Winter Driving Experiences

[Vexar]

Switching to low regen did a lot to reduce the problem. I think this should be standard operating procedure with any tires. Snow = Low Regen

That's a good suggestion. I drove in moderate snow conditions (still plenty of accidents) yesterday (about 70 miles) and I felt pretty good about it. If you get a fine touch with the go pedal (are we calling it that?), it doesn't seem to get aggressive and affect wheel spin rates.
My real problem with winter driving so far is the sick-awesome power this car has and I keep fishtailing. I think that my Tesla Model S likes winter about as much as I do: we both complain a lot but still get things done.

 

[Doug_G]

I noticed this the other day after pulling into my garage. Suspension height was set to Standard.

On really heavy snow days my car has been skimming the top of the snow even on major city streets. Unfortunately you can't raise the suspension when going faster than a snail.

 

[Zapped]

Looks DEEP. ?? " (mm)
I hit an ice lump that clunked under the car earlier his winter and immediate wondered if that could damage the Model S battery.
Good thing I was driving the ICE.

 

[Vexar]

It looks like the tracks of a car towing a sled!

 

[mknox]

On really heavy snow days my car has been skimming the top of the snow even on major city streets. Unfortunately you can't raise the suspension when going faster than a snail.

Any word on how well the battery pack is protected?

 

[znino]

No, only for Android. I'm running it on my notebook using an Android emulator called BlueStacks. BlueStacks is a bit glitchy but it works.

iPhone app is now available on the a store. Yeh! Looks identical to android app. No scheduled charging yet.

 

[Doug_G]

I made a cool discovery today with the iPhone app, which will be very useful for winter conditions. The car was plugged in but had finished charging a long time ago. I decided to take a trip so turned on the cabin heat remotely before heading out.

We have a power meter for the charging station at the office. We noticed that the car was drawing 4A - about 1 kW. So the remote cabin head command had turned on the EVSE to draw power from the mains instead of the pack!

I tried it again later, when the cabin wasn't as cold, and it started drawing 2A from the EVSE.

What a great feature!

 

[znino]

Has anyone managed to get the down arrow in the Climate section of the app to work? I can press the up arrow and watch the target temp go up but the down arrow does nothing.

 

[dsm363]

Has anyone managed to get the down arrow in the Climate section of the app to work? I can press the up arrow and watch the target temp go up but the down arrow does nothing.

It's always worked for me. Try rebooting your phone maybe? Not sure why it would do this.

 

[znino]

It's always worked for me. Try rebooting your phone maybe? Not sure why it would do this.

I did try rebooting. It is actually doing the exact same thing on my iPad so do not think it is a device related issue. everything else reacts. only the down arrow does not. The little animation of the down arrow button does occur but the target temperature does not go down. Going up is no problem. If I do it from an android platform the lowering of target temperature works so it is not something related to my car either. So strange.

 

[pbrulott]

I made a cool discovery today with the iPhone app, which will be very useful for winter conditions. The car was plugged in but had finished charging a long time ago. I decided to take a trip so turned on the cabin heat remotely before heading out.

We have a power meter for the charging station at the office. We noticed that the car was drawing 4A - about 1 kW. So the remote cabin head command had turned on the EVSE to draw power from the mains instead of the pack!

I tried it again later, when the cabin wasn't as cold, and it started drawing 2A from the EVSE.

What a great feature!

Doug, have you solved #4 from the following wish list? Looks like it

1 - TM propose a winter tire package (like Nokian H) not only the Pirelli tires for cold
2 - An app/web app be introduced to heat the battery pack 30 min before leaving vs at all time the battery reaches critical temp waisting precious juice => partly solved due to the App release on both Android and iOS. Climate control and charge only though.
3 - The ventilation system be adapted for winter (cold and humidity) => In the works, to be retrofitted optionally by Service Centers via service bulletin
4 - The car could draw its power from the wall vs the pack when plugged and parked (and not charging) to stay above critical temp => mystery solved?
5 - There is a winter mode to allow for raising the Air supension permanently above 8mph
6 - The Traction Control at really low speed be tweaked to allow spinning since snow/ice driving requires some spinning
7 - A better range calculation algorithm introduced as the current one is not adequate

 

[Doug_G]

4 - The car could draw its power from the wall vs the pack when plugged and parked (and not charging) to stay above critical temp => mystery solved?

It does indeed appear to do this! Done it several times now, works the same way each time.

 

[dave]

I made a cool discovery today with the iPhone app, which will be very useful for winter conditions. The car was plugged in but had finished charging a long time ago. I decided to take a trip so turned on the cabin heat remotely before heading out.

We have a power meter for the charging station at the office. We noticed that the car was drawing 4A - about 1 kW. So the remote cabin head command had turned on the EVSE to draw power from the mains instead of the pack!

I tried it again later, when the cabin wasn't as cold, and it started drawing 2A from the EVSE.

What a great feature!

I assume this would be the same behavior if started directly from the touchscreen as opposed to using the app?

 

[Doug_G]

I assume this would be the same behavior if started directly from the touchscreen as opposed to using the app?

Nope. If you turn on the heater with the touchscreen, it switches off again as soon as you get out of the car. The car shuts down when you get out.

