Winter range anxiety

[VTengineer]

240 V 50 amp coming soon. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. You have no idea how hard it has been to get an electrician even call you back let alone install for you. Also talking to Tesla Energy, formerly solar city this week about a set of power walls as well as solar roof or panels to offset grid power. Staying employed in engineering in VT is hard enough. Gonna stay driving this as long as I have to. Some diesel powered most electric (I hope)

 

[dsm363]

This will be my first winter with my S75 and I must admit I am starting to develop a bit of preemptive range anxiety!

- I live outside the Philadelphia PA area, so we will see a decent winter/cold spell.
- I charge my S75 to ~80% and start everyday with about 210 rated miles
- i drive about 130 miles per day on weekdays. I have to crawl through the PA turnpike traffic much of the commute, but do find myself driving...enthusiastically when traffic permits, so I typically end up with about 50 miles left at the end of the day

Agree with what everyone has said. No issue charging to 90%. Have done it for 5 years at this point even though not really needed. Try and time charging to finish maybe an hour before you are ready to leave. Drive easy the first few weeks of winter and see how much range you arrive back with. I like the idea of finding even a 120V outlet at work. Will work allow you to pay for a 14-50 outlet maybe for your use? You'd have to figure out some way to compensate them for electricity costs.

 

[SSedan]

anyone turn down amperage to make charging take longer and end before leaving as opposed to scheduling to start later?

My commute is short, range not a concern for me, but it is COLD here in winter and car will be parked in a very windswept place while at work, so the regen and performance limits are going to be of more consequence to me.

 

[deaddog]

My winter experience, followed by a question:

My experience suggests that 50% range loss in very cold weather is to be expected (or worse). Its been very cold here in Chicago (single digits and lower for a couple of weeks). My new (to me) 2015 S90d is used often on short trips - for example, plugged in for 90% charge overnight in semi-cold (32F) garage, cabin preheated for 30 minutes, outside temp of +2F, cabin heat at 70F 30 minute drive = avg 750 Wh/mi, 1st 10 minutes @ >1000 Wh/mi. City driving, not too spirited (I'd estimate the "spirit"level at the equivalent of 300-310 wh/mi in 50F weather).

On a 90% charge of 260 "rated", my "estimated" range was 94 miles.

I'm assuming (hoping) that a longer drive would improve efficiency as battery heated up.

Question - is there a way to force the battery pack to heat up? Typically my charging ends at 2-3 am and I don't drive until 8 am - preheating the cabin seems to do nothing to the pack.

 

[alexmd2]

Got my 75D last December and driven all over the place, including upstate NY, PA, Maine, Canada both winter and summer. The range loss is real but not as significant once you get going. when the battery is cold initially you suffer the most. The new update has an option to preheat the battery, which is cool. My daily commute is about 100 miles plus I take my son to hockey practice after work. Charging to 90% and never had any issues. I can plug in at work for free at Level 2 as well on very cold days.

 

[deaddog]

The new update has an option to preheat the battery, which is cool.

I have what I think is the latest update -2017.50.2 3bd9f6d - and I don't appear to have any option to preheat battery. Where is that option found?

Thanks

 

[Snowstorm]

I have what I think is the latest update -2017.50.2 3bd9f6d - and I don't appear to have any option to preheat battery. Where is that option found?

Thanks

It is automatic. If you turn on climate with the latest vehicle firmware and app version, it will preheat the battery too up to a point. You get a red battery icon with a red snowflake in it to tell you battery heat is happening. This only happened when your battery is really cold, like 0C. When heated, you’ll get about 25kw of regen as opposed it 0

 

[deaddog]

It is automatic. If you turn on climate with the latest vehicle firmware and app version, it will preheat the battery too up to a point. You get a red battery icon with a red snowflake in it to tell you battery heat is happening. This only happened when your battery is really cold, like 0C. When heated, you’ll get about 25kw of regen as opposed it 0

My garage was 26F the other night (and car interior was 26F (-3C)) - yet I got no red battery icon with a snowflake. My Android App is V. 3.2.3 (34599d8f1) - which I believe is the latest.

 

[_jal_]

I'm also in Chicago and have had subzero days for weeks on end. I've got 50.3 and re iOS app w most recent version and have never seen the battery icon. It's my understanding that it is "automatic" and mysterious as in exactly what conditions trigger battery heating. Oh well

 

[deaddog]

Interior car temp went down to 12F -- and still no battery icon and no snowflake -- and I had no regen and really bad efficiency when starting out (literally over 2000) which ended up at 760 average after 30 minutes of careful driving.

I'd really like to know if my battery pack is preheating (ever) -- any way to check this given my absence of icons?

 

[Nitemare3219]

Interior car temp went down to 12F -- and still no battery icon and no snowflake -- and I had no regen and really bad efficiency when starting out (literally over 2000) which ended up at 760 average after 30 minutes of careful driving.

I'd really like to know if my battery pack is preheating (ever) -- any way to check this given my absence of icons?

If the battery pack is below 46F, it should preheat the battery once you turn on climate control from the app, if range mode is disabled, and above 20% battery (I believe that's the cutoff anyway). It takes about 1 minute from the time you turn on climate control for the icon to appear within the climate control screen, below the red arrows indicating warm air is entering the cabin. It won't take too long to preheat since you're parked in a garage that isn't extremely cold or subject to wind. Also, if your car just finished charging, it will likely already be warm enough (or warmer) from the heat produced from charging. Battery preheating only heats to 46F and gives 30kW of regen at that temperature. Further heating must be accomplished by driving.

 

[Snowstorm]

Battery warming can continue after you start driving. Two ways I can see this...
If you use a service such as Tesla Fi, you'll see a battery heating icon on the record of that drive. It is a free 2 week trial.
If you stop your car, put in neutral, and look at the energy graph on the IC gauge (not touch screen). You'll see that consumption is not at zero. This can be cabin heat and/or battery head. Turn off your heat and if it is still not at zero, then battery heating must be happening.

 

[Langhorne]

So if i turn on the heat while I am driving, is the temperature I set directly proportional to the energy use, as in the heater runs hotter, or is the energy use constant regardless of whether i set the temp to 70 or 80 (and the heat runs for longer until the target temperature is reached)?

Same about the fan speed - it would use a little more energy to spin the fan faster, but if I have the heat on and set to 78, does it make a big difference whether the fan speed it 3 or full speed?

Bottom line is, I am trying to figure out how to best heat up the car with the least amount of energy while I am on a long drive : set the temp and fan to high for short periods, or low heat/fan for longer.

Thanks for any input!