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Tesla Model S - Cold Weather Performance

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Been able to survive a couple of hearty dumps of snow with the all seasons. The R2s are getting installed today so I'm looking forward to the added traction but even without the TC's been fantastic.
Couple of questions for those who've been through a winter in the Model S.
1. Is is typically to charge for 2+ hours and still have limited regen? Weather's been -20C overnight but the car's in an unheated garage so no wind.
2. Did you set regen braking to low? I already had a moment where regen kicked in on slippery conditions and I briefly lost control
 
1. Is is typically to charge for 2+ hours and still have limited regen? Weather's been -20C overnight but the car's in an unheated garage so no wind.

Yes. At those temperatures, neither preheating nor charging will eliminate regen limits. In fact neither will driving on a highway for two hours. You'll certainly have some regen, but not full power.

2. Did you set regen braking to low? I already had a moment where regen kicked in on slippery conditions and I briefly lost control

No. I just drive it like a manual transmission car, and control both the acceleration and the braking through the pedal.
 
On this... I'm assuming there is no way to tell the car to preheat the battery pack using shore power yet, am I right?

There most certainly is. Plug the car in and use the Remote App to turn on the cabin heater.

At -20C and below this makes a huge difference to (a) cabin temperature, (b) initial driveability because you at least have 1/2 regen power, and (c) initial power consumption because it doesn't have to keep running the pack heater at full power (if at all). It just won't completely eliminate the regen limits.
 
There most certainly is. Plug the car in and use the Remote App to turn on the cabin heater.

At -20C and below this makes a huge difference to (a) cabin temperature, (b) initial driveability because you at least have 1/2 regen power, and (c) initial power consumption because it doesn't have to keep running the pack heater at full power (if at all). It just won't completely eliminate the regen limits.

Hmmm... I guess I just hadn't noticed. I use VisibleTesla or the app all the time, and I still have a regen limit (and sometimes an output power limit) when I get into the car after ten minutes of heating from shore power. Maybe I need to do 15 minutes...
 
There most certainly is. Plug the car in and use the Remote App to turn on the cabin heater.

I think I discovered that if you have the system in Range Mode, battery pre-heating is either disabled or severely scaled back. I would have heavy re-gen limits in the morning in spite of pre-heating and further, the re-gen limits would take almost 45 minutes / 60 km to clear. Once I turned off Range Mode, the battery pack behavior became much more "user friendly". No more morning limits and in the evening when cold soaked, they would clear much faster. I don't even notice any difference in energy efficiency with Range Mode off either. Cabin heating was perfectly fine in either Range or Normal mode.
 
I have yet to use Range mode, so I guess I'll leave the setting where it is unless I go long distance... thanks for the tip!

I turned Range Mode on in the summer to help reduce the embarrassingly loud a/c compressor noise and guess I had just left it there. It didn't seem to impact the ability for the car to heat the cabin up nicely, so I originally figured I was saving a bit of energy by leaving it there.
 
Are you sure about that? It would be counterproductive to limit pack heating while you are plugged in, especially on an actual road trip! I will have to verify when it gets colder.

Also 10 minutes is nowhere near enough to preheat the pack in severe cold. I would recommend 30 minutes.
 
Also 10 minutes is nowhere near enough to preheat the pack in severe cold. I would recommend 30 minutes.

Will definitely try longer pre-heats. But I'm talking temps only between 0 and 5 deg.C. I don't know what it will be like in -20 to -15 deg.C.

Suppose I was plugged in only at 115V @ 12A, would that be enough for the pack heater, or would I actually be partially draining battery power if I did a preheat?
 
Thanks Doug_G for confirming what I expected regarding the regen limitation. I guess I'll just have to get used to the dashed yellow for the next 6 months since I rarely drive more than 30 minutes at a time. Looking forward to a drive this weekend with the R2s on though.
Of note, I had a similar experience with the handles popping through the ice yesterday. Sounded horrible but no apparent ill effects. Happy winter driving all.
 
I found that the most impressive part as well. I think that one has been a nagging topic in various circles about the winter performance, that how are you going to get the handles if the car is frozen over and they are inside the car. Now I can point them to the last part of this video ;)

charge port is a different story though ;>
mine was kinda frozen open this morning and when I closed it there was ice that kept it from shutting off the light

+ the frameless windows don't like a car that was wet before it froze and Coastal Humboldt never gets 'that' cold
 
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Will definitely try longer pre-heats. But I'm talking temps only between 0 and 5 deg.C. I don't know what it will be like in -20 to -15 deg.C.

Suppose I was plugged in only at 115V @ 12A, would that be enough for the pack heater, or would I actually be partially draining battery power if I did a preheat?

The pack heater at full power draws about 6 kW. The cabin heater at full power can also draw 6 kW. The combination is about 10X what you can pull from 110V AC.