What happened to my battery preheat?!!

[EVSteve]

I've had my Model S for a few years now so lets get the "this happens every winter" people away from their quick responses of 'this is what happens to regen braking every winter. I've checked with some locals and they too have more aggressive regen limiting and no battery preheat.

The past few years in winter when I would preheat the car via the mobile app the battery heater icon would show up and the car would have at LEAST a little regen braking when I was ready to leave. This year I have zero battery preheating unless the car has been sitting for a LONG time in temperatures below 15 degrees. However even then the battery heater icon only shows up for a short period and nowhere near long enough to gain any regenerative braking.

Something was done to the software on purpose. I say on purpose because the heater does still activate but under new circumstances just seemingly at new temperature set points. Why? I have no idea but no regen, burning through my brake pads on a 20 mile hilly backroad commute is bull. I have the excess energy but instead I'm being ushered into a $175 hour Tesla shop fee brake job. No thanks. So for the past month or so I've been sitting in the car with the it "navigating to a supercharger" to trick the system into preheating the battery in anticipation of a supercharge. The car is willing to preheat the battery if it means alleviating Supercharger congestion aka bad press for Tesla but unwilling if they can gain some money on a brake job. I thought the service centers were not supposed to be a source of revenue? Right.

*Side note some real bad debugging. When I preheat the seat heaters don't come on until I've actually sat in the car. When I turn the car on the HVAC reverts to the settings I had when I left the car (completely ignoring what I had set the HVAC to via the app) and at times the seat heaters don't follow my selection. I've had a burning hot seat at level one while other times having no output on level3. It seems to correlate more withe the temperature I've asked for and the 3 seat heat levels are actually just a on/off placebo switch.

The constant meddling with software, removing and adding features, while screwing other functions up has left me strongly debating staying with Tesla despite following the company since its inception. I used to be excited by software updates. Now I cringe pressing the update button not knowing what may get broken this time in exchange for slapstick "comedic" flatulence or tacky backseat romance in dash fireplaces. I loved this company and admire their mission to move us away from fossil fuel consumption. It's a business yes but I'm wondering if it's become more about the money and twitter headlines on new products. A year from now when I have to make a choice to stay with Tesla or switch brands I hope Tesla gets its act together.

 

[ucmndd]

Yes, regen in cold weather has been reduced in the latest software update.

Less regen on 2019.40.2?

Not having regen after the last software update sucks



Yes, there appears to be a change to the battery preheat function via the app, but it’s not super clear if this is a bug or “feature”.

Battery Heater Not Enabling via App

Get to reading.

 

[pilotSteve]

YES to the OP's frustration! I too am a long time (2012) Tesla owner and am getting very tired of the slap dash software development (well at least the QA testing and feature management decision making processes).

Tesla, you are making it all to clear you don't care about existing customers, just close as many new sales as possible. This is NOT a sustainable business strategy IMO, and I thought you were about integrity and sustainability.

 

[Ande]

They destroyed it , and also raises required BMS temperature to charge. So there is no regen without significant preheating, which is kaput.
It was destroyed nearly half a year ago, they failed to fix it, so we have very inconsistent driving experience these days, no regen for most of the trip.

Instead of a fix, we got AP destroyed with wild tugging requirement every 15 sec.

I loved Tesla... Before.

 

[quickstrike12]

Just curious but doesn’t battery preheat ONLY work with range mode OFF? or maybe i have that backwards.
regardless I did t see that mentioned above that it was tried or changed as part of the software logic.

for what it’s worth I stopped using range mode after first few months and road trips myself. Just didn’t see a lot of benefits.

 

[tyler2323]

I've had my Model S for a few years now so lets get the "this happens every winter" people away from their quick responses of 'this is what happens to regen braking every winter. I've checked with some locals and they too have more aggressive regen limiting and no battery preheat.

The past few years in winter when I would preheat the car via the mobile app the battery heater icon would show up and the car would have at LEAST a little regen braking when I was ready to leave. This year I have zero battery preheating unless the car has been sitting for a LONG time in temperatures below 15 degrees. However even then the battery heater icon only shows up for a short period and nowhere near long enough to gain any regenerative braking.

