On Thursday I’ll be traveling and my Y will spend the night in the subzero cold. The expected temp is forecasted to be around -20 F. I plan on having it plugged into a destination charger and will preheat and precondition before I leave. Has anyone with experience on this had any issues with the heat pump, charging or computers?? This is my second month of ownership and it spends 95% of its time in a heated parking.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Cold weather operating.
- Thread starter T.J.
- Start date
Since it is only for one night you may want to plug in and charge as soon as you arrive. The battery will be warm from driving. In the A.M. the battery will be cold, the Tesla Model Y will warm the battery and the passenger cabin when you turn on the climate control using the Tesla app, aka Preconditioning. You should plan on at least 30 minutes to precondition in the A.M. as there may be snow and ice on the vehicle, charge port that needs to melt.
Upvote
0
Thanks for the info. Still learning about the cold weather effects on operating the Y.
Upvote
0
Tam
Well-Known Member
There have been reports of Model Y heat pump issues for some. Hopefully, you'll be fine.
Recent heat pump failures - software issue?
After driving from Vancouver to Kelowna in our new Y (two weeks old), our heating failed halfway home, resulting in us having to drive 4 hours with no heat at all. Temperatures were between -5 and -7 Celcius in the car and about -20C outside. Same error message VCFRONT _a447 as other Model 3 and...
teslamotorsclub.com
Upvote
0
I have the most recent update, which, from my understanding is supposed to fix that issue. I guess it’ll be an adventure.There have been reports of Model Y heat pump issues for some. Hopefully, you'll be fine.
Recent heat pump failures - software issue?
After driving from Vancouver to Kelowna in our new Y (two weeks old), our heating failed halfway home, resulting in us having to drive 4 hours with no heat at all. Temperatures were between -5 and -7 Celcius in the car and about -20C outside. Same error message VCFRONT _a447 as other Model 3 and...
Upvote
0
Tesla (EVs in general) suck in sub-zero temps. I am in MN and drove Model 3 for three years.. I was losing 50-60% in negative temps. I followed every rule from the playbook on how to pre-condition, set at lower temp, use heated seats, schedule certain way, do this and that...
Folks here will shoot me down but no matter what, from my personal experience of driving in extreme winter conditions, I don't think Electric Vehicles are just there yet... I understand resistive heating (M3) was sucker... Heat Pumps in Y is welcome addition that will certainly help but plan on at least 25% range loss.
BTW, I sold my M3 and put in a order for Y. So, my judgement is impartial and we are talking about range loss in extreme conditions only.
Note: I see you are from the same area.. I am in EP.
Upvote
0
I went through the same exercise in Burnett County, WI (due east of Hinckley, MN) on Sunday morning with a 2022 Y. Roughly the same temperature. It warmed up fast (15-20 minutes), but power consumption was really high until maybe -4 or -5. Then things got much better - at least relatively.
Plugged in to a 32 amp outlet I did lose a few % of the battery to get up to temperature. The car is about the same sound volume as an ICE vehicle while warming up at that temperature.
I agree with the 50% range loss at that temperature, even with the heat pump.
Upvote
0
Rshephorse
Member
Tesla does say to not leave in in temperatures below -22° F for a day... I'm assuming that means that the battery gets that cold for a day. If it is plugged in and you charge slowly and then preheat.... the battery will prob stay fairly warm. 45 minutes to precondition. Scanmytesla shows that the battery seems to heat up into the high 50's but not much more. It seems like last winter I could precondition the battery all they way up to 70 degrees- being able to do so really increases the efficiency on medium to short drives.
Upvote
0
Any chance you’re in Plattsburgh, NY? I used to live across the lake in Colchester, VT.
I’d be real surprised if the battery can hold 50 or 70 F at -20 while driving. On Saturday I couldn’t get the cabin to hold 70F with the heat running at full blast
In -13F weather. The upper cabin was fine, but my legs and feet were cold. I could feel the cold radiating from the doors and floor.
This isn’t an EV only thing. I’ve had ICE cars that I needed to put cardboard in front of the radiator on to get the cabin to stay at a reasonable temperature in sub zero temps, but that’s not been the case in 25+ years on an ICE car.
It *may* be possible to get the battery that warm during pre-conditioning, but I’d bet it won’t hold that temp while driving in -20F, and you’ll burn a lot of power to get it there in the first place, just to loose the added heat when you start driving. I bet you lose most of the battery precondition in the first 5 miles are these temperatures.
