I'm going hut skiing in the Colorado mountains. I want to take the Tesla and leave it overnight for a few days where it may get down to -20F overnight. Then, I'll want to drive it when it may be 0 F (-18C). I'm not worried about reduced power or reduced regenerative braking. My main concern is will it drive, will there be no serious harm, and can I heat the seats?
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What if I park in -20 F (-30C) overnight?
- Thread starter cstork
- Start date
Everything will be fine. You will definitely have reduced regen braking (it may be completely disabled at the start of drive). Heated seats and car heating will all be fine. Keep in mind consumption at those temperatures will be really huge (don't be surprised if your range is cut in half).
Do you have a way to plug the car in while stopped? If you do, you can preheat the car while plugged in and that will eliminate pretty much any worries about battery drain from heating.
Do you have a way to plug the car in while stopped? If you do, you can preheat the car while plugged in and that will eliminate pretty much any worries about battery drain from heating.
Is there any way to plug it into at least 120V? That's the temps for which many locations have plugs for ICE engine blocks that don't do that well either. And what charge do you expect to arrive at?
Manual says not to expose battery to below -30C for more than 24hrs. So, if it's not gonna be -30C the whole day you should be fine.
That's probably an optimistic estimate. You can get the range cut in half if it's cold, snowy, and completely flat. Add the mountains and barely working regen and it could be way less than half.
All signs point to that being fine. I’d expect maybe 1/3 to 1/4 the rated range in those conditions. Preheating from the app heats the battery, but it’s going to take a fair bit of juice and maybe an hour to bring it back up to temp.
Oslo' winter lows are on par with Chicago, yes it is cold but there probably as many Americans driving in temps that cold as Norwegians.
I have driven my car in I think -23f a time or two and -15 probably a dozen times or more.
On my short commute energy use can triple.
I would try and charge and drive every day.
Regen has been completely disabled at much higher temps, you won't see it unless just done charging or driving probably 20+ miles.
Scifi_tv_fan
Member
webbah
Active Member
Yes but it will use energy to do that. If the OP arrives at their destination with less than 50%, is there for “a few days” in very cold temperatures and is not plugged in, and then has to drive somewhere, he may not have enough range left, depending of course on how far he drove to get there and how far he has to drive to get home.
@cstork, you need to estimate in advance your remaining range when you arrive at your destination and then estimate how much battery you will need to get to a charging location once you depart. I highly recommend using this app Announcing the EV Trip Optimizer for Tesla App
Note that at those temperatures, plugging in a 120V plug will not charge much. The energy will be mostly spent keeping the battery warm. At least you will be losing less battery that way, it's still useful. As another said, arrive with more battery remaining than you need to get back home or to a nearby charger.
It's recommended to use a silicone lubricant on the door seals. Spray on a rag and spread on seals. It's good maintenance even if you don't live in cold weather as far as I know. The gummipfledge is probably a silicone lube. Anyway, if your doors, handles or charge port are rfozen you can just preheat the car for a while and they'll thaw.
Have fun!
It's recommended to use a silicone lubricant on the door seals. Spray on a rag and spread on seals. It's good maintenance even if you don't live in cold weather as far as I know. The gummipfledge is probably a silicone lube. Anyway, if your doors, handles or charge port are rfozen you can just preheat the car for a while and they'll thaw.
Have fun!
Just allow enough time.
A video on Apple News feed today from a vlogger in Ottawa documented his Model 3 thawing. After 30 minutes the charge port, windows and door handles weren’t thawed enough to open. He was going to give it another 30 minutes. I moved on to the next story, so I don't know how long it took, but the takeaway is to plan ahead. BTW...it had rained over night then frozen, so extreme icy conditions. Much different than very cold dry conditions.
webbah
Active Member
Agree 100%. In fact I posted this in post #8. I guess you replied before reading the entire thread, but we are on the same page!
webbah
Active Member
One thing I do when traveling in very cold temps is bring some of those hand warmers for gloves. You can place these on the charge port door to help thaw things out if necessary. I would avoid using any kind of spray if you can. Pouring warm water over door handles works as well, but don’t do this on the charge port. Pre-heating the cabin can also help but this takes both time and energy (significant) to do so.
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