Phatom Drain when Cold

[byan1232]

Hey guys,

I park my MS in my condo garage, which even though has a roof, the there are no outside walls. This means that temperatures in the garage level are the same as outside. It's been conisistently 15-20F and I've noticed phatom drain is a lot more now. I was wondering if this has to do with the cold or there are some issues with my battery?

 

[Spyder14]

It's the cold. Are you plugged in overnight? I just had to have my 12 volt battery replaced & they blamed it on the weather.

 

[jaguar36]

Yep, its the cold. The car will try to keep the battery at a certain temperature if it gets cold enough out.

 

[spooky981]

You should also take whatever your rated mileage is and chop 20% off to be safe. Range is reduced considerably when its really cold out.

 

[Kenriko]

Cold should cut about 20%ish from the range. It's also a good idea to keep plugged in so the battery pack does not need to use juice to keep itself warm.

 

[siteexperts]

The cold absolutely kills my range. Past week it was ~20-30 degrees and I was getting ~45% of my rated range with energy usage consistently above >500kw/hour. At those temperatures, I barely make it over 100 miles with a 90% charge on my P85D. I have range mode enabled and am just running errrands (not driving it like a race car).

I've learned the rated range (in Seattle area) is pretty much meaningless and even in nice weather only expect 80% or so of the target.

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

The cold absolutely kills my range. Past week it was ~20-30 degrees and I was getting ~45% of my rated range with energy usage consistently above >500kw/hour. At those temperatures, I barely make it over 100 miles with a 90% charge on my P85D. I have range mode enabled and am just running errrands (not driving it like a race car).

I've learned the rated range (in Seattle area) is pretty much meaningless and even in nice weather only expect 80% or so of the target.

I'm starting to realize this with our X as well but only when temps are closer to 15 and lower... I really hope they find a way to better insulate the battery in the near future as this will affect a lot of their customers

 

[mrElbe]

Make sure when plugged in, range mode is disabled or battery will not be warmed.

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

The cold absolutely kills my range. Past week it was ~20-30 degrees and I was getting ~45% of my rated range with energy usage consistently above >500kw/hour. At those temperatures, I barely make it over 100 miles with a 90% charge on my P85D. I have range mode enabled and am just running errrands (not driving it like a race car).

I've learned the rated range (in Seattle area) is pretty much meaningless and even in nice weather only expect 80% or so of the target.

Also out of curiosity what temp are you heating your car to when driving it and are you using heated seats? I also go to my settings and turn on power saving mode for my display and uncheck the box for always connected. This makes sure the vehicle is completely off unless I wake it from the app or am driving. Only annoying part is it's slower to connect from the app

 

[DrivingTheFuture]

Make sure when plugged in, range mode is disabled or battery will not be warmed.

Why is this?

 

[Kenriko]

The cold absolutely kills my range. Past week it was ~20-30 degrees and I was getting ~45% of my rated range with energy usage consistently above >500kw/hour. At those temperatures, I barely make it over 100 miles with a 90% charge on my P85D. I have range mode enabled and am just running errrands (not driving it like a race car).

I've learned the rated range (in Seattle area) is pretty much meaningless and even in nice weather only expect 80% or so of the target.

Small trips will make the hit you take much worse then a single long trip since the battery will be losing heat while you shop etc. I would like to note that ICE cars also have the issue of decreased efficiency when cold however once the engine gets to temp (which is way higher then a battery) it retains a lot of that heat since it's a big block of metal.

 

[byan1232]

So I have been "preheating" my car 30 mins before getting in it. However, my regent is is very limited. My preheat process is turning the heat all the way up with the app.

Shouldn't I be at full regen with preheating? Or will I never be at full regen at these temperatures?

 

[JClu]

My preheat process is turning the heat all the way up with the app.

Shouldn't I be at full regen with preheating? Or will I never be at full regen at these temperatures?

"Turning the heat all the way up" is telling the car to heat the cabin, but it doesn't increase the rate of battery heating (assuming Range Mode is off).

If you plug your car in overnight, the other way of heating up the battery more (and thus increasing the regen) is set the charge time closer to the time you are leaving in the morning. As you may know the battery needs to be at a certain temperature to receive charge, so programming the charge time closer to the morning ensures the battery is warmer. Despite all these, it's still unlikely you'll get full regen in cold climates.

So far this winter (first winter with the S), the only time I got full regen when the weather is cold is when I SuperCharge (probably took about 15 min of SC).

 

[mknox]

It's been conisistently 15-20F and I've noticed phatom drain is a lot more now. I was wondering if this has to do with the cold or there are some issues with my battery?

Doubt it has to do with the cold. I am on my 5th winter with my Model S and have never seen my car's pack heater come on while sitting, even at temps much colder than that. I am experiencing higher phantom drain myself, but it is consistent summer and winter. I even had Tesla look at it, but they said they could find nothing wrong (I lose about 5% SOC every 24 hours).

It could point to a weak 12v battery that has to top itself up from the main pack more frequently (which it will do while sitting), however, I just had my 12v replaced and it did not improve things for me at all.

Of course your winter range will drop precipitously in the cold when you do set out as a result of the energy consumed by the pack and cabin heaters.