Slow-motions videos of 85D on packed snow - couple of runs with Range Mode, etc

[llavalle]

With the snow we had in the past couple of days, I decided to do a couple of acceleration runs on packed snow and film them using my Nexus 6P (240fps). Video is played at 24fps, so this is 10x slow motion.

My car is a Tesla Model S 85D equipped with the base wheels and Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 (non-studded) in 245-45-19


First pass is with range mode on
2nd pass is with range mode off
3rd pass is with range mode off and slip start on

Last pass, I hit full throttle when in front of the camera. Range mode was OFF and Slip Start was off.

If you pump the volume, you can hear the motors / inverters modulating their output.

Couple of things I noticed :

1-With range mode, the car seems to be a bit slower to adjust power bias between front and back. This is barely perceptible when driving but is clear in the video (front wheels spins a bit before the back kicks in which make sense since I have the same motor in front and back, this is not a P)

2-Slip start does not have much effect... I believe it uses the G sensors of the car and since I had plenty of traction (the Nokian R2 are really nice on packed snow!), it had barely any effect. The car was spinning a bit more (look at the snow that's been thrown by the tires in the 2nd vs 3rd run) but it's not like it was cutting power with the setting disabled (like it does on bare ice)

3-Driving on packed snow does incur a penalty on range. At -12C, I usually average 200-205 Wh/km on this route and the Nokians, Range Mode and the HVAC at 18C. With the snow, it was more like 225-230.

Enjoy

 

[hobbes]

Very cool, thanks! How does the car feel under those conditions (especially compared to other cars)?

 

[llavalle]

Very cool, thanks! How does the car feel under those conditions (especially compared to other cars)?

I can only compare it to what I've driven extensively before : Subaru Legacy & Volvo S60 T6 AWD.

Positive :
-0-100kph is very fast. This compares with my Volvo. People are quite surprised at the grip you can get in snow...
-Traction control is very nice, does not feel like it's lifting the throttle when slipping (like the Subaru). My Volvo's TC was comparable when in Sport mode
-Cornering was tight as my Volvo... meaning very good for the weight of the car
-Even after 200km+ in snow, the radar was working A1! The front camera was useless because road markings were obscured or low contrast (because salt on the road makes the pavement gray)

Minus :
-Stopping a 2000+kg car is not easy, even if you have great tires... but at least the ABS works A1 and is non-obstructive
-Feeling regen being "disabled" when on ice feels weird. I was expecting a gradual curve but it felt like 1 second I had full regen then, on a small patch of ice, the car would stop regen completely to avoid slip... probably safer that way.
-Those wheel wells are VERY tight.. they were completely packed with ice after the 200km+ run and they would rub like crazy when turning left and right.
-Windshield defrost (cold package) for the wipers is crap. It's just hot enough to melt the snow and you're left with 2 perfectly frozen wipers..

Improvements :
-I would be VERY NICE to be able to disable Stability Control (yaw corrections)... that would make very nice drifts. Because of the long wheel base, car feels solid in corner, when drifting. My Volvo was the same : cannot disable YAW assist. The subaru was nicer in that way.
-When I left my cottage house the next day, car was covered in ice. I got MANY warnings about park-assist, blind spot, etc etc. Ding-Ding-Ding.. it was kind of annoying, especially when slowing down and the parking sensors would get triggered. There should be a quick way to put everything off in these kind of temperature.


Oh yeah, and first time since I got the car, regen completely disabled because of cold weather and very low power limits! For some reason the blue on the battery line was not there (on the main screen either) so I guess it needs to get colder than -12C for it to trigger.

 

[hobbes]

-0-100kph is very fast. This compares with my Volvo. People are quite surprised at the grip you can get in snow...
-Traction control is very nice, does not feel like it's lifting the throttle when slipping (like the Subaru). My Volvo's TC was comparable when in Sport mode
-Cornering was tight as my Volvo... meaning very good for the weight of the car

So basically: The Model S performs as well as a very good ICE vehicle, but not significantly better, right?

-Those wheel wells are VERY tight.. they were completely packed with ice after the 200km+ run and they would rub like crazy when turning left and right.
-Windshield defrost (cold package) for the wipers is crap. It's just hot enough to melt the snow and you're left with 2 perfectly frozen wipers.

Looking at your footer, it appears you don´t have active air suspension - do you think that might help if you put it into the highest setting?

I wonder what the windshield defrost setting is supposed to do - I would guess just keeping the nozzle from freezing, but not defrosting the whole windshield?! That would have to be taken care of by the anti-freeze fluid added to the wiper water. Was it better in your other cars?

 

[llavalle]

So basically: The Model S performs as well as a very good ICE vehicle, but not significantly better, right?

Very good AWD ICE vs D, yeah, pretty much the same driving wise. But on the Tesla you get almost instant heat and preconditioning with the app(similar to remote start but works inside too)

Looking at your footer, it appears you don´t have active air suspension - do you think that might help if you put it into the highest setting?

I wonder what the windshield defrost setting is supposed to do - I would guess just keeping the nozzle from freezing, but not defrosting the whole windshield?! That would have to be taken care of by the anti-freeze fluid added to the wiper water. Was it better in your other cars?

I do have air suspension. The problem is that once you hit 35kph, it goes from Very High to High. At 55kph, from High to Normal. So it's only useful when going slow... Not extended driving.

As for the defrost, they are positioned just under the wipers blades. The heated nozzles are not linked to that toggle. I had the same thing on ma Subaru and they worked very well. The Tesla is really bad at this, especially since you can't lift the blades from their resting position, they hit the hood. You can put them in Service Mode from the 17in screen but that simply stop them mid way and even then, they can only be lifter 15degrees or so : no way to sort of clip them in the up position, you have to hold them up in the air with one hand and scrape the ice with the other one...

 

[jerry33]

You can put them in Service Mode from the 17in screen but that simply stop them mid way and even then, they can only be lifter 15degrees or so : no way to sort of clip them in the up position, you have to hold them up in the air with one hand and scrape the ice with the other one...

I solved this problem by putting a strip of wide cling wrap over the wipers when parking. This keeps the channel clear and makes scraping the rest much easier.

 

[Lon12]

I solved this problem by putting a strip of wide cling wrap over the wipers when parking. This keeps the channel clear and makes scraping the rest much easier.

I've never seen that done before. Interesting idea. Can you show pictures of how much you use?