Winter Driving Experiences

[Denarius]

Saturday evening I came up the same hill in my video (posted earlier in the thread) and snow had drifted in the roundabout 18 inches deep. I was unable to get through, as I would sled up on it and lose traction. I ended up having to back down and come in another way.

So my conclusion is the Model S does great with winter tires as long as the snow isn't to deep.

 

[Kalud]

Saturday evening I came up the same hill in my video (posted earlier in the thread) and snow had drifted in the roundabout 18 inches deep. I was unable to get through, as I would sled up on it and lose traction. I ended up having to back down and come in another way.

So my conclusion is the Model S does great with winter tires as long as the snow isn't to deep.

Did you try with traction control off ? Sometimes it helps in low traction conditions where some wheel spin actually make it work. But sometimes there is nothing you can do with a rwd car in a slippery slope...

 

[Denarius]

Did you try with traction control off ? Sometimes it helps in low traction conditions where some wheel spin actually make it work. But sometimes there is nothing you can do with a rwd car in a slippery slope...

I did, the snow was just too deep/dense. Not the typical light/dry utah snow.

 

[jrw]

Got my MS 85 in October. Loving it ever since. One of my jobs is 167 miles from home. Drove my MS there in 8-10 degree F weather. Very little wind, 5-10 mph. Drove at 70-72 mph on Interstate Hwys. Charge to a max charge 266 rated miles just prior to leaving and had the cabin warm. I was able to make the drive but arrived with just 8 rated miles left. I have a 50 amp service to plug into at this job and I am there for a few days so charging is not a problem. I wasn't able to plug in right away when I arrived and the car set for about 6 hours in the cold. When I went to move to the charging plug a couple of hundred feet from where I parked, there was 0 rated miles and a warning to charge now! Was able to charge and I will do another max charge before I leave for home and hope the temp is a little warmer. I would be hesitant to make the trip if the temp was any colder than 8 degrees F.

 

[bhuwan]

Got my MS 85 in October. Loving it ever since. One of my jobs is 167 miles from home. Drove my MS there in 8-10 degree F weather. Very little wind, 5-10 mph. Drove at 70-72 mph on Interstate Hwys. Charge to a max charge 266 rated miles just prior to leaving and had the cabin warm. I was able to make the drive but arrived with just 8 rated miles left. I have a 50 amp service to plug into at this job and I am there for a few days so charging is not a problem. I wasn't able to plug in right away when I arrived and the car set for about 6 hours in the cold. When I went to move to the charging plug a couple of hundred feet from where I parked, there was 0 rated miles and a warning to charge now! Was able to charge and I will do another max charge before I leave for home and hope the temp is a little warmer. I would be hesitant to make the trip if the temp was any colder than 8 degrees F.

Damn thats a lot of miles lost due to the weather. What was the Wh/mile

 

[Kalud]

Damn thats a lot of miles lost due to the weather. What was the Wh/mile

Quick calculation leads to about 477Wh/mi !

75.9kW range charge to 0 mi left on a 85kW battery.
167 driven, 8 left.
75900/(167-8) = 477 Wh/mi

 

[mknox]

I did, the snow was just too deep/dense. Not the typical light/dry utah snow.

Do you have air suspension and, if so, did you try raising the car? I recall some threads from last winter where owners found the bottom of the car was dragging on the snow when it's that deep.

 

[Denarius]

Do you have air suspension and, if so, did you try raising the car? I recall some threads from last winter where owners found the bottom of the car was dragging on the snow when it's that deep.

I do and did raise to max height.

 

[neroden]

Quick calculation leads to about 477Wh/mi !

75.9kW range charge to 0 mi left on a 85kW battery.
167 driven, 8 left.
75900/(167-8) = 477 Wh/mi

I've seen 470+ Wh/mi more than once in very bad weather lately. I think I'm going to use 480 Wh/mi as my base assumption for planning my upcoming winter road trip, along a route with no Superchargers. It's already a two-day trip to go 476 miles, but it looks like I'm going to need a third major charging stop, and no side trips.

I was hoping to prove that a road trip in the model S was possible; I think I may be proving that it's impractical.

 

[jrw]

I don't remember the exact number but around 416 Wh/m, maybe a little more. I usually make the trip with around 50-60 miles of rated range left.

 

[neroden]

Did you try with traction control off ? Sometimes it helps in low traction conditions where some wheel spin actually make it work. But sometimes there is nothing you can do with a rwd car in a slippery slope...

Did you try going up backwards? (Probably not, but that was the ancient recommendation for going up a hill in an RWD car.)

- - - Updated - - -

Saturday evening I came up the same hill in my video (posted earlier in the thread) and snow had drifted in the roundabout 18 inches deep. I was unable to get through, as I would sled up on it and lose traction. I ended up having to back down and come in another way.

So my conclusion is the Model S does great with winter tires as long as the snow isn't to deep.

It's hard to tell how steep the hill is, but it doesn't look like a super-steep hill to me. (8% grades are typical around here, with a lot of steeper hills, and they *look* steep.) But 18 inches of snow is difficult in any car.

 

[Denarius]

Did you try going up backwards? (Probably not, but that was the ancient recommendation for going up a hill in an RWD car.)

- - - Updated - - -


It's hard to tell how steep the hill is, but it doesn't look like a super-steep hill to me. (8% grades are typical around here, with a lot of steeper hills, and they *look* steep.) But 18 inches of snow is difficult in any car.