Also it does not draw power from the EVSE when operated from the touchscreen. That only happens, in my experience, if you start the heater from the App.

 

[ddruz]

Doug-G, Now that you've played with it some more what are your current thoughts on the battery pack warming up also when you remotely activate the heater? Thx.

 

[mknox]

I made a cool discovery today with the iPhone app, which will be very useful for winter conditions. The car was plugged in but had finished charging a long time ago. I decided to take a trip so turned on the cabin heat remotely before heading out.

We have a power meter for the charging station at the office. We noticed that the car was drawing 4A - about 1 kW. So the remote cabin head command had turned on the EVSE to draw power from the mains instead of the pack!

I tried it again later, when the cabin wasn't as cold, and it started drawing 2A from the EVSE.

What a great feature!

That's good to know, but what about battery pack heating? I thought that came on when the cabin heat was turned on. It would be nice if the car could do everything it can from shore power before you head out so that you don't "waste" battery power doing things that could have been handled from the mains.

 

[znino]

That's good to know, but what about battery pack heating? I thought that came on when the cabin heat was turned on. It would be nice if the car could do everything it can from shore power before you head out so that you don't "waste" battery power doing things that could have been handled from the mains.

I can confirm that when you start with a battery that has finished charging and no longer charging and the car is still plugged in and you start the cabin heating from the phone app, the heating in the cabin starts and the power seems to be coming from the wall (as the flashing green lights on the plug start to flash). This would indicate that the cabin heat is drawing current from the wall. Great. Logical. It is plugged in so why wouldn't it.

However, I do not know if the battery does start heating up when you start the cabin heating and if so, does the battery heating happen with wall power or battery power. As you said, would make so much more sense to use the wall power if you are plugged in!

Lastly, there is something someone is going to have to explain to me because I just cannot wrap my head around the following facts and example:

I plug my car is plugged in when I get home in the evening, charges up to full (shows 449 Km ideal range) by 10:40pm
I check it this morning (still plugged in) and it shows 436km (at 8:52am)
Check again at 9:48am and it is at 435km
Check again at 11am and it is at 433Km

So basically, when plugged in and at full charge it stops the charger and then begins to lose range to the tune of over 1.3km per hour in a 20 degree Celsius heated garage. Why????
Every other piece of electronics I own, including the Roadster, will hold the battery at full charge if it is still connected, even when it is at 100%. I understand there needs to be some hysteresis or threshold to start charging again after it loses some charge but shouldn't it do some kind of trickle charging so that it is always at max charge while connected to the wall? I do not get it. sorry if i have missed something here.

 

[mknox]

So basically, when plugged in and at full charge it stops the charger and then begins to lose range to the tune of over 1.3km per hour in a 20 degree Celsius heated garage. Why????
Every other piece of electronics I own, including the Roadster, will hold the battery at full charge if it is still connected, even when it is at 100%. I understand there needs to be some hysteresis or threshold to start charging again after it loses some charge but shouldn't it do some kind of trickle charging so that it is always at max charge while connected to the wall? I do not get it. sorry if i have missed something here.

I don't have my S yet, but this is something I've puzzled over too. I get that we will soon be able to schedule charging, and we can now use the app to warm/cool the interior, but it seems odd that range trickles away while the car is still plugged in. Scheduling charging is fine, but I think there will be times when I suddenly just want the car, and would expect it to be at full (standard) charge when I'm ready to go.

 

[Doug_G]

That's good to know, but what about battery pack heating? I thought that came on when the cabin heat was turned on. It would be nice if the car could do everything it can from shore power before you head out so that you don't "waste" battery power doing things that could have been handled from the mains.

I have posted empirical results elsewhere showing that the battery pack does indeed warm up when cabin heat is engaged remotely. It is not known whether this is simply a side-effect of consuming power or whether it actually engages the pack heater.

- - - Updated - - -

I plug my car is plugged in when I get home in the evening, charges up to full (shows 449 Km ideal range) by 10:40pm
I check it this morning (still plugged in) and it shows 436km (at 8:52am)
Check again at 9:48am and it is at 435km
Check again at 11am and it is at 433Km

So basically, when plugged in and at full charge it stops the charger and then begins to lose range to the tune of over 1.3km per hour in a 20 degree Celsius heated garage. Why????

The Model S range calculation reportedly doesn't handle cold temperatures very well, and underestimates the amount of charge in the pack. If you warm the car up without using its own power you would see the range display increase somewhat.

 

[znino]

The Model S range calculation reportedly doesn't handle cold temperatures very well, and underestimates the amount of charge in the pack. If you warm the car up without using its own power you would see the range display increase somewhat.

Doug, my observations are not related to cold temperatures. The car is plugged in to charge in a fully heated garage. It charges up to 449 Km and then stops charging. Then, just sitting there it loses 32km over a 24 hour period, while still plugged into the wall. I just do not understand why this would be. If, i unplug it and then plug it back un after it has lost this 32Km it DOES start charging again until it gets to 449 which indicates to me that it did in fact lose charge at a rate of over 1km per hour. Again, I am not clear on why the car would not stay at full charge when plugged in (and give itself top up juice every once in a while).