Too cold to start

[bijan]

Apparently the Bolt EV with a cold soaked battery can get too cold to start and requires plugging in or preconditioning. This happens at -30C from what I have read online.

At the same time I think Tesla manual says not to leave car parked outside below -30c or is it -40c long term?

Anyone have experience with -30c and does car start normally? Not that I'm going to get that in Oakville... But at least theoretically possible when I'm visiting montreal.

 

[Doug_G]

Never had a problem.

 

[duanra]

It is bellow -30c for more than 24h.

 

[SSedan]

I don't think I have seen quite -30c since getting this car, it can get that cold here. I have seen below -25c.

Plug it in as much as possible, remote preheat, preheat aggressively while plugged in. Warming the car off battery power will put a big hit on range.

Battery chills enough to limit regen quickly but takes quite some time to actually chill to ambient temperature.

 

[CyberShy]

Only once have I ever encountered the “performance reduced” warning and that was parking at work for 10 hours when it was in the single digits all day. The regen limit line was also on the dash. About 7 minutes on the freeway and the battery had warmed enough for full regen.

-30c is pretty much the lower limit for the battery tech in the Bolt.

 

[1Step2NoGas]

Observations in Ottawa this morning after last night's low of -23ºC

Conditions
- Both cars left unplugged overnight (simply forgot to plug one in)
- No garage or carport, just snow-covered driveway
- EVSE (Flo Home G5, J1772 plug only, mounted on outside wall) is shared 'cause Leaf came first

Observations
- 30kWh Leaf, left overnight at ~95% SoC, sent txt msg stating battery heater was turned on at ~6am
- msg indicated that I should plug in the car
- current SoC (2pm) is 86% and Leaf is still not plugged in

- LR M3, left overnight ~42% SoC, no messages at all
- checked phone app at ~10am and battery showed 37% SoC (+ snowflake symbol)
- set interior to 26ºC for 25 mins (minimize chance of frozen charge port, door handles, etc)
- didn't notice anything worse than normal winter stuff (frozen door handles)
- after entering car, noticed dots on both sides of power meter line (no regen at all & battery power at ~50%)
- car drove as normal (have to back out and reverse car into driveway in order to reach EVSE cord)
- charge port opened without any incident/noise/messages, charging set to 90% at 30A (7 kW) using J1772+adapter

EVSE cord was very stiff (expected). Carefully didn't force the cord to do anything other than minimum twist/turn required to get the plug+adapter into Tesla port.

Just sharing that car charging outside in dead of winter is ok (so far). Weather forecast is for 3 consecutive days of bitter cold so will report back at the end with more info.

 

[S'toon]

 

[Ledge]

Had the car outside all night at -32C, and had no issues starting out this morning. Though I did break a personal record for average energy usage on the way to work...

 

[ricohman]

Had the car outside all night at -32C, and had no issues starting out this morning. Though I did break a personal record for average energy usage on the way to work...

This is very interesting to me. It's -36 right now and SK is a miserable place in the winter.
Do you think sitting outside permanently and plugging to 110v is enough? Is a 300km trip possible?
Where are you located?

 

[Dax279]

I think the manual says at -30 cel for more than 24 hours make sure you plug it in. Everyone should check that and be sure to follow the suggestion. For me when it gets that cold and I am driving around or going shopping for long portions of time I have never had an issue and was thankful for preheat from app.

 

[brkaus]

I think the manual says at -30 cel for more than 24 hours make sure you plug it in. Everyone should check that and be sure to follow the suggestion. For me when it gets that cold and I am driving around or going shopping for long portions of time I have never had an issue and was thankful for preheat from app.

I’m thankful for preheat from the app when it’s 40 degrees F. I cannot even imagine the temps you are discussing. You’re a very strong person!

 

[Kuhz]

This is very interesting to me. It's -36 right now and SK is a miserable place in the winter.
Do you think sitting outside permanently and plugging to 110v is enough? Is a 300km trip possible?
Where are you located?

That 110 will barely cover keeping the battery warm but anything is better than nothing.

 

[Ledge]

This is very interesting to me. It's -36 right now and SK is a miserable place in the winter.
Do you think sitting outside permanently and plugging to 110v is enough? Is a 300km trip possible?
Where are you located?

