MY Battery Barely Warming Up

[Stach]

So with Fall here and Winter approaching we are getting some consistently colder days here in Wisconsin and I'm noticing a trend that the MY does not warm up the battery very quickly with temperatures in the 40's. I had a Model 3 SR+ and even on much colder days, the battery would get rid of the Regen dots pretty quickly. With temperatures like this, it would take only 10-15 minutes to get rid of all the Regen dots. However, with the MY I barely make any headway, even after a significant amount of time.

Yesterday it was 46 F here and I had been driving for over 30 minutes, and the dots still extended well past the D (as shown in the picture below). Have any other MY owners had similar experiences in the colder weather, with the battery warming up very slowly...almost not at all?

 

[MacZ]

This doesn't seem right.

I am at Toronto with current temperature around 5 or 6 degree Celsius in the morning. I remember the max dots I had so far were 6, and like you said, the dots will disappear after about 10 to 15 mins driving.

 

[Stach]

I like the sounds of what you're seeing and am hoping that my battery warmup experience isn't generally indicative of the MY heat pump. Others, please post your experiences as well.

 

[PKOttawa]

I have been seeing 8-16 dots (temp around 10 deg).. and after 30m of driving still no improvement.

 

[GtiMart]

Batteries have a great mass, they are hard to heat up. The batteries in the / and Y like to be warm... Under ~20C, you don't get full regen. While driving the motors don't generate that much heat unless you punch it, and it's the motor heat that's used to heat the battery. If you use your phone app to preheat the car before leaving, the engines will be used to generate heat for the battery. Give that 15 minutes before driving and you'll get better regen and power. You will spend energy though

 

[VikH]

I like the sounds of what you're seeing and am hoping that my battery warmup experience isn't generally indicative of the MY heat pump. Others, please post your experiences as well.

Is this with preconditioning the car? Whats your efficiency increase like?

 

[Reborn]

So with Fall here and Winter approaching we are getting some consistently colder days here in Wisconsin and I'm noticing a trend that the MY does not warm up the battery very quickly with temperatures in the 40's. I had a Model 3 SR+ and even on much colder days, the battery would get rid of the Regen dots pretty quickly. With temperatures like this, it would take only 10-15 minutes to get rid of all the Regen dots. However, with the MY I barely make any headway, even after a significant amount of time.

Yesterday it was 46 F here and I had been driving for over 30 minutes, and the dots still extended well past the D (as shown in the picture below). Have any other MY owners had similar experiences in the colder weather, with the battery warming up very slowly...almost not at all?

View attachment 600867

Wow you learn something new everyday. I didn’t even know the dots meant something. I only look out for the snow icon on the battery life

 

[Stach]

Is this with preconditioning the car? Whats your efficiency increase like?

No preconditioning, just a normal 30 minute drive in 46 F weather where my single motor on my M3 would have warmed up the battery nicely and my dual motor MY struggles to make any headway against the regen dots. I was actually hoping that with dual motors that the regen dots would disappear more quickly, but apparently that's not the case, at least when the temp is in the 40's.

 

[Ynotelectric]

I also have issues with the regen not getting that much better. I even do have the car set to precondition the cabin by a certain time, yet it still doesn't have full regen when I leave for work. My temps have been around 12C/54F. My "solid" part of the regen line normally goes to somewhere between the D and N when I leave. Driving sometimes actually reduces the amount of regen.

 

[srlawren]

Okay I apologize if this is a silly question, but I'm still in the pre-purchase process and have yet to own a Tesla of any kind. When the regen isn't available (or fully available?) like this, does that mean you're not able to do one-pedal driving? Or does it mean that you can still do one-pedal driving, but don't gain the benefit of restoring some power to the battery? Just wanting to know if you have to change your driving style in these situations or not, basically.

 

[Stach]

Okay I apologize if this is a silly question, but I'm still in the pre-purchase process and have yet to own a Tesla of any kind. When the regen isn't available (or fully available?) like this, does that mean you're not able to do one-pedal driving? Or does it mean that you can still do one-pedal driving, but don't gain the benefit of restoring some power to the battery? Just wanting to know if you have to change your driving style in these situations or not, basically.

Depending upon how many dots of regen that you lose, you will find it very difficult to do one-pedal driving as regen slows the car down very little or not at all, so your only option is to use the brake. I Love one-pedal driving, so with my Model 3 I would set it to charge for 30 minutes right before I had to leave and most, if not all, of the regen dots would disappear, even on the coldest days. However, in my very limited experience, the MY takes much more effort to warm the battery and minimize or eliminate the regen dots, but time will tell. This could also be helped by a software update I would guess.

