Winter driving thoughts so far

[x t2m x]

My experience has been that the All Seasons are terrible in the snow. I ordered and am waiting for my snows.

I haven't tried getting under the car yet but how does one 'prove' through physical features whether the vehicle is AWD or RWD?

I don't trust the Dual Motor description showing in the app/panel yet my car came with no badges, ...thinking it was part of Tesla's build/delivery woes and personally I prefer no badges. Now I'm suspicious!

I 'supposedly' have an AWD but was able to spin out the rear end quite easily when I intentionally tried, yet I watched attached video on someone who tried to spin out his RWD and couldn't. Yes, I'm very suspicious!

 

[Knightshade]

My experience has been that the All Seasons are terrible in the snow. I ordered and am waiting for my snows.

I haven't tried getting under the car yet but how does one 'prove' through physical features whether the vehicle is AWD or RWD?

I don't trust the Dual Motor description showing in the app/panel yet my car came with no badges, ...thinking it was part of Tesla's build/delivery woes and personally I prefer no badges. Now I'm suspicious!

I 'supposedly' have an AWD but was able to spin out the rear end quite easily when I intentionally tried, yet I watched attached video on someone who tried to spin out his RWD and couldn't. Yes, I'm very suspicious!

If you're that suspicious go under your car and look, the front DU should be pretty obvious

Also, not sure if Canada is same as US- but here the VIN is legally required to indicate if it's RWD or AWD[/QUOTE]

 

[coleAK]

^^^^ that video is a joke. If I floor it I can slightly spin all 4 tires. Have you tried chill mode? In chill I get an extremely small spin then just grip when accelerating straight. There are no AWD badges. Makes me think of CA DOT, I grew up in Tahoe (NV) and CA DOT was crazy over making sure you were 4wd. Would look in to see the shift lever.
In the model 3 it says AWD on the “T” screen in the car and on the phone key app.

 

[Knightshade]

There are no AWD badges.

There are actually- they say Dual Motor.

Some recently delivered AWDs came with them, but most to this point did not- everyone else is allegedly "promised" one eventually.

The Ps get the same thing but with a red underline (and again nearly all delivered so far don't have em but they're coming later)

 

[x t2m x]

I went out to look at the car and found it had slid down from the parked position, in my slightly inclined driveway.
Could have killed someone walking past on the sidewalk. Need those snows!

 

[Birdman325]

Desperately waiting for the arrival of my Aero winter package for Tesla. The dual motor is great to keep you moving but the all season 19” tires are extremely slippery in the snow. I did not find I had good traction at all.

Also found that I had no EAP or active cruise on the way home - I assume it was accumulation of wet snow on the front bumper? (Is that where the sensor / radar is?)

Last (for now) I found the auto setting of the wipers to be terribly inadequate in the snow. It works pretty well in the rain but for some reason it doesn’t seem to “see” the snow on the windshield very well. I had to manually wipe every few seconds and ended up just setting the wipers to the first or second setting.

But getting into a nice warm car is magical!

 

[Nirenk]

Desperately waiting for the arrival of my Aero winter package for Tesla. The dual motor is great to keep you moving but the all season 19” tires are extremely slippery in the snow. I did not find I had good traction at all.

Also found that I had no EAP or active cruise on the way home - I assume it was accumulation of wet snow on the front bumper? (Is that where the sensor / radar is?)

Last (for now) I found the auto setting of the wipers to be terribly inadequate in the snow. It works pretty well in the rain but for some reason it doesn’t seem to “see” the snow on the windshield very well. I had to manually wipe every few seconds and ended up just setting the wipers to the first or second setting.

But getting into a nice warm car is magical!

We got more than expected snow yesterday in NY/NJ area. Agreed that all season 19” are extremely slippery. I am ordering winter set immediately. But the wipers made the commute much worse. Even in manual setting, they could barely clean the windshield. I am not sure if I have a faulty blade that needs replacing. I had Model S for 3 years and never experienced this.

EAP was unavailable through the entire trip (not that I would have trusted it in this kind of weather) but all sensors were going crazy. I was getting parking sensor warning chimes every few mins when I was maintaining 3-4 car distance from the next car. I had to disable park assist chimes. The constant warnings for “surrounding vehicles view is limited” are distracting and don’t help considering you are not using AP and you are not relying on the surrounding vehicle display to drive your car.

 

[FrancoNY]

We got more than expected snow yesterday in NY/NJ area. Agreed that all season 19” are extremely slippery. I am ordering winter set immediately. But the wipers made the commute much worse. Even in manual setting, they could barely clean the windshield. I am not sure if I have a faulty blade that needs replacing. I had Model S for 3 years and never experienced this.

EAP was unavailable through the entire trip (not that I would have trusted it in this kind of weather) but all sensors were going crazy. I was getting parking sensor warning chimes every few mins when I was maintaining 3-4 car distance from the next car. I had to disable park assist chimes. The constant warnings for “surrounding vehicles view is limited” are distracting and don’t help considering you are not using AP and you are not relying on the surrounding vehicle display to drive your car.

Same storm for me, same experience with the sensors. I didn't realize I could turn off park assist chime - good tip!

I thought my car did ok in the conditions considering there was a layer of ice on the road. I did a little sliding at times but nothing more than a foot or so. Never got stuck unlike a bunch of cars around me.
Re: the wipers - I had the same issue until I turned on defrost and then it was fine. I think there was a little icing going on with the wipers before that making the windshield a mess.

I ended up staying in the city rather than trying to get out. Biggest stress for me was parking the Tesla on the street! Thankfully no issues overnight with plows, other cars, trees (many trees down in the city), or tickets.