Something was done to the software on purpose. I say on purpose because the heater does still activate but under new circumstances just seemingly at new temperature set points. Why? I have no idea but no regen, burning through my brake pads on a 20 mile hilly backroad commute is bull. I have the excess energy but instead I'm being ushered into a $175 hour Tesla shop fee brake job. No thanks. So for the past month or so I've been sitting in the car with the it "navigating to a supercharger" to trick the system into preheating the battery in anticipation of a supercharge. The car is willing to preheat the battery if it means alleviating Supercharger congestion aka bad press for Tesla but unwilling if they can gain some money on a brake job. I thought the service centers were not supposed to be a source of revenue? Right.

*Side note some real bad debugging. When I preheat the seat heaters don't come on until I've actually sat in the car. When I turn the car on the HVAC reverts to the settings I had when I left the car (completely ignoring what I had set the HVAC to via the app) and at times the seat heaters don't follow my selection. I've had a burning hot seat at level one while other times having no output on level3. It seems to correlate more withe the temperature I've asked for and the 3 seat heat levels are actually just a on/off placebo switch.

The constant meddling with software, removing and adding features, while screwing other functions up has left me strongly debating staying with Tesla despite following the company since its inception. I used to be excited by software updates. Now I cringe pressing the update button not knowing what may get broken this time in exchange for slapstick "comedic" flatulence or tacky backseat romance in dash fireplaces. I loved this company and admire their mission to move us away from fossil fuel consumption. It's a business yes but I'm wondering if it's become more about the money and twitter headlines on new products. A year from now when I have to make a choice to stay with Tesla or switch brands I hope Tesla gets its act together.

They are trying to protect the battery from needing to be replaced and or high voltage issues. When you’re plugged in too charge and have too many things running it causes issues even will make your outlet shutoff (which the outlet/breaker does it to prevent a fire etc.) Your car is basically doing the same thing. As far as regen I don’t understand why it would effect that unless you charging close to 100%. Also when max battery is on it has to preheat the battery but its not good if you forgot you put it on and would stay on the entire time. You can leave your keys in the car and see if that works, it should. If you really wanted too, you could place something on the seat that has decent weight, you can try leaving the door slightly opened but still shut with your keys inside and if it’s really that important find something to keep the brake pressed down. If the break is pressed and keys inside it will not shut off for hrs

 

[tyler2323]

Just curious but doesn’t battery preheat ONLY work with range mode OFF? or maybe i have that backwards.
regardless I did t see that mentioned above that it was tried or changed as part of the software logic.

for what it’s worth I stopped using range mode after first few months and road trips myself. Just didn’t see a lot of benefits.

I think it has always been like that but yes regardless I think you’re correct. It doesn’t heat anywhere like it did a yr ago + when it would sound like an airplane

 

[Bridor]

Range mode is almost useless unless you have an all wheel drive model. Then when you are on the freeway, the rear motor shuts off and the car uses the more efficient front motor only. I always use range mode on road trips and it allows me to pretty much stay in EPA ranges even when going 80 mph.

Brent

 

[tyler2323]

Range mode is almost useless unless you have an all wheel drive model. Then when you are on the freeway, the rear motor shuts off and the car uses the more efficient front motor only. I always use range mode on road trips and it allows me to pretty much stay in EPA ranges even when going 80 mph.

Brent

Agree I don’t think it does anything but lower certain settings for you. The range you get ultimately comes down to how hard you try to keep the energy consumption down on the energy meter

 

[aesculus]

Just curious but doesn’t battery preheat ONLY work with range mode OFF? or maybe i have that backwards.
regardless I did t see that mentioned above that it was tried or changed as part of the software logic.

This was my understanding. In addition to reducing the use of the second motor on AWD cars and climate control I understood that the active battery heating to get the battery to optimal temperatures (S/X) was also reduced. This could also explain why we are seeing longer times to remove the regen limits in the newer releases.

Here is an excerpt from the MX manual:

To automatically limit the amount of power that the climate control system uses to maintain the temperature of the Battery and the cabin area, touch Controls > Driving > Range Mode

 

[Dan Baldwin]

Is the way to pre-heat the battery through the scheduled charge interface ? I looked through the entire menu and could find nothing about preheating. Its ridiculous to be driving in 55-60 temperatures and have limited regen.

 

[David29]

They are trying to protect the battery from needing to be replaced and or high voltage issues.

