Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Data on Cold Weather Range Decrease

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Is there any compiled data on range loss at various temperatures? I've read some horror stories about significant range loss when its cold, and I'm trying to understand what is normal. I'm waiting on my MY and want to better understand what the range limitations will be next winter for road trips.

On abetterrouteplanner, a roughly 3 hour hypothetical road trip shows arrival at 18% at 68 degrees F and 12% at 10 degrees F. This seems like a pretty modest loss of range, and doesn't reflect some of the stories I've read on forums.

Has anyone compiled data from owners based on various range availability at different temperatures to try to get a better sense of range loss?
 
Here is the data from my car.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20200209-193423.png
    Screenshot_20200209-193423.png
    326.7 KB · Views: 201
Here’s mine. Efficiency percentages are against the EPA rating, so in the cold 50% means my car is consuming twice as much power as usual.
I would recommend using at least Drives over 5 Miles as your selection since the first 5 miles of any drive in the cold (unless you are using Range Mode in an S) are the worst, and you don't need the efficiency for short drives.

My data for > 5 mile and > 10 mile drives are VERY similar.
 
Last edited:
I don't have graphs to back it up, but these are all spot on.

I live in Michigan and I've lost 40% battery range during the depths of winter, with a headwind. Now that's the worse case scenario. The Supercharger network has really expanded and they are well situated for trips outside your local area.
 
I would recommend using at least Drives over 5 Miles as your selection since the first 5 miles of any drive in the cold (unless you are using Range Mode in an S) are the worst, and you don't need the efficiency for short drives.

My data for > 5 mile and > 10 mile drives are VERY similar.

Attached! Very few of my drives are less than 5 mi, so it's not that far off.
 

Attachments

  • temperature.php.pdf
    86.8 KB · Views: 62
Winter I use 60% for efficiency in abetterrouteplanner for longer trips with 20% arrival just to be sure. I could probably do better with range mode and pre-heating/chill driving.
ABR has a temperature setting you can use.

You can see from my data that it has to be below 0F to have efficiency below 70% so you might be a little conservative (especially on the 20% arrival) but everyone has to pick their own comfort level.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamstationP85D
I would recommend using at least Drives over 5 Miles as your selection since the first 5 miles of any drive in the cold (unless you are using Range Mode in an S) are the worst, and you don't need the efficiency for short drives.

My data for > 5 mile and > 10 mile drives are VERY similar.

For me the difference between 1, 5, and 10 mi is minimal. Attached my 10mi data.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20200209-210425.png
    Screenshot_20200209-210425.png
    321.9 KB · Views: 125
  • Informative
Reactions: hcdavis3
I don't have fancy graphs for you, but I do have gleanings from a good ol' logbook.

First, most important point: Don't look at the forecast for the day and read the high. Take the low from the previous day or from current day's evening as appropriate. This is more representative of the state of your battery temperature (assuming it's parked outside and/or you are travelling in the morning/evening rather than the warmest part of the day).

As you probably know, generating heat for the cabin is the main result of efficiency loss in Winter. Something to keep in mind is that moving slow while heating the cabin will generally require more power for heat than if you travelled faster, since you will get to your destination slower and thus be heating it for longer. I'm not advocating to move faster in poor conditions, just to be aware of what you will use if you need to go slower.

My best example of this was in -10°C (14°F) going just over 60km/h (almost 40mph) took double the normal energy, aligning with the 50% efficiency loss others have noted above. In colder temperatures (-20°C, -4°F) I could travel faster (90km/h, 56mph) with "only" about 40-45% efficiency loss. A full day of on/off city driving would certainly be worse than 50% loss, but I'm not sure by how much.

At about freezing (0°C, 32°F) I get about 30% loss in both city and highway driving, and at +10°C (50°F) I can see about 20% loss as well. For us, 30-35% is typical for what we get in Winter (dancing around the freezing point most days).

The absolute worst thing is short hops multiple times per day separated by many hours which cools things down. This requires a lot of heat pumped into the car that isn't put to much use. A pizza delivery driver on a slow Monday shift might be better off driving an efficient gas vehicle, for example (in terms of $/km).

This forum previously led me to believe "30% at absolute worst" before we got the car, I'm glad to see people have become a bit more realistic of just how much Winter can hurt the range. 30% is more like the average if you see anything that resembles freezing temperatures or snow.

Note about graphed results from third party services: Not all of these include the power used to preheat your car. If you preheat without being plugged in, you're still using that energy whether the service (or car) counts it or not. Preheating uses even more power due to a recent update which will aggressively warm the battery pack to provide regen as well. In addition, things like standby usage for Sentry really start to matter since every percent capacity gets precious, so you'll be more aware of that.

For my LR AWD, this is now my process for Winter:
  • Try to keep between 20% and 80% for maximum battery health. This gives for 60% usable capacity, or about 300km rated range (186mi).
  • Assume half efficiency if it's cold or slow going (which will give some of the buffer for preheat, standby losses, etc.). This brings my 300km rated usable range to about 150km effectively (93mi).
  • If more range is needed, use 10-90% which will effectively give 200km (124mi).

120km is what we need the car to do every day at a minimum, so an LR normally rated for 500km turns out to be absolutely necessary in our case.
 
30% is pretty standard. However, driving habits and the usage of cabin heat are the biggest variables. If you go 70+mph you're going to guzzle power. I've experimented a lot in my first winter of owning the car. If I'm on a short trip I drive like a maniac and blast the heat. On long trips I turn into a hyper-miler. If it's a sunny day in the winter you don't need to use the cabin heat very much. The use of the heat really makes/breaks a long trip.
 
Are the heat pumps being discussed here different than air-air heat pumps people use in their home. Because having lived with them years ago I would never want a heat pump unless it had an some sort backup heat source like electrical resistance heating for below freezing weather.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: SSedan
Are the heat pumps being discussed here different than air-air heat pumps people use in their home. Because having lived with them years ago I would never want a heat pump unless it had an some sort backup heat source like electrical resistance heating for below freezing weather.

The backup heat source would be the motors themselves. Think Model 3 battery heating and dump that heat into the evaporator side of the heat pump system.
 
The backup heat source would be the motors themselves. Think Model 3 battery heating and dump that heat into the evaporator side of the heat pump system.

Aren't they already using that heat to warm the batteries? Is there an abundance of excess heat from the motors to do both? And how does that work at low motor usage. Ex. low speeds, stop and go, parked waiting for kids in school pickup.
 
Aren't they already using that heat to warm the batteries? Is there an abundance of excess heat from the motors to do both? And how does that work at low motor usage. Ex. low speeds, stop and go, parked waiting for kids in school pickup.

The batter heats up prior to supercharging. That heat is then dumped through the radiator after supercharging. If it could be used to make the cabin heating more efficient by connecting the evaporator loop to the battery, that’s an efficiency increase.

The motors can be commanded to produce 3.5 kW of heat each at any time, regardless of driving conditions. That heat can be dumped into the evaporator and transferred to the cabin in extremely cold conditions where the heat pump wouldn’t be able to provide sufficient output in air-source mode.