Close to buying M3 LR - Cold Weather Questions

[NewEnglandCld]

I am about to pull the trigger on a Model 3 Long Range, but I'm a little concerned about cold weather. I spend 4 nights/wk at home where I would have a charger installed, so I'm not concerned there. The other 3 nights I spend up in Northern New England at my ski place. The condo building I'm in does not have any type of EV charging, so the car would be out in the parking lot with no charging facing temperatures of anywhere as low as -20F to 30F most nights (usually in between, more around 15-25F on a typical winter night).

The town I'm in up north does not have any EV charging either, but there are two super charger locations on my drive up, one 74 miles away and one 23 miles away. Does anyone have any similar experiences/recommendations based on this? I'm definitely hesitant to order now thinking about this... but if I could make it work without too much trouble, I really want to join the Tesla fam.

I know this is kind of a specific case, but any help would really be appreciated to decide if this is a good idea... Thanks all!

 

[GtiMart]

Parking in the cold is absolutely not a problem. Expect your battery to cool down and temporarily have a good 7% unavailable. That means your SOC will show 7% less, there will be a blue sliver in your battery graphic, and that energy will come back when the battery warms again.
You can help the car sleep by turning off sentry and other such modes that keep it awake. It will sleep as well in the cold as in the warmer weather.

If you have a 120V plug available, you could plug the car. It won't add much power to the battery since it will spend most of its meager 1.4kW of power warming the battery. At least you'll have a warm battery when you leave. Note that the car is awake when it charges so the comment about sentry doesn't apply then, it doesn't matter.

Just don't arrive there with too low of a SOC. IF you expect to leave your ski place and go charge straight from there, leaving with a -20F battery, your charging will be painfully slow as the battery won't have the chance to heat. Better to charge on arrival and park it with a relatively high SOC.

 

[Jeremy3292]

What city is the ski place in? I see you're coming from Boston but if there are superchargers near your ski place why would it be a problem? The car sitting outside in the cold isn't a problem; folks all over Canada and Europe have Tesla's in frigid conditions. You should just be generally aware the car uses more energy in the cold than a nice 75 degree day obviously. 3 nights at a ski place with superchargers on your route to and from seems perfectly fine.

Have you taken a look at the Tesla supercharger map below also? Perhaps some new superchargers are coming closer to your location also.

Find Us | Tesla

Use the interactive Find Us map to locate Tesla charging stations, service centers, galleries and stores on the go.

www.tesla.com

Also the crowd sourced website below sometimes has even better info than the Tesla website:

supercharge.info

Zoomable Tesla supercharger map with adjustable range indicator.

supercharge.info

 

[ruby110]

I am about to pull the trigger on a Model 3 Long Range, but I'm a little concerned about cold weather. I spend 4 nights/wk at home where I would have a charger installed, so I'm not concerned there. The other 3 nights I spend up in Northern New England at my ski place. The condo building I'm in does not have any type of EV charging, so the car would be out in the parking lot with no charging facing temperatures of anywhere as low as -20F to 30F most nights (usually in between, more around 15-25F on a typical winter night).

The town I'm in up north does not have any EV charging either, but there are two super charger locations on my drive up, one 74 miles away and one 23 miles away. Does anyone have any similar experiences/recommendations based on this? I'm definitely hesitant to order now thinking about this... but if I could make it work without too much trouble, I really want to join the Tesla fam.

I know this is kind of a specific case, but any help would really be appreciated to decide if this is a good idea... Thanks all!

As a 2018 Model 3 LR owner, I will say the only things I know for sure. On your return, charging at the closer Supercharger will take a lot longer than charging usually takes because your battery will be so cold. And the stress of not being plugged into a level 2 charger overnight in those conditions would drive me crazy. YMMV.

 

[GtiMart]

Although it is recommended by Tesla to plug every night, I never plug my car when I'm the one stuck outside the garage at home (my charger is in the garage). We get those temperatures in the winter here. There is absolutely no problem at all. "drain" will be the same as usual, sentry will consume more than if you let the car sleep. The only difference is that your SOC will indicate up to 7% lower when you get back in your car due to the battery being cold.