120v/15A plug won't be enough when the temps go below -25. On one of the -30 nights here in Winnipeg I plugged into a 120v/15A plug from 11pm to 9am, and in that time I only charged 4%. Even at a 65% state of charge, the car was saying it would take 24h+ to get up to the 80% limit I had set. The vast majority of the power from the charger was going to the battery heater to keep the battery temp in the charging range. I also have a 240v/60A charger and that has no trouble at all charging in the winter. Only about 10% slower at -30C than at +20C.

Most -30 nights I just leave the car unplugged, unless I end the day at <25% charge.

A 300km trip is probably doable, however you'd be doing it with coats on and no seat heaters. 200km, even 250km would leave a much better margin of error. On the highway at -25C with heat on, the energy usage for me usually averages down to around 280-320Wh/km. Assuming the worst, 320Wh/km gives you 312km of range on a 100kWh battery, which puts a 300km trip with no charging too close for comfort.

For the moment I'm resigned to the fact the Tesla stays in the province for the winter. Down to around -15C, we've gone to the cabin and back (~320km round trip) and that's really pushing it. Once the superchargers are up in Brandon/Moosomin I'd have no problem taking the car to Regina at -30C, however for the moment those longer trips are done on gas.

 

[ricohman]

120v/15A plug won't be enough when the temps go below -25. On one of the -30 nights here in Winnipeg I plugged into a 120v/15A plug from 11pm to 9am, and in that time I only charged 4%. Even at a 65% state of charge, the car was saying it would take 24h+ to get up to the 80% limit I had set. The vast majority of the power from the charger was going to the battery heater to keep the battery temp in the charging range. I also have a 240v/60A charger and that has no trouble at all charging in the winter. Only about 10% slower at -30C than at +20C.

Most -30 nights I just leave the car unplugged, unless I end the day at <25% charge.

A 300km trip is probably doable, however you'd be doing it with coats on and no seat heaters. 200km, even 250km would leave a much better margin of error. On the highway at -25C with heat on, the energy usage for me usually averages down to around 280-320Wh/km. Assuming the worst, 320Wh/km gives you 312km of range on a 100kWh battery, which puts a 300km trip with no charging too close for comfort.

For the moment I'm resigned to the fact the Tesla stays in the province for the winter. Down to around -15C, we've gone to the cabin and back (~320km round trip) and that's really pushing it. Once the superchargers are up in Brandon/Moosomin I'd have no problem taking the car to Regina at -30C, however for the moment those longer trips are done on gas.

That is the most info I've yet read on this forum. I live north east of Regina. I have a diesel truck and others to drive in the depths of winter.
I think at -30 to 40 it should make a run to the city and back which would be around 180km. The biggest problems are the deep ruts in the ice on country roads. But then the old Focus bangs around on those roads also.

 

[iMoe]

To make sure that new/potential owners
are informed correctly only the Model S/X have a battery heater. Not sure what the trick is for Model 3 as I'm currently sipping a Piña Colada with an umbrella in balmy Vancouver.
I assume one option is to plug the car and run the cabin heater with slow to no charging? Not ideal and not sure if necessary until you start going lower than -20C.

I wish TB had a Model 3 to test in Norway.

 

[ricohman]

To make sure that new/potential owners
are informed correctly only the Model S/X have a battery heater. Not sure what the trick is for Model 3 as I'm currently sipping a Piña Colada with an umbrella in balmy Vancouver.
I assume one option is to plug the car and run the cabin heater with slow to no charging? Not ideal and not sure if necessary until you start going lower than -20C.

I wish TB had a Model 3 to test in Norway.

I called the Calgary centre and they assured me there was a battery heater.
I don't understand why they would skip that on a car that is sure to see more worldwide usage?

 

[bijan]

I called the Calgary centre and they assured me there was a battery heater.
I don't understand why they would skip that on a car that is sure to see more worldwide usage?

From what I have read online it is not a dedicated resistive heating element in the model 3. They run extra power through the motor coils to generate heat.

 

[ricohman]

From what I have read online it is not a dedicated resistive heating element in the model 3. They run extra power through the motor coils to generate heat.

That won't do much good if the car isn't moving. I see I need to make another phone call,

 

[MP3Mike]

That won't do much good if the car isn't moving. I see I need to make another phone call,

They can run the motor in a mode where it generates no movement...

 

[bijan]

They can run the motor in a mode where it generates no movement...

Yes. This is what I meant. According to the internet it runs in this mode when preconditioning and plugged in. And according to others it can run extra power to the motor while it is running to generate extra heat. Someone estimated it was a max extra draw of 2kw.