Oh what a difference 40 degrees F makes.

[TokyoRush]

Having similar issues - and also too many variables to really pinpoint anything. My "normal" consumption has been about 320 or so and in the last week it has gone to 365 or 370. But... the temp in New England has crashed, I've updated to 5.8, and I had recently moved over to my snow tires. Hard really to say.

Now topping 23,000 miles since Febrary, though, and still a thrill to drive every time.

 

[teslasguy]

Imo...


99%


1%

I'd have to agree with Brian here. Even though my energy consumption has jumped quite a bit since 5.8, the cold weather has also come to town, and I know from first hand experience from last winter that cold weather does indeed take a pretty heavy toll. I was one of the #teslaroadtrip guys last winter, and between the cold weather and poor rolling resistance of my Bridgestone's the 200 mile stretch from Newark, De to Milford, Conn. was indeed a stretch for me. Much closer than I like to cut it. And I've ridden with Brian, and I'd take money that if he were driving my car in that event we wouldn't have made it! ;-/

 

[notailpipe2112]

"Single Use" Range Charge - I have a feature suggestion, but I also had my first proper cold weather (-7 degree) degree road trip yesterday in Ontario and my results were as follows:

- normally - 225 actual KM roadtrip that I usually do by leaving with a 300 km standard charge, drive whatever speed I want (ie, 120-125 km/h), and arrive with 50-70 kms remaining.
- yesterday - same 225 actual KM roadtrip leaving with 306 km partial range charge, driving 100 km/hour, heat set at a cool 18 degree in the blue front defrost mode, and arrived with 27 km remaining.

In short, the bitter -7 with some wind on the 401 really had an effect on the range. I'm not surprised by the result given my experience with the car since March, but it was more of a fresh reminder.

My point here on this thread is related, but different. I find myself doing 'partial range' changes quite a bit as the weather gets colder. That means I follow best practice and only switch to range charge 30 minutes before I leave and I only use it to add about 10-20 km to the 'tank'. The problem is that I keep forgetting to shut off the range mode after I complete my charge. The result is that I range charge, do my trip, get home, plug in my car, go to bed, then get up to find my car fully range charged unintentionally. I then either need to take it for a quick drive to burn off the excess, or open the windows and turn the heater full blast to burn it off to minimize any harm to my battery. Either way, I wish there was a really easy way to set a 'single use' range charge that would automatically turn the car back to a default of "Standard Charge' after having done a single intended partial/full Range Charge. Would anyone else second the creation of this feature?

 

[Doug_G]

That's how the Roadster works. Every time you open the charge port it defaults back to Standard charge mode.

- - - Updated - - -

99%

I hate to agree with brianman :wink:, but the effects of cold weather on power consumption are quite dramatic, and are to be expected. The same thing happens with ICE cars, except we typically don't notice because we don't meter the fuel that accurately.

 

[Chipper]

I think this particular thread is about the impact of cold weather on the car...not the debate on the 5.8 software ....let's keep this thread on point

Sorry :redface:

 

[notailpipe2112]

"That's how the Roadster works. Every time you open the charge port it defaults back to Standard charge mode." - really makes you wonder why they wouldn't do this with the Model S. I predict there are more than a few cold weather owners like us that will be doing more than a few range charges this winter, and end up doing unintended range charges. Maybe word will spread back to Tesla HQ about adding this feature.

 

[JOEV1]

Hi Guys and Gals,
Certainly interesting to follow this thread.
First point: "the A/C comes on by itself" This... in most cars is by design and it is called De-fogging (the wind screen)
Defrosting becomes necessary when de-fogging was not done right!!!

De-fogging means to lower the humidity inside the car by using the AC together with the heater.
It is a simple but very effective principle: By turning on the heating AND the AC simultaneously, the warmed air (by the heating) can pick-up more humidity inside the car.
Now it will pass the cool evaporator (because AC is switched on) and will condense. As a result, there will be water collecting & draining from the evaporator just like from a cool drink in summer
A misty window can be dry in seconds. (and if it is dry, no icing will occur)

Second, in winter when the temperatures are lower, the tyre pressure drops. And this will increase the roll-resistance considerably.
So... checking and correcting the Tyre pressure will give You better milage.

 

[brianman]

And I've ridden with Brian, and I'd take money that if he were driving my car in that event we wouldn't have made it! ;-/

Heh. It depends. If I'm in Jerry mode (it's meant as a compliment) I can do some pretty decent range stretching. But normally I try to be in fun mode whenever range is a non-issue.

 

[jerry33]

I understand the scientific method.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to call into question your abilities. I was trying to explain why there isn't a lot (or any) real data--it's just plain hard to get. I don't disagree that it may turn out to be not a big deal. However, I think the folks who have experienced handling change might be on to something more important.

 

[ZBB]

"That's how the Roadster works. Every time you open the charge port it defaults back to Standard charge mode." - really makes you wonder why they wouldn't do this with the Model S. I predict there are more than a few cold weather owners like us that will be doing more than a few range charges this winter, and end up doing unintended range charges. Maybe word will spread back to Tesla HQ about adding this feature.

