Cold Battery, No Regen, Not Fun

[DanDi58]

Agreed. The other reason to precondition is simply for comfort - it’s really nice to come out to a warm car! If you’re interested in saving as much energy as possible then just get in and drive like you said. Ultimately, driving in the wintertime takes more energy, no matter what you do.

Personally, I do as you suggest - I start to precondition 5-10 minutes before I go out to the car. Doesn’t use a ton of energy but it’s a nice compromise.

I do that as well. And frankly, I've grown so used to - and like - driving the car with regen, I no longer charge the car to 100% prior to a trip. 95% still gets me some regen and doesn't really make a difference in terms of where and when I have to stop and charge.

 

[STS-134]

I agree with the above. Tesla should simulate the regen feel using friction when battery is cold so the user experience is consistent.

Why not just actually regen and then dump the energy into stalling the drive units to heat up the battery? That's at least 7 kW of regen right there. You can get a little bit more if you run the small resistive cabin heaters that are apparently present even on the heat pump system.

Then again, we've seen how Tesla screwed up the software control for the heat pump to the extent that it was causing damage to the heat pump itself. Do you REALLY want them adding more complexity to the software just for the sake of having regen for the first 2-3 miles of driving?

 

[tangible1]

It’s a shame regen can’t be used to generate heat instead of charge the battery when it is too cold…

wow....even more plumbing, coolant, and complication to require maintenance if not repair.
first you heat the motor, to then heat the batteries. sounds efficient....umm, no.
the car works pretty well as is.

 

[sleepydoc]

Why not just actually regen and then dump the energy into stalling the drive units to heat up the battery? That's at least 7 kW of regen right there. You can get a little bit more if you run the small resistive cabin heaters that are apparently present even on the heat pump system.

Then again, we've seen how Tesla screwed up the software control for the heat pump to the extent that it was causing damage to the heat pump itself. Do you REALLY want them adding more complexity to the software just for the sake of having regen for the first 2-3 miles of driving?

wow....even more plumbing, coolant, and complication to require maintenance if not repair.
first you heat the motor, to then heat the batteries. sounds efficient....umm, no.
the car works pretty well as is.

See @GtiMart ’s post above. Tesla does use the energy, but that only takes 10% of the potential energy generated.

And yes, all that hardware already exists - Tesla have thermal management systems for the batteries. If you don’t You have issues like the Mustang Mach E has with its battery overheating.

 

[GtiMart]

You can't use the same motor to regen and heat at the same time. The back regens, the front spends 3-3.5kW to heat. So the back can regen that 3.5 plus roughly what the car is spending elsewhere. It can't do more, see the laws of conservation of energy for a primer if necessary

 

[mswlogo]

Agreed. The other reason to precondition is simply for comfort - it’s really nice to come out to a warm car! If you’re interested in saving as much energy as possible then just get in and drive like you said. Ultimately, driving in the wintertime takes more energy, no matter what you do.

Personally, I do as you suggest - I start to precondition 5-10 minutes before I go out to the car. Doesn’t use a ton of energy but it’s a nice compromise.

With my non heat pump Model 3 and non heat Pump X they warm up in 5 minutes. They warm up so much faster than ICE cars I don’t bother with it. I used to I occasionally warm up my ICE.

I understand the heat pumps might be a little slower.

Most useful “precondition” use case is to melt snow ice and frozen door handles/windows. Not to warm my butt faster.

 

[STS-134]

With my non heat pump Model 3 and non heat Pump X they warm up in 5 minutes. They warm up so much faster than ICE cars I don’t bother with it. I used to I occasionally warm up my ICE.

I understand the heat pumps might be a little slower.

Given that the heating starts as soon as you open the doors, this is a complete non issue.

 

[mswlogo]

Given that the heating starts as soon as you open the doors, this is a complete non issue.

Right. But I shut my heat off when I get out.
I’m constantly packing and unpacking my car for our get away. Putting stuff in it that needs to go there or go back. Not a normal use pattern. But it was using up a lot.

Not to mention many hours testing V1Driver