Driving Cybertruck with defroster on in colder climate.

[TI4Dan]

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.

I love to travel up to the Yaak, one of my sons lived there fixing fences. When my brother in-law was farming and running cattle there I used fish from a covered bridge great little community.

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[TI4Dan]

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.

I looked up my reservation number and around july 2023 It may become available. I am hoping by then we will have hard facts on all three models of CT. SC should be in existence in our part of the world and maybe just maybe Montana will get a Tesla store if not I will pick it up in Oregon or Washington. I usually buy car and will hold on to it til it's a classic.

 

[Roslyn]

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?

When you say "temps in the 20s to low 30s, is that +20 or -20? Fahrenheit or Celsius? These questions may sound silly, but your issues seem to come from not quite understand some of the basics. I grew up in Edmonton, Canada, and am now living in northern British Columbia. At 70, I've seen lots of cars, climates, and cars. Simple physics: when the air is super-saturated with water vapour, it will condense on cooler surfaces. Like your bathroom mirror. As the humidity is lowered and/or the surfaces are warmed, condensation stops. Windows and mirrors are clear. In my '66 Bug with rusted-out floorpan, it took about 15 minutes. In my '93 Ford Exploder, it takes 5-10 minutes. Then, it makes no sense to me to concentrate your heat flow at the front window (side windows take care of themselves, as cab starts to warm.) Check the Net. There's quite a lot about Teslas in colder weather - Alaska, Norway, Canada (of course !), and others, I'm sure. Enjoy !

 

[Silentjustice]

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?

Once you start driving the battery heats up and the range loss is recovered slightly. That being said the truck should have the new heat pump which is far more efficient from what I understand. I don’t travel quite as far as you on the daily but I don’t notice a huge range difference with the defroster on constantly. Here in Canada even October temperatures can be -20°C and I don’t notice a huge difference in range.

 

[ajdelange]

The battery does heat itself to some extent and the vehicle's thermal management system can also recover waste heat from the inverter/rectifiers (and charger if charging at home prior to departure) and vector that to the battery. The later models have a heat pump which can extract heat from outside air down to temperatures somewhat below freezing. But eventually you come to the point where the heat required to maintain battery temperature plus that required to warm the seats, the cabin air and the defroster exceeds what these sources can provide and you have to take energy from the battery to meet the deficit. Obviously this depends on driving conditions but equally obvious is that cold weather is more likely to require supplemental energy than warm. Also, air becomes more dense as it cools so that drag will be higher in the cold. Colder temperature does require more battery energy and results in higher per mile consumption (less range).

 

[VolklKatana]

The battery does heat itself to some extent and the vehicle's thermal management system can also recover waste heat from the inverter/rectifiers (and charger if charging at home prior to departure) and vector that to the battery. The later models have a heat pump which can extract heat from outside air down to temperatures somewhat below freezing. But eventually you come to the point where the heat required to maintain battery temperature plus that required to warm the seats, the cabin air and the defroster exceeds what these sources can provide and you have to take energy from the battery to meet the deficit. Obviously this depends on driving conditions but equally obvious is that cold weather is more likely to require supplemental energy than warm. Also, air becomes more dense as it cools so that drag will be higher in the cold. Colder temperature does require more battery energy and results in higher per mile consumption (less range).

Hit the nail on the head there...i meant to come comment on this today as well, as my degradation for thempearature is definitely more significant than i thought it would be, my roughly 60 mile round trip commute used 94 miles of range today. Temps were 31 degrees F.

 

[jerhenderson]

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

define deep cold...... up here in Canada -20°C is a normal winter day....-30°C for a month is normal.

 

[Crissa]

define deep cold...... up here in Canada -20°C is a normal winter day....-30°C for a month is normal.

https://weatherspark.com/y/1016/Average-Weather-in-Prince-George-Canada-Year-Round

Coldest day average low is -11C.

-Crissa

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

define deep cold...... up here in Canada -20°C is a normal winter day....-30°C for a month is normal.

I don't know what Canada you live in, but here in Nova Scotia the average temp in Jan and Feb is -2C, the only months where it averages below freezing. I'm sure it's a bit colder in Prince George, but what Crissa said sounds much more realistic.

 

[Crissa]

I'm not saying the cold days aren't much, much colder. Just... Averages mess with people ^-^

-Crissa

 

[jerhenderson]

I don't know what Canada you live in, but here in Nova Scotia the average temp in Jan and Feb is -2C, the only months where it averages below freezing. I'm sure it's a bit colder in Prince George, but what Crissa said sounds much more realistic.

In north central BC.... . January to February can be -30 to -40°C.

 

[ajdelange]

I don't know what Canada you live in, but here in Nova Scotia the average temp in Jan and Feb is -2C, the only months where it averages below freezing. I'm sure it's a bit colder in Prince George, but what Crissa said sounds much more realistic.

The ocean moderates. In the part of Canada I don't live in in the winter (just over the Quebec/Vermont border) there is no protection from the continental polar air masses. I recorded average temperature of -7 °C in January of one year. The builder's "design temperature" for the area is -25 °C.

 

[Crissa]

I know you guys are proud of how cold it gets, but geez.

?

-Crissa

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

The ocean moderates. In the part of Canada I don't live in in the winter (just over the Quebec/Vermont border) there is no protection from the continental polar air masses. I recorded average temperature of -7 °C in January of one year. The builder's "design temperature" for the area is -25 °C.

For sure it does. NS is the warmest province in Canada. But elsewhere -7 average is realistic. -30 is not. The average in January in Prince George is -9.7. Saying it's usually -30 in Canada is silly. Even in NS we get a few days of -20 to -30, but it's rare.

 

[FutureBoy]

For sure it does. NS is the warmest province in Canada. But elsewhere -7 average is realistic. -30 is not. The average in January in Prince George is -9.7. Saying it's usually -30 in Canada is silly. Even in NS we get a few days of -20 to -30, but it's rare.

Seems like people are talking past each other. Average temperatures are scientifically determined and accurate but do not address the human experience. Humans tend to experience the extremes more vividly than the average. Humans remember and baseline against the extreme case.

Plus while the average is what the normal daily functionality of the CT will be, it does need to survive the extremes even if the ultimate extreme only happens once. It would really suck if a ton of CTs were purchased before a 1 in 100 year cold spell that disabled or injured all the local CTs.

For everyone outside the local event, the average is a relatively meaningful measure. But the spread on that average is much more meaningful to those living within the bounds of that average measure.