The Model S gives warnings on the screen after the 2nd consecutive range charge... I think that is sufficient and friendlier...

 

[Electric1]

Hopefully, they can figure out were the air leak is. It feels like its coming from the little triangle window.

Don't know your build date, but mine's Feb and I had what sounds like the same leak and they really were unable to address it. Warm weather cured it, but I fear it will be back when our weather gets colder.

 

[notailpipe2112]

The Model S gives warnings on the screen after the 2nd consecutive range charge... I think that is sufficient and friendlier...

ZBB - I'm going to try to restate my use case here as I believe this warning you described wouldn't help me, but I certainly might be wrong, so here are the steps that happen for me, and they have happened a few times:

1. My car is at 90% prior to my trip, so I use to app to put it to Range and leave it for about 30 minutes. This completes a partial range charge that adds about 20-30 km to my battery. This is a wintertime-only thing I'm doing to add a little buffer/battery conditioning for my trip.
2. After the 30 minutes is up, I unplug my car, jump in and drive about 225 kms.
3. When I get to my destination, it is usually late, I'm tired and just plug in the car at my cottage as usual and all is good.
4. I wake up in the morning to find that, dammit, the car went to range charge overnight and now it is fully 100%. The problem is that at this point it is the morning on a Saturday and I have no plans to go anywhere but watch cartoons with my kids. I usually either have to take the car for a quick spin, or roll down the window and turn the heater on high for an hour. This gets it back down to 90%.

So unless I am misunderstanding the point of a message warning AFTER a 2nd consecutive range charge, I'm looking for a message/reminder after the FIRST range charge that says something soon as I start driving in step #2 like 'Your car is still set in Range charge mode. Did you want to keep it there?'. This warning would remind me to shut it off right then and there.

What do you think?

 

[cinergi]

Liz are the new hankook's Tesla's? Or something you chose and added? We've seen tires make a really big difference -- I'm just not sure of the current Tesla tire offerings to know.

 

[jerry33]

I'm looking for a message/reminder after the FIRST range charge that says something soon as I start driving in step #2 like 'Your car is still set in Range charge mode. Did you want to keep it there?'. This warning would remind me to shut it off right then and there.

What do you think?

It's a good idea, but the way I remember is to set the charging level as soon as I get in the car before driving.

 

[ZBB]

What do you think?

I guess you wouldn't trigger the warning...

 

[Liz G]

Liz are the new hankook's Tesla's? Or something you chose and added? We've seen tires make a really big difference -- I'm just not sure of the current Tesla tire offerings to know.

We ordered them from Tirerack.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't know your build date, but mine's Feb and I had what sounds like the same leak and they really were unable to address it. Warm weather cured it, but I fear it will be back when our weather gets colder.

My car was built last Dec. Hopefully they will be able to find the problem.

 

[cinergi]

We ordered them from Tirerack.

There's a strong possibility this is a large part of your problem. Low-rolling-resistance tires (for which there's no standard measurement from what I understand) are really important for the Model S to achieve it's rated range. Another member here was road-tripping with a group of other Model S's and was consistently getting something like 25 miles less range per charge by running non-standard tires.

 

[mknox]

Low-rolling-resistance tires (for which there's no standard measurement from what I understand) are really important for the Model S to achieve it's rated range.

That was a big part in my decision to go with the Nokian Hakka R2's. They are "ultra low rolling resistance" (their words) and have pretty good traction scores. So far, I have noticed no energy consumption penalty at all. I used to notice about a 2 MPG penalty with Goodyear winter tires on my ICE car.

 

[Al Sherman]

That was a big part in my decision to go with the Nokian Hakka R2's. They are "ultra low rolling resistance" (their words) and have pretty good traction scores. So far, I have noticed no energy consumption penalty at all. I used to notice about a 2 MPG penalty with Goodyear winter tires on my ICE car.

I can second that on the Nokian Hakka R2's. After about 800 miles the energy use is quite good considering they're snow tires. They're pretty squishy in warm weather but they're snow tires so this is expected. No experience with contaminated roads since we haven't had any decent bad weather here yet to test. However, after maybe a 200 mile "break in" and road temps getting colder I can definitely say that the handling has improved.

 

[Cottonwood]

That was a big part in my decision to go with the Nokian Hakka R2's. They are "ultra low rolling resistance" (their words) and have pretty good traction scores. So far, I have noticed no energy consumption penalty at all. I used to notice about a 2 MPG penalty with Goodyear winter tires on my ICE car.

I have the Haka 7, studded tires on my MS. These were one of the factory choices last winter. If I had it to do over, I would buy the Haka R2's. The 7's are nice, but i've learned to hate studded tires. For the 5% of the winter driving time that they have a slight advantage over studless, there is a huge noise factor and an annoying loss of traction on dry pavement.

I call them my "rice crispy" tires for the noise that you always hear below 50 kph (30 mph) with the quiet MS.