 

[NewEnglandCld]

Parking in the cold is absolutely not a problem. Expect your battery to cool down and temporarily have a good 7% unavailable. That means your SOC will show 7% less, there will be a blue sliver in your battery graphic, and that energy will come back when the battery warms again.
You can help the car sleep by turning off sentry and other such modes that keep it awake. It will sleep as well in the cold as in the warmer weather.

If you have a 120V plug available, you could plug the car. It won't add much power to the battery since it will spend most of its meager 1.4kW of power warming the battery. At least you'll have a warm battery when you leave. Note that the car is awake when it charges so the comment about sentry doesn't apply then, it doesn't matter.

Just don't arrive there with too low of a SOC. IF you expect to leave your ski place and go charge straight from there, leaving with a -20F battery, your charging will be painfully slow as the battery won't have the chance to heat. Better to charge on arrival and park it with a relatively high SOC.

Thanks! So unfortunately as of now I wouldn’t even have access to a standard outlet… but I’m optimistic my ski town will add chargers in the next year or so which would make a big difference. If I stopped at a super charger ~70 miles away would that be sufficient?

 

[holmgang]

Parking outside in sub-freezing condition, I wouldn't just think about the battery-drain (meh, whatever), but not having plugged in power for other function:
battery preheating; cabin preheating; helping thaw of the windows and doors.

Really annoying when door handle freezes and the windows freezes so its difficult to open door.

If you arrive at the cabin with plenty of charge, then it's no problem. If you arrive straight there with low charge, then all the problem compounds.

 

[GtiMart]

Play around with ABetterRoutePlanner. That will help remove your anxiety and choose the best course of action.

You can preheat the car before leaving even when you're not plugged. But yes, you need enough energy for that plus make it ot the next charger. Again, ABRP will help you with that.

 

[NewEnglandCld]

What city is the ski place in? I see you're coming from Boston but if there are superchargers near your ski place why would it be a problem? The car sitting outside in the cold isn't a problem; folks all over Canada and Europe have Tesla's in frigid conditions. You should just be generally aware the car uses more energy in the cold than a nice 75 degree day obviously. 3 nights at a ski place with superchargers on your route to and from seems perfectly fine.

Have you taken a look at the Tesla supercharger map below also? Perhaps some new superchargers are coming closer to your location also.

Find Us | Tesla

Use the interactive Find Us map to locate Tesla charging stations, service centers, galleries and stores on the go.

www.tesla.com

Also the crowd sourced website below sometimes has even better info than the Tesla website:

supercharge.info

Zoomable Tesla supercharger map with adjustable range indicator.

supercharge.info

I drive up from Boston to Waterville Valley in NH. Doesn’t seem like current plans to add in super chargers… I figured if I stop off 93 in Hookset at the super charger every time ~70 miles south, I’d be able to get back there on the return, or there’s another super charger about 20 miles south if I needed it for the return.

 

[ruby110]

As a 2018 Model 3 LR owner, I will say the only things I know for sure. On your return, charging at the closer Supercharger will take a lot longer than charging usually takes because your battery will be so cold. And the stress of not being plugged into a level 2 charger overnight in those conditions would drive me crazy. YMMV.

Since others have replied I will add this. Last Fall my Model 3 lost a total of about 20-22% over 4 days when parked on a mountain top in VA where the temp dropped to about 18F at night. Sentry mode off. I have no idea what the vampire drain would be at -20F; certainly more.

 

[GtiMart]

Were you opening the mobile application during those 4 days? IF so, you were waking the car up and for that time it was spending as much as in sentry mode. If you were nervous and opening it often, you've caused the problem. Out of that 20%, 7% was not really lost as I said, it was temporarily unavailable until the battery warms again.

 

[Big Earl]

I am about to pull the trigger on a Model 3 Long Range, but I'm a little concerned about cold weather. I spend 4 nights/wk at home where I would have a charger installed, so I'm not concerned there. The other 3 nights I spend up in Northern New England at my ski place. The condo building I'm in does not have any type of EV charging, so the car would be out in the parking lot with no charging facing temperatures of anywhere as low as -20F to 30F most nights (usually in between, more around 15-25F on a typical winter night).