Do you have a solid source for this statement, or is it speculation? I see a few people suggesting what Tesla's reasons might be -- assuming this is deliberate -- but I have not seen any evidence that Tesla has stated this is the case. I am not disagreeing, just trying to separate speculation from facts.

 

[quickstrike12]

Is the way to pre-heat the battery through the scheduled charge interface ? I looked through the entire menu and could find nothing about preheating. Its ridiculous to be driving in 55-60 temperatures and have limited regen.

A tut here is n9 battery preheat per say. Not a switch anyway. It’s simply done with the precondition of the inside heater when warming the interior. As long as RANGE mode is not set to on, this will trigger the battery preheat to begin warming. You can see this in the app symbology. shown I think as a large square area that turns red in the back area about where the cargo area of car is.

 

[mthoring]

Battery preheat is broken in 2019.36.x and newer. I'm still on .32 because of that.

Normally range mode disables battery preheat, removes permanent awd when temps are below +1 deg celsius, and reduces cabin heater element from 6kw to 4kw. When charging the battery is always preheated.

I guess >=2019.36, range mode off, is like previous releases when range mode is on for battery preheating.

Have you checked if the battery heater icon appears when increasing the charge limit during cabin preheat?

 

[tyler2323]

Do you have a solid source for this statement, or is it speculation? I see a few people suggesting what Tesla's reasons might be -- assuming this is deliberate -- but I have not seen any evidence that Tesla has stated this is the case. I am not disagreeing, just trying to separate speculation from facts.

Do you have a solid source for this statement, or is it speculation? I see a few people suggesting what Tesla's reasons might be -- assuming this is deliberate -- but I have not seen any evidence that Tesla has stated this is the case. I am not disagreeing, just trying to separate speculation from facts.

I just know what’s good and bad for the battery. That’s why both my cars charge 6-7 miles past what they are even capable of cause I know how to charge them correctly but they won’t tell you how and I don’t follow what they say to do when charging

2014 P85D 242 miles of range @100% SOC
2016.5 P90DL 270 miles of range @100% SOC

 

[Dan Baldwin]

A tut here is n9 battery preheat per say. Not a switch anyway. It’s simply done with the precondition of the inside heater when warming the interior. As long as RANGE mode is not set to on, this will trigger the battery preheat to begin warming. You can see this in the app symbology. shown I think as a large square area that turns red in the back area about where the cargo area of car is.

By "precondition of the inside heater", do you mean climate ? When I turn climate on with the mobile app I do not see a any large square, just the red arrows, seat heaters, steering wheel and defrost.

 

[quickstrike12]

By "precondition of the inside heater", do you mean climate ? When I turn climate on with the mobile app I do not see a any large square, just the red arrows, seat heaters, steering wheel and defrost.

Sorry about the incoherent text above. I hate autocorrect on phones sometimes.
Anyway yes I should have said climate control.
As long as range mode is set to off in your cars settings. When you turn on climate control and the car battery is cold it will turn a reddish color here on the App.

 

[dannycamps]

Sorry about the incoherent text above. I hate autocorrect on phones sometimes.
Anyway yes I should have said climate control.
As long as range mode is set to off in your cars settings. When you turn on climate control and the car battery is cold it will turn a reddish color here on the App.

I thought that was the rear-defrost

I do have a question though - when I either precondition and/or manually enable the heated steering wheel, there are times that it get HOT - like I mean almost too hot to touch. Is this normal behavior for the car? I've had other cars with heated steering wheels and they never got as hot as my Model S does.

 

[quickstrike12]

I thought that was the rear-defrost

I do have a question though - when I either precondition and/or manually enable the heated steering wheel, there are times that it get HOT - like I mean almost too hot to touch. Is this normal behavior for the car? I've had other cars with heated steering wheels and they never got as hot as my Model S does.

I’m sorry I can’t speak to heated steering wheel. I don’t have that option. It never gets quit that cold here in Texas so I didn’t opt for it.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

I can’t see Tesla taking away the battery heat intensity before cold departures. That doesn’t make sense? What’s in it for them? I would think a heated battery would be a better option than a cold one for first departure. I just recently moved to a cold place and was surprised that power was limited with a cold pack. I always knew regen was but was surprised to see the dashed yellow lines on the power side of the meter too.

on the surface it would seem a warm battery is a healthier one when operating the car?