you took that photo? Here in Toronto it got down to -20 last night. I preheated my car for 45 minutes and my garage was -7 according to the Tesla app. But I had 0 regen and I also had an upper yellow power limit of 200.

It is very different to drive the car with 0 regen - it almost seems to accelerate when you take your phot of the pedal.

As far as I can tell the battery perheat does SFA.

 

[mrElbe]

My car is in the drive way and yesterday morning at -27 C I had the same behavior results as SMSMD after one hour of pre heating.

 

[SMSMD]

How long had your car been heated when you took that photo?

One hour preheated prior to photo . Parked at work in open/uncovered parking in- 24°C.

 

[Whisky]

What’s better? Pre-heating the interior, or charging the car for an hour before departure?

 

[David99]

What’s better? Pre-heating the interior, or charging the car for an hour before departure?

Charging has some losses that naturally warm up the battery. It makes sense to start the charging process at a time that it finished just before you want to leave in the morning. But keep in mind if the battery is very cold, the battery heater will turn on and use up a lot of energy one way or another. Based on the tests I did (car parked outside at -25 Celsius) I would add about 40-60 min of extra time. To make this much easier I use the 'Dashboard for Tesla' app which has a smart charge feature that lets you input a desired finish time. The app then figures out the time needed and starts the charge process. Works awesome.

 

[Doug_G]

How long had your car been heated when you took that photo? Here in Toronto it got down to -20 last night. I preheated my car for 45 minutes and my garage was -7 according to the Tesla app. But I had 0 regen and I also had an upper yellow power limit of 200.

It is very different to drive the car with 0 regen - it almost seems to accelerate when you take your phot of the pedal.

As far as I can tell the battery perheat does SFA.

To be clear... you did preheat via the remote App?

That has always preheated my battery pack and given me some regen - both with my original 2012 P85 and with my 2017 S100D.

 

[Falkirk]

How long had your car been heated when you took that photo? Here in Toronto it got down to -20 last night. I preheated my car for 45 minutes and my garage was -7 according to the Tesla app. But I had 0 regen and I also had an upper yellow power limit of 200.

It is very different to drive the car with 0 regen - it almost seems to accelerate when you take your phot of the pedal.

As far as I can tell the battery perheat does SFA.

Curious what SOC the car had when you left the house?

 

[wayner]

To be clear... you did preheat via the remote App?

That has always preheated my battery pack and given me some regen - both with my original 2012 P85 and with my 2017 S100D.

Yes, with the app.

 

[mknox]

That has always preheated my battery pack and given me some regen - both with my original 2012 P85 and with my 2017 S100D.

Yeah, same here. My casual observation over the past few frigid days is that cabin heats up like it always did, but the battery seems to be somewhat warmer given approximately the same amount of pre-heating time. After a half hour or so, my re-gen limits will be at about 30 kW whereas prior to this new feature, my re-gen might have been limited to 10 or 20 kW. With no pre-heating, I would have 0 re-gen in this cold.

 

[rypalmer]

Battery preheat feature further reinforces my belief that 30 amp public L2 chargers are woefully inadequate in cold climates. My -15ºC cold-soaked car drew 38A @ 237V for a good 15 minutes this morning. And I still didn't have a battery warm enough to use regen.