Driving a MY in winter conditions

[Mullermn]

This is not about doors freezing/range reduction or any of that stuff. I wanted to get experiences and tips from people who are used to driving MY (and EVs more generally) in snow/winter conditions to see if there are any tips to be had.

Having had the car ~10 days yesterday was my first try. We have the stock Hankook tyres, and we were driving while the snow was still fairly fresh. I live in a semi rural part of the UK and we had snow much heavier than forecast so there was no pre-emptive gritting by the council.

I put acceleration in chill mode, pondered putting it in 'roll' as my understanding is that this reduces the regen and makes it easier to slow more gently, but decided against it because I've spent the whole time driving in 'hold' and I thought bad conditions might not be the best time to experiment. I did not put it in off-road assist, largely because I forgot, but also wasn't really expecting the snow to be quite as heavy as it was.

We made it up and down some fairly steep hills - on one of which I think the traction control was working fairly hard. We kept moving at a steady pace but there was a lot of judder/buzzing type sensation. It took me a while to twig that that was probably traction control because it felt a bit different than it does in an ICE car.

We did have an issue coming down a fairly steep hill. We were only going about 10 mph but the car slid for a fair distance with no effect from the brakes. I stopped it by slowly manually pulsing the brake in the end, then we thought better of the journey and left the car on a verge at the bottom of the road and walked home.

TBH I was a bit disappointed with how well it did as most reviews online say the Y is very capable in snow. I'm assuming this is because the stock tyres prioritise low rolling resistance above all else and are basically anti-winter tyres. I might look in to getting CrossClimates back on the Tesla as I had on my previous car.

Anyone have any useful experiences or tips on Telsa/EV driving in snow to share? Would off road assist have helped in my 'sliding down hill' scenario or is it only good for gaining traction to move off?

PS. Sentry mode is very handy for working out whether your car is retrievable yet!

 

[MrBadger]

Put tyres on more suitable for winter driving.

 

[M1tch]

It’s all in the tyres. I swapped mine recently and the difference is night and day.

 

[MashinBenzin]

Yep. All about the tyres. I had Nokian winter tyres on a RWD 3-series back when we had some serious winters in 2010-2012 and that was incredible in snow.

The Tesla was pretty iffy in 1 or 2cm here yesterday, but that’s purely down to the tyres, would be the same in any car of similar weight and contact patch on summer tyres.

On the all-seasons - I had them on my two Discoveries and, whilst they did not see serious snow, they never felt as infallible in icy conditions as that 3-series on proper winter compound rubber. If you never want to change tyres, run all-seasons, if you’re going for autumn and spring swaps then go full winter.

 

[Casss]

Joining the choir: tyres. Nothing drives well in snow and ice on summer tyres. Especially ones that are 255 section (let's just put that into perspective for a moment, these are fat tyres. This is becoming less uncommon with high torque EV SUV's and hybrids, but the point still stands, they're the same width as the front tyres on a Lamborghini Aventador S - just in case that helps you look at this differently.).

Additional point: I think a lot of people forget that you can put the car in Neutral whilst moving if you don't want to deal with balancing regen on the go pedal. Just another 'tool' in your arsenal - this can be useful in some scenarios, especially if you're not comfortable where the rolling point is on the throttle between regen and punting yourself through a hedgerow.

Also: put some snow socks or fabric chains (like the Michelin easy grip evo) in the boot for this time of year - can ensure you get home for rare scenarios. There are some hills that you won't even get up or down safely on a particular day with the best snow tyres going.

 

[Mullermn]

Yep, I think some socks for this year and changing to all season tyres before next winter is probably the plan.

On my previous car I had a second set of cheap alloys with full winter tyres on and I used to swap them over each year but then I had kids and the 2x Saturday mornings a year became too precious to waste swapping wheels and we stopped driving in to the mountains for fun anyway.

 

[Lord Farquad]

100% tyre issues you’re having. You need all season or winter tyres in the conditions your talking about.

 

[Doudeau]

For those who have already switched to all season tyres for a Y (apologies for using Y thread when I have a 3 ) - what have you chosen to do with your old tyres (which must be in good condition)? It doesn’t make sense to me to switch them like you would with winter tyres but accept I might be wrong.