The town I'm in up north does not have any EV charging either, but there are two super charger locations on my drive up, one 74 miles away and one 23 miles away. Does anyone have any similar experiences/recommendations based on this? I'm definitely hesitant to order now thinking about this... but if I could make it work without too much trouble, I really want to join the Tesla fam.

I know this is kind of a specific case, but any help would really be appreciated to decide if this is a good idea... Thanks all!

I think you'll be just fine. On your way up to the ski condo, plan on charging close to full at the closest Supercharger, then make sure all extra features like Sentry Mode and Summon Standby are turned off while at the condo . If you make any side trips while at the condo, just make sure you leave enough buffer to get you back to the Supercharger on your way home.

 

[NewEnglandCld]

Alright… I’m convinced and the temptation was too much. Placed my order this afternoon for a Model 3 Long Range AWD with an estimated delivery of May… doesn’t seem too bad!

 

[SageBrush]

The town I'm in up north does not have any EV charging either, but there are two super charger locations on my drive up, one 74 miles away and one 23 miles away.

If those distances are from your destination, you are fine. Just charge up at the last Supercharger on the way to the ski place

 

[BMWM3Man]

Parking in the cold is absolutely not a problem. Expect your battery to cool down and temporarily have a good 7% unavailable. That means your SOC will show 7% less, there will be a blue sliver in your battery graphic, and that energy will come back when the battery warms again.
You can help the car sleep by turning off sentry and other such modes that keep it awake. It will sleep as well in the cold as in the warmer weather.

If you have a 120V plug available, you could plug the car. It won't add much power to the battery since it will spend most of its meager 1.4kW of power warming the battery. At least you'll have a warm battery when you leave. Note that the car is awake when it charges so the comment about sentry doesn't apply then, it doesn't matter.

Just don't arrive there with too low of a SOC. IF you expect to leave your ski place and go charge straight from there, leaving with a -20F battery, your charging will be painfully slow as the battery won't have the chance to heat. Better to charge on arrival and park it with a relatively high SOC.

This is exactly what we will do in winter...second Tesla arrives in 5 days and only one charger in garage. We will alternate cars in the garage depending on who needs a "full" charge. Otherwise leaving the other one out with the 120v plugged in. Seems like no brainer on freezing nights...

 

[Shelburne]

In January I went to Los Angeles for 8 days. I left my 2020 M3LR in our unheated barn for the duration. Over that time, the temperature never got above freezing and was in the single digits overnight several times. Snetry was off and I never woke the car up with my App. When I got home the car had lost 11% of it's charge...you'll be fine.

 

[ruby110]

Were you opening the mobile application during those 4 days? IF so, you were waking the car up and for that time it was spending as much as in sentry mode. If you were nervous and opening it often, you've caused the problem. Out of that 20%, 7% was not really lost as I said, it was temporarily unavailable until the battery warms again.

I don’t recall checking the charge level remotely but maybe I did. I’m not convinced checking the charge level remotely wakes the car from a deep sleep. Your explanation about the 7% may explain the charge level variations I saw on another occasion. Thanks.

 

[GtiMart]

Yes, it does. Opening the mobile app temporarily shows the old, stale information but a call is made to fetch updated info from the Tesla servers. Currently this call wakes the car, so the Tesla server can get the updated info from the car to send it to you. Once the car is awake it can stay awake 5 minutes but it can also stay awake multiple hours. Each time you do this, you will wake the car.

When I want to get some information about my car without waking it up I look at TeslaFi. That makes sure to only call non-waking APIs when the car is sleeping.

 

[ruby110]

Yes, it does. Opening the mobile app temporarily shows the old, stale information but a call is made to fetch updated info from the Tesla servers. Currently this call wakes the car, so the Tesla server can get the updated info from the car to send it to you. Once the car is awake it can stay awake 5 minutes but it can also stay awake multiple hours. Each time you do this, you will wake the car.

When I want to get some information about my car without waking it up I look at TeslaFi. That makes sure to only call non-waking APIs when the car is sleeping.

Thanks. That probably explains why I have checked the charge level with the app and then gone out to the car shortly thereafter (for some reason) and the car didn’t look awake.