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If it's cold enough a Tesla plugged into 120v/20a charging circuit will actually lose voltage over time. It's consuming over 2000 watts just to keep the battery
by Phlarp 4y ago
If it's cold enough a Tesla plugged into 120v/20a charging circuit will actually lose voltage over time. It's consuming over 2000 watts just to keep the battery at an acceptable temp for the chemistry to function.
The weight of the battery pack is great for traction in warm / dry conditions, but when driving on ice that weight is just momentum sending you sliding into snow banks.
After a bumper or body panel gets ripped off during the inevitable extraction from above mentioned snow bank, expect to wait 6-9 months for the most basic of body work.
The self driving is an absolute clown show in anything but perfect conditions (mounting evidence it sucks in perfect conditions too~)
Nothing in the world excites me more than expensive nerd toys with electric power trains, but as a Minnesota native I'll take a $900 rolling trash can beater car over a top of the line Tesla six months out of the year. There is a very valuable lesson in observing the legacy auto industry existing in Michigan where the winters get very cold and cars need to perform with snow or ice on the roads. Meanwhile Tesla mostly engineers their cars to be good at driving from LA to SF and back.
- hedora 4y agoAt what temperature would it consume 2000 watts keeping the battery warm? Surely it uses a heat pump, so it is pumping 8000-4000W of heat into the battery pack. That would be a large steady state heat loss!
- Phlarp 4y ago>That would be a large steady state heat loss! Yes it is. I don't have a large dataset of exact temp conditions and charging curves (Elon certainly does though, someone go ask him!) I can tell you if the outdoor temps are below 15F a standard outlet has negative net energy input. A heat pump solution would certainly be more efficient, knowing Tesla I can only assume it's peltier junctions. All the hype about the efficiency of an EV goes out the window when it's blowing 16kwh+ a day just keeping the battery above freezing.
- Dylan16807 4y agoFrom what I can find in a quick search: On a normal plug, drawing 12 amps, older Teslas without heat pumps would start losing the battery heat fight around -15C. A heat pump should be able to do a lot better. Also you're probably only going to get 16 amps of actual draw on a 20 amp circuit.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- KMag 4y ago> The weight of the battery pack is great for traction in warm / dry conditions, but when driving on ice that weight is just momentum sending you sliding into snow banks. Not necessarily. In Minnesota, people often put sandbags in trunks/truck beds to get better traction in Winter. Also, one has to be careful when following semi tractor-trailers, as in some Winter conditions, they actually have a shorter stopping distance than your car.
- Phlarp 4y agoPutting a pair of sandbags in the back-end of an unloaded rear wheel drive pickup is not the same thing as driving a 9000 lb sedan.
- inferiorhuman 4y agoPutting a pair of sandbags in the back-end of an unloaded rear wheel drive pickup is not the same thing as driving a 9000 lb sedan. A Model S weighs less than half of that.
- jeffrallen 4y agoThe entire country of Norway would like to have a word with you, my friend. (And about 10% of Switzerland as well.)