Hey guys! Long time lurker, new owner here! I took delivery of my Model 3 stealth about 2 weeks ago. I LOVE the car! It's absolutely fantastic! I don't know why I held off so long in pulling the trigger!
So I live in NE South Dakota. Winter and cold weather is very much a big concern here. I did lots of research on range loss and how to minimize loss in the winter time. I understand the 3 does not have the dedicated battery heater like the X and S do. From everything that I read it seems the best method is to make sure that the car either finishes charging right as it's time to leave, or to raise the charge limit before leaving. This will heat up the battery pack. Also to make sure and preheat the cabin extensively while plugged into shore power. No big deal. I can handle that.
So yesterday we decided to take a little road trip in the car. See how it does in crappier weather and see how the whole supercharging thing works. All that stuff. It was about 45 degree's outside and the wind was really blowing! About 25 to 30 mph! My garage is insulated, but not heated. So about an hour and a half before leaving I raised the charge limit from 90 to 100 percent. A half hour before leaving I started preheating the cabin. Figured I should be good to go. Jump in the car and take off, and I still have very limited regen. Maybe 50 percent. Thought, ok, no big deal. I just didn't charge long enough to warm it up fully. So we drove about 110 miles. Had full regen by the time I had gone 15 miles. Got to our first Supercharger, plugged in, and walked to nearest place to grab some lunch. Finished eating and car was almost done charging (certainly had plenty to make it to the next destination) and jumped in the car and left. Even after supercharging for about 30 minutes, I had limited regen on battery. I guess I would have thought that a Supercharger going into a warm battery would have been enough to keep it warm? So I'm kind of confused on how it all works. Just want to make sure I fully understand all the systems before winter really sets in here and it gets really cold.
So I live in NE South Dakota. Winter and cold weather is very much a big concern here. I did lots of research on range loss and how to minimize loss in the winter time. I understand the 3 does not have the dedicated battery heater like the X and S do. From everything that I read it seems the best method is to make sure that the car either finishes charging right as it's time to leave, or to raise the charge limit before leaving. This will heat up the battery pack. Also to make sure and preheat the cabin extensively while plugged into shore power. No big deal. I can handle that.
So yesterday we decided to take a little road trip in the car. See how it does in crappier weather and see how the whole supercharging thing works. All that stuff. It was about 45 degree's outside and the wind was really blowing! About 25 to 30 mph! My garage is insulated, but not heated. So about an hour and a half before leaving I raised the charge limit from 90 to 100 percent. A half hour before leaving I started preheating the cabin. Figured I should be good to go. Jump in the car and take off, and I still have very limited regen. Maybe 50 percent. Thought, ok, no big deal. I just didn't charge long enough to warm it up fully. So we drove about 110 miles. Had full regen by the time I had gone 15 miles. Got to our first Supercharger, plugged in, and walked to nearest place to grab some lunch. Finished eating and car was almost done charging (certainly had plenty to make it to the next destination) and jumped in the car and left. Even after supercharging for about 30 minutes, I had limited regen on battery. I guess I would have thought that a Supercharger going into a warm battery would have been enough to keep it warm? So I'm kind of confused on how it all works. Just want to make sure I fully understand all the systems before winter really sets in here and it gets really cold.