 

[N54TT]

I didn’t get out of work until late...until it was all done and it started raining. The parking garage still had a couple inches of snow and my local streets were snow covered. So it was a limited time driving on snow...but initial impression is that the p3d+ with 19” Blizzak lm32’s won’t have an issue. Seemed to handle just a well as my wrx and g35x with snow tires. Looking forward to throwing it in track mode and having some fun in empty parking lots the next snow storm!

 

[docdeb27]

If one has AWD do we need to put regen in low?

 

[docdeb27]

The Nokian 9 are studded. Is that suggested for a New York M3 where snow/ice are 25% of winter or is there a studless version that is better?

 

[coleAK]

Ive been using Regen low and it is recommended in the Tesla manual to do so in winter. The studded Hakka 9’s give the best traction. The best studless for traction is the Nokian Hakkapeleta R3. The R3 is a very good tire if I lived somwhere with more variable conditions or somwhere that salted the roads I would run the R3.

 

[Nirenk]

We got more than expected snow yesterday in NY/NJ area. Agreed that all season 19” are extremely slippery. I am ordering winter set immediately. But the wipers made the commute much worse. Even in manual setting, they could barely clean the windshield. I am not sure if I have a faulty blade that needs replacing. I had Model S for 3 years and never experienced this.

EAP was unavailable through the entire trip (not that I would have trusted it in this kind of weather) but all sensors were going crazy. I was getting parking sensor warning chimes every few mins when I was maintaining 3-4 car distance from the next car. I had to disable park assist chimes. The constant warnings for “surrounding vehicles view is limited” are distracting and don’t help considering you are not using AP and you are not relying on the surrounding vehicle display to drive your car.

Also, efficiency was 482 wh/mile. I have a 130 mile round trip commute. Started the day with 278 mile range and returned with barely 24 miles range left. I get about 275-285 wh/mile on normal days.

 

[longshot49]

Regen problem are related to RWD 3s and winter tires. There is something funky going with the traction control and the softness of the tires/thread.

Regen starts at "full" then backs off to half/quarter/none. Big big thread over the Canadian thread.

It's a bit annoying losing one-pedal driving but i am getting used to it. Concordingly... efficiency has tanked. I am looking at 300wh/mile being heavy footed and losing any form of regen.

On the flip side... powersliding mid-turn with "Slip start"/TC off is soooo much fun....

 

[Kentrock1]

After another week in the 3. Yesterday was terrable road conditions. Snow that turned to rain on snow covered roads then dropped down below freezing. Ended up with slush on a glaze of frozen snow and ice. We saw many cars off the road. It was white knuckle but we made it up and down the hill where we live (~800 vertical feet above anchorage). The traction control works very well when traveling in a straight line but slides out more when cornering, had a tendency to understeer. The Hakka 9’s are amazing at stopping, had a hard time making the ABS kick in when breaking in a straight line.

After we made it home I took out our 2004 MB e320 4Matic for a loop on the roads to compare. I have to say even on 7 year old Hakka 5’s the MB is better, it slides less. Not that the Tesla is bad (it does very well). I think the disadvantaged the Tesla has: #1 is power, torque/hp is a disadvantage and even in “chill” it’s extremely powerful compared to the e320. #2 is quick steering, the steering on the Tesla is much more responsive and sporty leading to more quick movement. #3 traction control, the ESP on the MB Kicks in early and cuts power so it makes you drive more conservatively. #4 wider tires on the Tesla, narrower tires are an advantage on winter roads. #5- I was much more afraid of crashing the Tesla. I’ve also driven the MB for almost 15 years so much more comofortable with its dynamics and limits.

So far the 3 hasn’t recognized the lanes on any roads in 2 weeks, further supporting my theory that any of the auto drive features wouldn’t work 6-7 months of the year in Alaska.

And forget about using TACC in snowy conditions. This beast wants to get quickly up to speed limit and starts sliding out well before that. Sure, it's fun to drive off cruise control, but not in those conditions.

 

[more863-also]

It's cute watching people who have never driven EVs before get shocked at their efficiency in cold weather. A guy in another thread was complaining about his range being halved, and then finally mentioned his journey was in freezing weather and crawling traffic that took three times as long as normal. Yep, that'll happen..

 

[Surfertom]

Model 3 LR RWD with all season on.

Baby of a storm today in Maine, 3-4 inches but ice for am commute was initial surface looked scary but car is SOLID and heavy (prius is so light in comparison)

This car is a beast. So rock solid, maybe a few baby fishtails on the ice but overall impressed.
I have appointment for next Tuesday to put on Blizzak winter tires from Bridgestone so can compare winter vs all season but man they were good.

Contrary to what others said I was impressed with the stock tires even in ice and small snow.
The heating up of the back front window melted off hard layer of ice and snow easily walked out of work and drove off home

I LOVE THE MODEL 3.

 

[coleAK]

It's cute watching people who have never driven EVs before get shocked at their efficiency in cold weather. A guy in another thread was complaining about his range being halved, and then finally mentioned his journey was in freezing weather and crawling traffic that took three times as long as normal. Yep, that'll happen..

I’m not shocked at all for the efficiency loss in the winter. I’ve mentioned a few times here in my gas vehicles I always noticed at least 20% reduction in Mpg. I think it is the fact we have so much more data available in the EVs that it is more noticeable.

The thing that does surprise me is how much energy it uses going up hill. Going up my hill to get home at 35-40 mph 20-25% grade for 4 miles I’m using ~700-800 Wh/mi.

 

[usofrob]

My model S uses max 50% more than usual on mid to long drives. It seems like the model 3 is a little worse. But I'm still getting used to it. I'm still only just getting into the snowy winter.

 

[Snow Drift]

With snow tires our AWD was awesome in the snow. I felt just as in control as with my STI.