 

[jjrandorin]

Question for OP.. since you had a model 3 SR+, does such a trim exist for model Y (I refuse to type MY since that means "mine" and not a vehicle to me)? If not, what you are experiencing could be the difference in the size of the batteries. My model 3 Performance will take approximately 20-25 miles driven at a speed of 80 MPH to get rid of all the regen dots, and it is parked in a drywalled garage that never gets lower than 45 degrees or hotter than 85 degrees at any point during the entire year.

Or, TL ; DR -- it takes almost 30 miles driven at speeds of 80 MPH for me to get rid of the regen dots on my model 3 with likely the same size battery you have in your model Y (which is completely different than the battery size you had in a model 3 SR+ so those dont compare).

 

[Matsayz]

As mentioned already, it's a bigger battery and 30mins of driving is nothing for the Model Y especially at 46*F.

Winter is coming... PRE-CONDITION your vehicle before leaving for the day. We all yelled and screamed for it, Tesla built it into the car so lets use it. You can do Scheduled Departure or Pre-condition.

Winter Driving Tips.

 

[srlawren]

@Matsayz oh okay, so if you precondition before departing, you will be less likely to be impacted by the regen not being ready/available? That's very helpful to know!

 

[Xtek]

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_y_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

Page 78 of the manual.

 

[Matsayz]

@Matsayz oh okay, so if you precondition before departing, you will be less likely to be impacted by the regen not being ready/available? That's very helpful to know!

It will help greatly. If you park in the garage then yeah it'll be pretty good, you'll still see regen dots (much less) but if it's balls cold outside then it is what it is. If you park outside then it's going to suck a good bit of energy to get up to temp but it's better than a cold car. Also, when you're range goes down the crapper because it's Winter and cold outside use your heated seats and less HVAC, the heated seats use the 12volt battery while the HVAC is powered off the big high voltage battery. Running the heat will use a good bit of energy, yes the new heat pump will help quite a bit but it's probably only good down to like 30-40*F like most heat pumps. This is the first winter we'll see the heat pump data come in so time will tell.

It should go without saying but be CAREFUL "one pedal" driving in wintery (snow/ice) conditions. AWD helps you GO, it doesn't do *sugar* to help you stop, that's what Winter tires are for and are worth every penny.

 

[srlawren]

It should go without saying but be CAREFUL "one pedal" driving in wintery (snow/ice) conditions. AWD helps you GO, it doesn't do *sugar* to help you stop, that's what Winter tires are for and are worth every penny.

@Matsayz thanks for the reply! About this part: wouldn't regenerative breaking be more likely to retain traction since it's not using the breaks as much? This may be a naive assumption, admittedly.

 

[Matsayz]

@Matsayz thanks for the reply! About this part: wouldn't regenerative breaking be more likely to retain traction since it's not using the breaks as much? This may be a naive assumption, admittedly.

I only had one winter in Colorado Springs, CO with my SR+ Model 3 and we didn’t get much snow that winter but I’m just saying be careful as I know I tend to rely a lot on one pedal driving/braking.

If it’s cold out you’ll have less regen which means less one pedal braking ability

 

[gessner17]

I have noticed this as well and I have also noticed as I drive and use *some heat* for the cabin it gets even more dots. I believe this is the cycle the hvac is using with the heat pump. It's using residual heat generated by the system (motors, electronics) to heat the cabin and not the battery. I think it will even pull heat from the battery even though the battery already cold. The only time I ever have seen mine get rid of the dots on longer trips is when i'm on route to a supercharger. In iowa we have had some cold days the last weeks and I've made a couple longer trips. This is the behavior I've seen. If you watch the heat pump detail video on youtube, you can see how this is probably the case. The heat pump seems to use waste heat before anything else and will not warm the battery up unless you're on route to the supercharger. The videos i'm referencing are here, if you haven't seen them, it will help you understand what is going on in your car. It's not a simple heat pump (air to air) it's quite complex on where it draws heat from and how it uses the heat pump.

 

[Stach]

I watched that 2 part video yesterday and it is an excellent watch for learning about how the heat pump system works in the Model Y. I started this thread because I enjoy and strive to use one-pedal driving as much as possible. WIth my Model 3 last winter I definitely preconditioned so that I could take advantage of it, but I found that I didn't need to use preconditioning at the temps that I'm now at (in the 40's). However, my new Tesla Model Y is definitely showing that preconditioning will be necessary at significantly higher temperatures and even that may not be enough, as I've watched the regen dots appear while driving, something that I never experienced with the Model 3. So basically, I'm curious hear if other Model Y owners are experiencing the same thing, since there is so little cold weather experience with this new vehicle.