I thought my PS4s would be coming to end of life but, I’ve just measured, and 3 out of 4 have 4.8mm+ across the width. It feels wasteful to just dump them.

 

[Adopado]

I put acceleration in chill mode, pondered putting it in 'roll' as my understanding is that this reduces the regen and makes it easier to slow more gently, but decided against it because I've spent the whole time driving in 'hold' and I thought bad conditions might not be the best time to experiment. I did not put it in off-road assist, largely because I forgot, but also wasn't really expecting the snow to be quite as heavy as it was.

I'm in my fourth winter with a Model 3 ... I can't think the Y is likely to be much different and benefits from higher ride height. My SR+ is RWD only so if you are AWD you already have some advantage. I have found the traction control to be excellent, though I do use winter tyres (we are in a rural area with many small roads with sharp corners and significant gradients). Despite only being RWD I have seen that I have a clear advantage even in comparison to serious 4x4 trucks if they are on standard tyres. If you are used to CrossClimates then standard tyres of any brand are going to be noticeably more slippery!

Using "Hold" works well and I can't see any advantage to "Roll". I am yet to find a situation where "slip start" works better than just letting the traction control do its thing (using a gentle pedal and also bearing in mind I have winter tyres ... so your mileage may vary). "off road assist" is a Model Y feature so I can't comment on that. Clearly some parts of the country have had some particularly slippery conditions in the last couple of days ... sometimes you can have more (different quality) snow yet have more grip (even on standard tyres). Just looking at the news tonight show cars just sliding off the road and simply not responding to the helm no matter what ... "sliding down the hill" is only going to be managed with appropriate tyres! Scary conditions. Winter driving benefits from a very light touch in any vehicle of course so if you drive with gentle inputs the traction control interventions will be reduced. The 2 way operation of the accelerator in "one pedal driving" is something you will find that you become increasingly adept at ... the gradual feathering when backing off or when applying acceleration inevitably becomes more refined over the early period of ownership.

 

[WllXM]

For those who have already switched to all season tyres for a Y (apologies for using Y thread when I have a 3 ) - what have you chosen to do with your old tyres (which must be in good condition)? It doesn’t make sense to me to switch them like you would with winter tyres but accept I might be wrong.

I thought my PS4s would be coming to end of life but, I’ve just measured, and 3 out of 4 have 4.8mm+ across the width. It feels wasteful to just dump them.

My opinion would be to squeeze the life remaining in your summer by switching the all seasons back in March... essentially treating them as winter tyres, and therefore, preserving the life of your new pair a tad bit longer...

 

[WllXM]

Also: put some snow socks or fabric chains (like the Michelin easy grip evo) in the boot for this time of year - can ensure you get home for rare scenarios. There are some hills that you won't even get up or down safely on a particular day with the best snow tyres going.

How would you rate driving with socks on summer tyres vs naked winter tyres?

Also on the topic of Traction Control, my understanding is that it is actually NOT your friend when driving on snow, and that you're much better of using Off-Road Assist which essentially 'disable' traction control and balance 50/50 Front/Rear? If I read the Tesla Manual correctly

• Off-Road Assist is designed to provide overall improvements when driving off-road. In addition to allowing the wheels to spin, Off-Road Assist balances the torque between the front and rear motors to optimize traction. Off-Road Assist improves traction on rough and soft surfaces where one side of the vehicle may lose traction while the other side still has traction. When Off-Road Assist is on, the accelerator pedal provides more gradual torque, which is useful for crawling at low speeds (for example, over rocky surfaces). When enabled, OFF-ROAD displays on the touchscreen above the driving speed.

After the circumstances that required you to turn on Slip Start or Off-Road Assist have passed, it is strongly recommended that you turn the setting off to re-enable traction control. If you leave these settings on, Traction Control automatically re-enables on your next drive.


When you turn on Slip Start or Off-Road Assist, the touchscreen displays an indicator light to indicate that the traction control system is no longer preventing wheel slip.

