Driving Cybertruck with defroster on in colder climate.

[TI4Dan]

Today I traveled to some appointments I had in another city, I drove over 230 miles from home and back. It has snowed here already and I had some thoughts on the dual motor range. I use the defrosters the whole time during the travels to warm the interior space and to keep the windshield clear and from fogging up front and side glass. Would the 300 mile range of dual motor make the trip with temps in the 20's to low 30's. We don't have a supercharger in this town yet so Cybertruck would have to make it on it's charged up battery from the beginning. Does anyone have some experience with these conditions?

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[Crissa]

Depends on who you ask about how much range Teslas lose.

You won't need to heat the entire cabin, though.

-Crissa

 

[TI4Dan]

Depends on who you ask about how much range Teslas lose.

You won't need to heat the entire cabin, though.

-Crissa

Yes trying to find out if anyone with a Tesla can share their cold weather travel experiences.
My wife rides with me and heat is not a option but butt warmers and warm air coming from a vent on her may work. I know the problem, just not the answer.

 

[Crissa]

My wife rides with me and heat is not a option but butt warmers and warm air coming from a vent on her may work. I know the problem, just not the answer.

Yeah, don't discount a good buttwarmer and blanket. That's what I do for mine ^-^

You won't see any range degradation with a Tesla until deep cold, tho. Not like my bike with its air-cooled battery.

-Crissa

 

[TI4Dan]

Depends on who you ask about how much range Teslas lose.

You won't need to heat the entire cabin, though.

-Crissa

Yeah, don't discount a good buttwarmer and blanket. That's what I do for mine ^-^

You won't see any range degradation with a Tesla until deep cold, tho. Not like my bike with its air-cooled battery.

-Crissa

I may not mention the blanket idea to her yet, this maybe the kind of news has to be carfully crafted before making this a standard practice......I want to stay married but I agree blanket good.

 

[Crissa]

I may not mention the blanket idea to her yet, this maybe the kind of news has to be carfully crafted before making this a standard practice......I want to stay married but I agree blanket good.

Add the blanket then slowly turn off the heat while she's asleep ^-^

-Crissa

 

[TI4Dan]

Add the blanket then slowly turn off the heat while she's asleep ^-^

-Crissa

She's sitting next to me right now, she doesn't cuss but it did not sound reassuring. Funny you mention blankets because we keep them in our vehicles in case of emergency.

 

[CyberT]

Today I traveled to some appointments I had in another city, I drove over 230 miles from home and back. It has snowed here already and I had some thoughts on the dual motor range. I use the defrosters the whole time during the travels to warm the interior space and to keep the windshield clear and from fogging up front and side glass. Would the 300 mile range of dual motor make the trip with temps in the 20's to low 30's. We don't have a supercharger in this town yet so Cybertruck would have to make it on it's charged up battery from the beginning. Does anyone have some experience with these conditions?

I imagine that the CT will have a heat pump. We will get better information this winter with the Model Y fleet giving us real world range numbers. Its a wait and see game.

Based on informative in-depth 4680 battery videos the Dual Motor may exceed 320 miles of range (but its all speculative at this point). So with the efficiency of the heat pump and conservative driving I would bet that you shouldn't have an issue driving the 230 miles.

At worst case, if there still isn't a super charging station along the way by the time you actually have your CT delivered I would look into other DC fast chargers along the way.

 

[EVCanuck]

Today I traveled to some appointments I had in another city, I drove over 230 miles from home and back. It has snowed here already and I had some thoughts on the dual motor range. I use the defrosters the whole time during the travels to warm the interior space and to keep the windshield clear and from fogging up front and side glass. Would the 300 mile range of dual motor make the trip with temps in the 20's to low 30's. We don't have a supercharger in this town yet so Cybertruck would have to make it on it's charged up battery from the beginning. Does anyone have some experience with these conditions?

I bet that by the time you will get your CT, the location where you went for your appointment will have more options for charging Teslas, quickly.
I don't know what's your reservation number but I think your best bet is to not be the first in line for the CT, wait and see what is the real-world mileage. Although I do not think you will have a problem selling your CT in the eventual case that it does not fit your situation.

 

[ajdelange]

Today I traveled to some appointments I had in another city, I drove over 230 miles from home and back. ... Would the 300 mile range of dual motor make the trip with temps in the 20's to low 30's. We don't have a supercharger in this town yet so Cybertruck would have to make it on it's charged up battery from the beginning. Does anyone have some experience with these conditions?

It's questionable as to whether you could make this trip comfortably in warm weather. The truck may have an EPA rating of 300 mile but that would involve a complete discharge of the battery. A more practical "working range" is 80% of the EPA range which is, in this case, 240 miles and that in turn is pretty close to the 230 miles required for your trip. In good weather that should be doable but if it rains, for example, your EPA range of 300 miles can easily turn into a realized range of 200 miles. Other things that eat range are stop and go driving and the big one: driving at high speeds. Of course the use of the heater is another energy suck. It has been mentioned in other posts that the CT will almost certainly have a heat pump which will improve heating demand greatly at temperatures down to freezing, much less so from freezing down to perhaps 0 °F and not at all below that. You will soon discover after driving your CT in the conditions you have to deal with what your practical consumption rate is.

In any case it is clear that the best way for you to have a comfortable, worry free trip is to charge while at your destination. There may be no SCs at either end but that doesn't mean that there won't be charging opportunities. Clearly you will charge at home before departing. It is OK to charge over 90% - even to 100% as long as you don't do it that often and you may want to do that before departing. At the other end look for other fast chargers (they will be CHAdeMO so you will need the adapter) and if those are not available use the UMC that comes with the truck (will give you 30 miles added range for each hour) or get a BlackMamba (will give you 38) You will need a 50A otlet to plug either of these into and which are commonly found at camp grounds (maybe not open in the winter), garages, welding shops etc. Check PlugShare to see what might be available. If you want us to have a look for you just tell us the names of the towns and we might be able to suggest a strategy.

