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Tesla Y in the snow

Alexzn

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I was talking to my buddy last week and he told me that Teslas and Model Y in particular are crappy in the snow even with winter tires. Curious what the experience of the owners is...
 

scott43

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I've never driven one in snow but I don't see any reason it wouldn't be decent. It's a bit heavy, granted, but the weight is well distributed and down low. Ground clearance may be an issue, especially with the flat underside. Electric motors are tricky with max torque at 0rpm but I'm sure their electronics have sorted that out.

Battery range in the cold might be a bigger issue..
 

raytseng

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Maybe its selection bias. The current US owners who would buy and own a teslas are bad winter drivers or don't set their cars up for winter driving if he's basing his statement on observations of car on the road.
 
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Alexzn

Alexzn

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You will use half the charge running the heaters and defroster in real winter.
Then you will still be passed by a Subaru trailing smoke.
Ha-ha! The an EV battery is not your average Seats car battery. It’s HUGE for everything except driving. Heating will take some juice but not nearly as much as driving up Donner Summit. Defroster is puny anyway.
 

anders_nor

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I was talking to my buddy last week and he told me that Teslas and Model Y in particular are crappy in the snow even with winter tires. Curious what the experience of the owners is...
well yes and now, RANGE is crap, handeling is good, handeling is also tire based, I've driven my model 3 performance at 120mph+ on snow, ESP system is probably amongst the best in class, you can even turn it off and have fun, same goes for Y, basicly same car.

I run hakkapellita R3's 20" on mine, very very good tires.


snow and -20c, heading into mountains, or highway I've gone as low as 125 miles range, sometimes even under that again.



since EV's are 0 tax 0 vat 0 everything here most have at least 1, lots have it as their only car, I've had EV's for 6? years and I really hate them in winter. the app for preheating is awesome though, on average not driving to mountains, I use MORE energy for heating, than driving!
 
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Dakine

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Ha-ha! The an EV battery is not your average Seats car battery. It’s HUGE for everything except driving. Heating will take some juice but not nearly as much as driving up Donner Summit. Defroster is puny anyway.
I get that you are not an engineer.
On a cold day an EV can use 30% of its charge on heating and ventilating systems.
 

anders_nor

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I get that you are not an engineer.
On a cold day an EV can use 30% of its charge on heating and ventilating systems.
living in norway I can avg more than 50% on weekday driving on heat on, if I use sentr mode, it will use sevral kwh per day! just to power the heating for sentry cams as well!
 

anders_nor

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Car and Driver test puts it at 17%, but that's on a resistive heater, before Tesla switched to a heat pump. @anders_nor, your M3P is likely still equipped with a resistibe heater.

heat pump only kicks in for longer rides, for shorter its even less efficient.

I've owned like 10 EV's some with heat pumps some not, getting good at it ;) norway has snow & plenty cold. Lack of insulation KILLS the model 3
 

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