 

[Casss]

How would you rate driving with socks on summer tyres vs naked winter tyres?

If they’re good socks they’re much better for deep snow and ice than any naked tyre (apart from studded tyres) in my experience. The downside is you really can’t do more than 30-35mph on socks and you need to take them off when the snow / ice isn’t completely covering the road.

 

[Adopado]

Also on the topic of Traction Control, my understanding is that it is actually NOT your friend when driving on snow, and that you're much better of using Off-Road Assist which essentially 'disable' traction control and balance 50/50 Front/Rear? If I read the Tesla Manual correctly

Traction control is indeed your friend! Off-road assist absolutely uses traction control ... it just varies the algorithm to better suit off road driving ... in the way described in the manual. The algorithm also actually varies automatically (certainly in the 3 so you can bet for the Y also) when in standard driving mode. If it detects snow slippage it temporarily shifts into a 50/50 power mode for the AWD cars. (Normally the AWD cars mostly use the rear motor whenever possible ... adding in the front when necessary.)

 

[MrBadger]

Also on the topic of Traction Control, my understanding is that it is actually NOT your friend when driving on snow, and that you're much better of using Off-Road Assist which essentially 'disable' traction control and balance 50/50 Front/Rear? If I read the Tesla Manual correctly

I can’t say for Tesla driving but previous experience of my 2WD ICE on summer tyres in fresh falling snow on ungritted roads echoes this.

We have a very steep hill very close by and one particular afternoon snow started falling unexpectedly. I had to make a quick mercy dash otherwise I would not have bothered to drive.

A relatively busy road that was there had attempted but failed. I tried then failed as traction control bogged down as there was zero traction so it effectively cut power to wheels.

I took a second attempt this time traction/stability control turned off. Car squirmed up the hill but I could control the power with right foot so made it to the top.

I know not all traction/stability control is equal (not really sure on scale of traction <•> stability where mine is) but my right foot was certainly superior in that situation as it actually allowed me to slip the wheels enough to keep moving forward rather than 0 slip/0 traction.

But this may be different for different cars/situations. Moment up hill, traction/stability control turned back on.

 

[Adopado]

A relatively busy road that was there had attempted but failed. I tried then failed as traction control bogged down as there was zero traction so it effectively cut power to wheels.

I took a second attempt this time traction/stability control turned off. Car squirmed up the hill but I could control the power with right foot so made it to the top.

I know not all traction/stability control is equal (not really sure on scale of traction <•> stability where mine is) but my right foot was certainly superior in that situation as it actually allowed me to slip the wheels enough to keep moving forward rather than 0 slip/0 traction.

That's the idea of the "slip start" setting ... allows the wheels to spin. (Using winter tyres there always seems to be enough traction for the traction control to work usefully without using that setting, but it may well be the case that on standard tyres the spinning of the wheels is the better option.)

 

[boombap]

Traction control is indeed your friend! Off-road assist absolutely uses traction control ... it just varies the algorithm to better suit off road driving ... in the way described in the manual. The algorithm also actually varies automatically (certainly in the 3 so you can bet for the Y also) when in standard driving mode. If it detects snow slippage it temporarily shifts into a 50/50 power mode for the AWD cars. (Normally the AWD cars mostly use the rear motor whenever possible ... adding in the front when necessary.)

Can confirm.
Was out in that little blizzard last night, front wheels pulled me out of a few drifts around the corners.
First one was almost a brown pants moment, mainly because I’m trading it for a Y next week, enjoyed the next couple a little bit.
The stock Pilot Sport 4 is actually an amazing tyre, obviously gonna suck a bit in 10 cm of snow but overall I was impressed how the car handled, I didn’t feel unsafe once. Wouldn't do it again by choice though.

 

[CMPT PAD]

 

[gt2690b]

I have blizzaks on my awd y with about 10k miles on them so probably have lost a lot of their original stickiness in snow

Yesterday I lost the back end throttling a bit too hard on some slick single digit snow / ice going about 50 mph.. was able to gain back control before hitting anyone or anything but I turned on chill mode and drove like a grandma after that

Be careful out there