Rest assured that the truck will give you excellent, minute by minute charge status information to let you adjust strategy as road conditions change. If you can pick up a few kWh at the destination I am sure that you will be quite comfortable (thermally an mentally) on such a trip.

 

[ajdelange]

Just looked at Montanna on PlugShare. There is lots of Montanna on the map but the charging opportunities are thin. You may have to get innovative. You might also want to put your trip into ABetterRoutePlanner (type that into your search window) and see what they recommend.

 

[egandalf]

Check PlugShare to see what might be available.

Nice! Thanks for turning me on to this. Installed the app and there are now more options with an adapter in my area than I initially assumed. Still not many, but with the sparsity of SCs, it's good to see more options AT ALL in Eastern Kentucky.

 

[TI4Dan]

It's questionable as to whether you could make this trip comfortably in warm weather. The truck may have an EPA rating of 300 mile but that would involve a complete discharge of the battery. A more practical "working range" is 80% of the EPA range which is, in this case, 240 miles and that in turn is pretty close to the 230 miles required for your trip. In good weather that should be doable but if it rains, for example, your EPA range of 300 miles can easily turn into a realized range of 200 miles. Other things that eat range are stop and go driving and the big one: driving at high speeds. Of course the use of the heater is another energy suck. It has been mentioned in other posts that the CT will almost certainly have a heat pump which will improve heating demand greatly at temperatures down to freezing, much less so from freezing down to perhaps 0 °F and not at all below that. You will soon discover after driving your CT in the conditions you have to deal with what your practical consumption rate is.

In any case it is clear that the best way for you to have a comfortable, worry free trip is to charge while at your destination. There may be no SCs at either end but that doesn't mean that there won't be charging opportunities. Clearly you will charge at home before departing. It is OK to charge over 90% - even to 100% as long as you don't do it that often and you may want to do that before departing. At the other end look for other fast chargers (they will be CHAdeMO so you will need the adapter) and if those are not available use the UMC that comes with the truck (will give you 30 miles added range for each hour) or get a BlackMamba (will give you 38) You will need a 50A otlet to plug either of these into and which are commonly found at camp grounds (maybe not open in the winter), garages, welding shops etc. Check PlugShare to see what might be available. If you want us to have a look for you just tell us the names of the towns and we might be able to suggest a strategy.

Rest assured that the truck will give you excellent, minute by minute charge status information to let you adjust strategy as road conditions change. If you can pick up a few kWh at the destination I am sure that you will be quite comfortable (thermally an mentally) on such a trip.

I have checked out plug share and ABRP and at this time no charging opportunities were shown In kalispell, MT. ABRP did indicate that If I drove from Libby,MT at 43 MPH it was possible to make the trip to Kalispell. My trip starts in Libby to Kalispell to Eureka and home, the mileage total is 226 miles which does not include driving around in town to required stops. I know Tesla plans on putting SC in Kalispell and according to the map 2020 is the target year, In two weeks I have to drive back to Kalispell to pick up my glasses, I will look in on the progress and see where my future stop will be. This would end any thoughts of winter driving concerns. Thank you for all your good ideas, Just as a side note the minimum speed on the highways here is 45 mph, In a story I read of a 4 corners race throughout the USA, one of the riders recieved a ticket for doing 42 mph, The officer cited 45 mph was legal minimum speed. Out here it is very common to see farm equipment being driven on the side of the highway.
I probably could get way with driving slower if I ever was pulled over I would explain to the officer that I am trying to catch up to the farm tractor that left me behind lol. You shared some great ideas.

 

[Sirfun]

I have checked out plug share and ABRP and at this time no charging opportunities were shown In kalispell, MT. ABRP did indicate that If I drove from Libby,MT at 43 MPH it was possible to make the trip to Kalispell. My trip starts in Libby to Kalispell to Eureka and home, the mileage total is 226 miles which does not include driving around in town to required stops. I know Tesla plans on putting SC in Kalispell and according to the map 2020 is the target year, In two weeks I have to drive back to Kalispell to pick up my glasses, I will look in on the progress and see where my future stop will be. This would end any thoughts of winter driving concerns. Thank you for all your good ideas, Just as a side note the minimum speed on the highways here is 45 mph, In a story I read of a 4 corners race throughout the USA, one of the riders recieved a ticket for doing 42 mph, The officer cited 45 mph was legal minimum speed. Out here it is very common to see farm equipment being driven on the side of the highway.
I probably could get way with driving slower if I ever was pulled over I would explain to the officer that I am trying to catch up to the farm tractor that left me behind lol. You shared some great ideas.

I was hoping AJ would chime in, he is very knowledgeable. I was thinking along the same lines as what he said, but my knowledge is only based on studying Tesla's on the internet and ABRP. BTW, I was excited to see you're from Libby, I have a cousin who lives in Yaak.

 

[VolklKatana]

one thing to remember is that, assuming you have it plugged in at home, you should be able to use 'scheduled departure' and preconditioning the cabin to get it to your liking before even unplugging the vehicle, meaning, you may not need defrost 'on' the entire trip and will use 0 battery before leaving. I have started using this on my new to me Tesla here in Wisconsin as the past week has been down around freezing. It really is convenient.

I agree with @CyberT , the model Y's should give us a pretty good idea this winter.