We were in Mont Tremblant, PQ, a couple of weeks ago. Overnight / morning temperatures were -27 degrees celsius. Two other cars were charging at the time. I tried to add a bit of charge to the battery, but charging was extremely sporadic. The screen seemed to flicker between charging and not charging. Waited until the temperature rose to -17 degrees. Everything worked fine. Just wondering if this is supposed to happen. Thanks.
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Difficulties charging at below -30 Celsius
- Thread starter Darcy Santor
- Start date
It takes a little while to "warm" up the battery in order to charge normally. Maybe this is what you experienced. I charged fine in those conditions (in a garage though).
In my model S I had to charge on a level 2 for a little bit before it would charge normally at the supercharger when the battery was really cold.
In my model S I had to charge on a level 2 for a little bit before it would charge normally at the supercharger when the battery was really cold.
That sounds like normal behavior to me. There is a warning in the owner's manual to not expose the car to temperatures under -30C if at all possible. Completely independent of charging. I'm not a battery expert but If I were you, I would try wait until the temperature warmed up a little before attempting to charge (if possible; keeping in mind that having a very low state of charge at those temps is even worse). I've had hybrids before and at temps in the -25C range they would completely isolate the battery and you could only drive using the engine. I believe at -35C the car was rendered completely inoperable until it could be warmed. Be interesting to know if there is a temp low enough where the Tesla battery manager would restrict charging completely???
Had the exact same thing happen in Northern Michigan a year ago, on my 2017 Model S ... I did check with Tesla service at the time... They did explain it as normal... The Battery heater must kick on to warm the battery to a level that it can start excepting the charge... in my case the battery pack was registered at -20 F.... it took ~ 1 hour for the battery pack to warm up, to accept a 30 minute charge... everything started running normal when the the battery pack was warm..
Yup, I hit the -25C in Montreal as well during the same time, completely normal. Car's main objective is to maintain the battery at the optimal temperature before it charges, just like everyone wrote. Battery life / limit permanent battery damage > charging.
Highly recommend to always keep your car plugged during winter so it uses the current to keep the battery warm, even if not charging (I plug my car daily and run it with 8A slow charging, 70% charged by the time I leave in the morning)
Highly recommend to always keep your car plugged during winter so it uses the current to keep the battery warm, even if not charging (I plug my car daily and run it with 8A slow charging, 70% charged by the time I leave in the morning)
Rojer Lockless
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