Snowflake battery symbol

[Adopado]

Moderator comment - thread renamed from "First snowflake battery symbol since ..."

It dropped below freezing here overnight ... (far inland and 850ft above sea level). I got the battery snowflake symbol for the first time for a long time. I mention this for owners who have not gone through a cold weather season yet. There's nothing to freak out about but it just lets you know the battery cannot immediately use all of its power. The battery will naturally warm back up with driving and the symbol will disappear. The other thing is that you may think you've lost a couple of percent of charge (or some range in miles depending on what you have showing on screen) before you've even gone anywhere... but...once the battery warms up you will get that range/percentage returned to you.

On mornings like this you will, of course, also get the "reduced regen" message for a while .. again that eventually goes away. If you get your stopwatch out you will measure some loss of max performance, up until everything warms up. These mornings are when those who are plugged into shore power will set the climate to on using the app if they have an early morning departure. Warms the battery as well as the cabin. You can do it without being plugged in but obviously it's going to eat into the juice.

Short journeys are going to start showing as less efficient than in the summer but don't panic too much if you have a long journey because these are much less affected.

 

[LukeUK]

Over the last 5 days or so I've had my first experiences of "keep speed below 70/65/60 mph in order to reach your destination" or similar, for drives that would have been completely fine a week or 10 days ago. Same journey, same initial SoC, lower ambient/battery temperature.

As above, the forecast improves as the drive progresses, but there still looks to be an effect.

 

[Dilly]

No snowflake indication here, just a strong cold wind full of rain. Got the regen message. It’s should also say “PS turn the seat heater on”

 

[Adopado]

As above, the forecast improves as the drive progresses, but there still looks to be an effect.

Indeed, there's definitely an effect... just not as extreme as some might fear.

 

[Medved_77]

Saw this for the first time this morning:

 

[RichOB]

Saw this for the first time this morning:

View attachment 592438

How did you get your car to display without the Aero caps?

 

[webbah]

Wait for it.... The flood of newb posts in winter creating new threads with titles like "why is my range dropping so much!!! Degradation is killing my battery!"

 

[Medved_77]

How did you get your car to display without the Aero caps?

It's a configuration option under wheels on the cars computer. That then propagates to the app.

Now I just need an option to tell it I have chrome delete...

 

[M3noob]

Wait for it.... The flood of newb posts in winter creating new threads with titles like "why is my range dropping so much!!! Degradation is killing my battery!"

Perhaps a gentle reminder to use the search function to maintain the community signal to noise ratio?

 

[Alistairuk]

Had it this morning also... -1 at 8am when I went to goto the park for my run!!! It’s really a different experience without regen, I’m slowly getting used to it’s total unpredictability when slowing down!

 

[Adopado]

Wait for it.... The flood of newb posts in winter creating new threads with titles like "why is my range dropping so much!!! Degradation is killing my battery!"

Yes ... amazingly mine survived last winter, is past its birthday now and last week I did a 50% trip that, if doubled, represented a range that beats the "unachievable" WLTP figure of my SR+ when new! Easy roads and calm driving of course but it does add a bit of reassurance! Degradation ... pah ...

 

[DJP31]

Saw this for the first time this morning:

View attachment 592438

Eek I would be fretting at that level of charge in low temperatures. Did the car not prompt you to plug in before you left it?

 

[Medved_77]

Eek I would be fretting at that level of charge in low temperatures. Did the car not prompt you to plug in before you left it?

It did warn when I parked up at night with 18% charge but not due to temperature.

Had just done a 3hr drive to a house with no type 2 and had 2 kids to take care of. Didn't want to setup the UMC nor wait around at a public charger so thought it'd be fine to charge it the next day.

Was aware I'd lose a bit of battery overnight due to temperature and still had plenty to get me to the public charger today. Wouldn't make a habit of it but hopefully it's not terrible for the battery on occasion.

 

[DJP31]

Wouldn't make a habit of it but hopefully it's not terrible for the battery on occasion

I don’t think it would do any harm at all, it’s more the loss of range when you start the next drive. Sounds like you had it covered though.

Not sure if it’s the same on the 3 but I don’t think at that SoC the main pack supports the 12v, so that’s more likely to be a potential issue than damaging the pack. Again, not if it’s an infrequent event though.

I’m just getting ready for the winter tyre, what do the dotted lines mean and where’s all my range gone posts

 

[Adopado]

Was aware I'd lose a bit of battery overnight due to temperature and still had plenty to get me to the public charger today. Wouldn't make a habit of it but hopefully it's not terrible for the battery on occasion.

You get most of that that "lost" percentage back when the battery warms up ... I would think that an odd occasion will make little difference to the health of the pack ... much like charging to 100% ... not first choice but not a disaster if not repeated too often.

 

[DJP31]

You get most of that that "lost" percentage back when the battery warms up ...

Providing you can drive far enough for the battery to warm up enough. I recall a post a couple of years ago from a chap who’d parked at his daughter’s with 10 miles left.

When he returned to the car the pack had cooled further and he had 7 left. Didn’t think it would be a problem as home was only 4 miles away. He didn’t make it.

OT but that’s one reason I choose %, it doesn’t make the car go any further but I’d never leave my phone on a really low % and don’t want to be lulled into a fall sense of security by believing 10 miles = 10 miles.

 

[Rustybkts]

How did you get your car to display without the Aero caps?

Follow @Medved_77 advice to select the wheel type in the car and if your wheels vanish on the App, make sure the App is up to date.

 

[Rustybkts]

Providing you can drive far enough for the battery to warm up enough. I recall a post a couple of years ago from a chap who’d parked at his daughter’s with 10 miles left.

When he returned to the car the pack had cooled further and he had 7 left. Didn’t think it would be a problem as home was only 4 miles away. He didn’t make it.

OT but that’s one reason I choose %, it doesn’t make the car go any further but I’d never leave my phone on a really low % and don’t want to be lulled into a fall sense of security by believing 10 miles = 10 miles.

I reached home after a bum twitching 24 mile drive with 24 miles remaining. It displayed 7 miles as I parked after a hypermiling cruise and I plugged in to charge overnight.
Later checked and it had 0 miles so gave it an hours worth of premium fuel to protect the cells.

 

[mrobins64495]

Moderator comment - thread merged from "It’s cold!"

Anyone have an idea of what the blue on the battery means, other than it’s cold?

I’ve also noticed my maximum battery capacity is now only 91% that’s a record low for me for a full charge.

 

[Louis0w]

Yes, the blue portion indicates that part of your battery’s capacity is being made unavailable due to it being cold. It is returned when the battery warms up either by driving, preheating or charging. The % shown refers to your ‘available’ energy; the green portion.