Both times I pre-conditioned in double digit sub zero weather last weekend I lost between 3-5% SOC while plugged in to a 7.6 KW outlet, and has been plugged in all day and night before.
My personal experience is double digit subzero weather is a very different experience with a Tesla Y than 30F, 20F, 10F, or 0F weather is.
On a side note, Tesla seat and steering wheel heaters are second to none. They are the most responsive I’ve ever experienced.
Upvote
0
We have had our 3 for nearly three years, been driving in -10F weather the last 2 days. Yes there is a huge range hit on short trips but if you continue driving after everything is warmed up and stable the car is just as good as any ICE car. My Ford Escape also takes a huge range hit in these temps (more trips to the stinky gas station). The key is to always keep your car plugged in when parked at home and pre-condition before leaving.
Upvote
0
I left from my heated parking, preconditioned and charged to 95%. Initially my Wh/per mile was around 290. As I drove in the -8 degree air, the efficiency dropped to around 340 after an hour and was around 425 towards to end of my trip. I think my usage averaged around 390 for the 140 mile drive. I ended the drive at 18%. As I've seen written many times and understand, stating and viewing range as miles is totally useless in cold conditions. I figured that I could drive on average around 2 miles per percent of battery and that was at 60 miles per hour. I drove the return trip, starting with a 97% charge and ended with 25%. It charged outside overnight at -22, was heated and preconditioned for 45 minutes. During the preconditioning, I charged from 95 to 97% over the 45 minutes attached to a Tesla Destination Charger 10KW. I set the cabin for 68 degrees and didn’t use the seat or steering wheel heat nor did I have to use defrost. My drive out had around a 10 miles per hour headwind so that may have accounted for the slightly higher usage plus I drove the return at 55 instead of 60 for most of the trip. I watched the power usage closely and did notice the efficiency drop significantly when I tried to use the defrost. I did play with the speed and looked at usage while driving at 60 and it didn’t seem to lose much efficiency. I do drive pretty smooth and really don’t push the car hard. Hard acceleration has a big effect on range. At more normal temps my Wh/ per mile is usually around 280.
After an hour of driving, my windshield wipers started to activated when driving using TACC. A major annoyance and this was due to a small accumulation of frost inside the glass in front of the forward camera. There was nothing I could due to remedy the situation as defrost used a lot of energy and there is no way to select off. I tried to drive with it on low but it’s distracting. The TACC and auto wiper issue is a failure of technology in my opinion. My wife’s 2019 Explorer has adaptive cruise and collision warning with auto braking and Ford doesn’t need the wipers active. I think Tesla has put way too much emphasis on FSD and bypassed tweaking the features that truly need to work well. The Threat Avoidance and Collision Warning System still needs some significant work to fix the Phantom Braking on Two Lane roads.
This was my first time driving on a longer trip in the extreme cold. My range anxiety was very high. Now that I’ve done it, I feel more comfortable knowing what to expect. I love my Y and its a great EV but this technology has a long way to go for those living in the cold climates in rural areas with limited access to fast DC charging. I live in the city so not a big deal to me. For those on this forum that complain about EV rated range performance. Hard acceleration and faster speeds are the killer of efficiency. All that is magnified in the cold.
After an hour of driving, my windshield wipers started to activated when driving using TACC. A major annoyance and this was due to a small accumulation of frost inside the glass in front of the forward camera. There was nothing I could due to remedy the situation as defrost used a lot of energy and there is no way to select off. I tried to drive with it on low but it’s distracting. The TACC and auto wiper issue is a failure of technology in my opinion. My wife’s 2019 Explorer has adaptive cruise and collision warning with auto braking and Ford doesn’t need the wipers active. I think Tesla has put way too much emphasis on FSD and bypassed tweaking the features that truly need to work well. The Threat Avoidance and Collision Warning System still needs some significant work to fix the Phantom Braking on Two Lane roads.
This was my first time driving on a longer trip in the extreme cold. My range anxiety was very high. Now that I’ve done it, I feel more comfortable knowing what to expect. I love my Y and its a great EV but this technology has a long way to go for those living in the cold climates in rural areas with limited access to fast DC charging. I live in the city so not a big deal to me. For those on this forum that complain about EV rated range performance. Hard acceleration and faster speeds are the killer of efficiency. All that is magnified in the cold.
Upvote
0
Similar threads