It is a 12.2% grade. Again, I didn't have issues until the very top at the round about, not much of a slope there, the snow was just to deep. If I had another foot of clearance on the model S I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem. I did not try going up backwards.

 

[InTheShadows]

I don't remember the exact number but around 416 Wh/m, maybe a little more. I usually make the trip with around 50-60 miles of rated range left.

Around town I have been getting around 420-440 Wh/m. I'm not doing any energy savings other trying to make full use of regen. Half the time though regen is limited because of the cold. This is including telling the car to warm up before we get back in it.

 

[ModelS8794]

Quick calculation leads to about 477Wh/mi !

75.9kW range charge to 0 mi left on a 85kW battery.
167 driven, 8 left.
75900/(167-8) = 477 Wh/mi

That sounds very high for a longer trip like that (I get those number for the 3-5 mile runs around town but that's because the battery is heating for 80% + of the entire ride).

Did you have a large elevation change? I'll be interested in your efficiency on the return trip.

 

[mknox]

That sounds very high for a longer trip like that (I get those number for the 3-5 mile runs around town but that's because the battery is heating for 80% + of the entire ride).

Agreed. Last weekend, I took a 240 mile (round trip) drive in about 23 F weather. The car reported 385 Wh/mi on the trip out and 368 Wh/mi on the return drive. On the return trip, the last 30 miles on the graph was showing 310 Wh/mi.

The numbers are huge when you first set out, but the power consumption goes way down once everything is warmed up and you're cruising along.

 

[Mayhemm]

Honestly, we don't travel much during the winter months but, for the odd time we will, I think I'll be taking the ICE.

Our highway is 300+ km with no services. Pretty risky in a Model S since there isn't even cell coverage so you can call for help if you misjudge range.

I doubt I'd maintain my calm as well as Bjørn if I ran out of range in sub-zero weather. Wouldn't want to freeze and die. :tongue:

 

[JohnQ]

I've seen 470+ Wh/mi more than once in very bad weather lately. I think I'm going to use 480 Wh/mi as my base assumption for planning my upcoming winter road trip, along a route with no Superchargers. It's already a two-day trip to go 476 miles, but it looks like I'm going to need a third major charging stop, and no side trips.

I was hoping to prove that a road trip in the model S was possible; I think I may be proving that it's impractical.

I don't think you can make any assumptions until you see the weather forecast. In 20F weather with a significant crosswind (25 mph with gusts to 45 mph) on flat terrain at 65 mph I was getting 365 Wh/mi. No precipitation and a dry road. At 25F with no wind and slightly uphill at 68mph I got 335 Wh/mi. Again, dry.

If those crosswinds were headwinds I would have taken the ICE as the trip would have then been impractical in the S. Play it by ear; fortunately the weather forecasts tend to be pretty good. Make sure you look at the surface wind forecasts on the aviation portion of the NOAA site.

 

[wycolo]

> Drove at 70-72 mph on Interstate Hwys. [jrw]

Next time you could try going 58-60 mph instead for starters. Then as you check your waypoints you can speed up using the excess. Always nice to have a dataset for a route that was originally made in 'max mode', 'three sheets to the wind' yet somehow you managed to make it there.
--

 

[Cottonwood]

Here are some numbers from yesterday's drive. I've probably done the Boulder to Pagosa run a dozen times in the Model S and three times in the Roadster. This has been a progression from find the RV Parks, and embarrassingly driving the Roadster at 45 mph to yesterday's run with the Supercharger in Silverthorne and a 49-mph, 70-Amp, J1772 in Salida. Yesterday, the conditions were tough, but I was (mostly) able to drive the MS as it should be driven. It was a great winter day. Here is a picture of the MS on top of Fremont Pass.

What made it tough:

1. 30-50 mph headwinds going up I-70 towards Silverthorne.
2. -8˚ F Temps in the San Luis Valley.
3. Packed Powder and a headwind over Wolf Creek Pass.

What made it fun:

1. Because I knew I had a Supercharger waiting for me in Silverthorne, I could drive 70+ mph into that 50 mph headwind!
2. There was a little tail wind from Fremont Pass into Salida.
3. A 70-Amp J1772 in Salida, so I could put plenty of miles into the MS while I talked Whiskey and Gin with PT of Wood's High Mountain Distillery - Home Rather than a Frankenplug, he showed me his new Frankenstill.
4. With plenty of charge, being able to keep the heat and defrost on in the cold and into the wind!

With all of this extravagance thumbing my nose at cold and wind, after so many trips hypermiling, here are my trip numbers. 328.7 miles using 119.9 kW-hr for 365 Wh/mi for the trip. I thought that I was going to arrive with 25 rated miles in the battery, but the new powder up the last 2 miles sucked another 7 miles...I did not care, I enjoyed the drive! :biggrin: As you can see, the MS was happy, too; drinking from its HPWC in a warm garage!

 

[stevezzzz]

> Drove at 70-72 mph on Interstate Hwys. [jrw]

Next time you could try going 58-60 mph instead for starters. Then as you check your waypoints you can speed up using the excess. Always nice to have a dataset for a route that was originally made in 'max mode', 'three sheets to the wind' yet somehow you managed to make it there.
--

I bet the OP was not 'three sheets to the wind'.

I'm guessing you meant that he drove as if 'throwing caution to the wind'... :biggrin:

- - - Updated - - -

... yesterday's run with the Supercharger in Silverthorne and a 49-mph, 70-Amp, J1772 in Salida.

Is that the first time the Salida high-speed J1772's been used in anger? Congratulations, and thanks for your contributions!