Road trips below -20C

[Allx]

Wondering how others are doing with longer highway drives in ON and QC lately , i just had -20 for a large part of a 14h drive (later part was -29) . My car doesn’t have a heat pump (2018 p3d-) and I’m guessing that’s why I’m seeing close to half the efficiency . Tried to turn heating off and just keep the heated seat but windows started becoming a problem real fast.

The car handled tte conditions fine, no weirdness with starting , traction, steering and even regen did fine and that’s what ive become accustomed to , I’m just a little surprised at how short the legs have to be between superchargers . Could make things tricky as the battery ages.

Are things much better with a heat pump ?

 

[Lon12]

We drove Calgary to Vancouver this week. The first half was -20ºC. I do have the heat pump. It worked fine. But I do notice that it seems the trip planner does not account properly for how much power is needed to preheat the battery to +55ºC. After selecting a SuperCharger in the Nav, the predictions drop around 7 to 10%. I normally depart a charger when it says my next stop will have 20% remaining. This time I bumped it up to 30% and we seemed to get there close to my usual 20%.

 

[BitJam]

I’m just a little surprised at how short the legs have to be between superchargers . Could make things tricky as the battery ages.

EVinsulate sells products (for the 3 and Y) that can cut your wintertime range loss in half. IMO if Teslas were designed and built in Canada then these things would be standard equipment.

 

[Randy-12]

I’m wondering how far I can go in these temps. My car 2022 Model 3 Rwd with the LFP battery.

Yesterday left my garage at 97% drove 16 km’s and parked. Got in the car and came home after cold soaking the car for 10 hours. Got home at 60%. In the summer I get home at 92% so quite the drop.

Just wondering if I would have driven it instead of parking and cold soaking if the millage would have been better.

 

[Allx]

I’m wondering how far I can go in these temps. My car 2022 Model 3 Rwd with the LFP battery.

Yesterday left my garage at 97% drove 16 km’s and parked. Got in the car and came home after cold soaking the car for 10 hours. Got home at 60%. In the summer I get home at 92% so quite the drop.

Just wondering if I would have driven it instead of parking and cold soaking if the millage would have been better.

I’m not sure . Many things affect efficiency (sentry, heating etc) I think lfp are a less cold resistant.
One thing is for sure . After seeing what happens at v2 superchargers last night @ -29C , I’ll definitely think twice about taking a 850k trip in severe weather.
Long story short, wait times at supercharger compound things because preconditioning wears off (waiting 1h plus in such temps really messes with the charger choreography).

 

[Allx]

We drove Calgary to Vancouver this week. The first half was -20ºC. I do have the heat pump. It worked fine. But I do notice that it seems the trip planner does not account properly for how much power is needed to preheat the battery to +55ºC. After selecting a SuperCharger in the Nav, the predictions drop around 7 to 10%. I normally depart a charger when it says my next stop will have 20% remaining. This time I bumped it up to 30% and we seemed to get there close to my usual 20%.

Sounds more predictable , thanks for the insight

 

[Lon12]

I’m not sure . Many things affect efficiency (sentry, heating etc) I think lfp are a less cold resistant.
One thing is for sure . After seeing what happens at v2 superchargers last night @ -29C , I’ll definitely think twice about taking a 850k trip in severe weather.
Long story short, wait times at supercharger compound things because preconditioning wears off (waiting 1h plus in such temps really messes with the charger choreography).

I have the S3XY buttons which lets me turn on the preconditioning and monitor the battery temperature. Helps when you want to use non Tesla chargers.

 

[Allx]

I have the S3XY buttons which lets me turn on the preconditioning and monitor the battery temperature. Helps when you want to use non Tesla chargers.

As in supercharger preconditioning or just cabin and battery cond for driving ? If it’s SC preconditioning that’s great news !

 

[Lon12]

As in supercharger preconditioning or just cabin and battery cond for driving ? If it’s SC preconditioning that’s great news !

Yes. SuperCharger preconditioning feature. Before that I would have to fool it to think I was going to a SC close by.

 

[Allx]

Yes. SuperCharger preconditioning feature. Before that I would have to fool it to think I was going to a SC close by.

Wow, that’s major news (beat Tesla to it too) , do you get to see precisely how warm the battery gets ? should be approx 45-50 C if it’s in line with what preconditioning does on road trips , correct ?

 

[Lon12]

Wow, that’s major news (beat Tesla to it too) , do you get to see precisely how warm the battery gets ? should be approx 45-50 C if it’s in line with what preconditioning does on road trips , correct ?

Yes. Not as much information as Scan My Tesla but enough to get by. Here is a screen shot of us going towards a Chademo unit. I had turned on battery precondition about 37 minutes away and it was almost warm enough for fast charging. I didn't see the battery warming message when we started charging. Outside air was around +6ºC. The "Prec." icon in the upper left corner shows that we are preconditioning. Also the front stator temperature indicates it is being used to heat the battery. Rear stator doesn't normally run that hot either.

 

[wayner]

What software is giving you that data?

 

[Lon12]

What software is giving you that data?

S3XY buttons ‎S3XY Buttons - Tesla Shortcuts

 

[wayner]

Ok, but it looks like you have to buy a special hardware unit to use this - it can't just use the Tesla API.

 

[richyrich]

What speeds were you doing? I find it worth paying extra attention to your speed at those temps lest you get the double whamming of non-ideal speeds and the cold.

 

[Lon12]

What speeds were you doing? I find it worth paying extra attention to your speed at those temps lest you get the double whamming of non-ideal speeds and the cold.

You can see in the picture 120 km/h

 

[richyrich]

You can see in the picture 120 km/h

Is that the average? Max? Point in time? Doesn’t seem to say, which isn’t super helpful is it?

 

[TrevTremaine]

Wondering how others are doing with longer highway drives in ON and QC lately , i just had -20 for a large part of a 14h drive (later part was -29) . My car doesn’t have a heat pump (2018 p3d-) and I’m guessing that’s why I’m seeing close to half the efficiency . Tried to turn heating off and just keep the heated seat but windows started becoming a problem real fast.

The car handled tte conditions fine, no weirdness with starting , traction, steering and even regen did fine and that’s what ive become accustomed to , I’m just a little surprised at how short the legs have to be between superchargers . Could make things tricky as the battery ages.

Are things much better with a heat pump ?

Mixed bag in my opinion. It's generally better IF the car is preheated while using the wall connector and it's had time to warm up the pack. I've had a couple of trips where it was not attached to any chargers while away (so the pack was essentially cold soaked) and got even worse than 50% losses. Thankfully, there was a Supercharger within the leftover range. On the one notable trip, I used 150km of range for a touch over 50kms of driving around Barrie, Ontario on Christmas Eve. I believe the temperatures were around -10C for the evening. On longer trips, however, the heat pump does seem to do better - it's the process of optimizing the pack that I think kills the range along with the cabin heating. Perhaps part of it might be the added consumption due to other factors as well - running through snow, hilly situations, slightly higher highway speeds.

 

[Lon12]

Is that the average? Max? Point in time? Doesn’t seem to say, which isn’t super helpful is it?

That is the speed limit on that leg. So I would say average.

 

[richyrich]

That is the speed limit on that leg. So I would say average.

OK, well I'd say that's getting up into problem territory if you care about efficiency. None of us want to crawl around but I find 115 is around the sweet spot after which it really takes a nosedive. Add in some chilly temps and it's a double-whammy. Routes I do (Mtl -> TO -> Ottawa) are well covered with SCs so I don't have to worry about it any time of year but I would if going out into the stix.