Explain battery drain and Snowflake

[Gaximus]

Well my truck sits in a heated garage and snow flake is there so definitely it is a bug.

Not really, It expects that you will drive it outside your garage, while it might be warm in your garage, as soon as you leave, it will drop in temp a ton. The battery needs to be hot(not just garage warm). It's letting you know that if you start driving you won't have the typical range, unless you precondition the battery.

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[Wonderful]

I didn't check the manual but on other vehicles the snowflake means the outside temp is near or below freezing.

Also batteries don't like the cold like many others have said.

 

[carsly]

My snowflake has been on for weeks. plugged in every night in the garage, precondition every morning. It doesn't go away.

Meanwhile my Model Y is parked outside unplugged. No snowflake. Go figure.

Then again, Cybertruck thinks it's connected to my home wifi at all times, even when I'm miles away, so it never attaches to cellular unless I do a double scroll wheel reset. Every. Single. Time. I made a service appointment, first opening is December 26th. Yay for me.

 

[Cactusrick]

So per image below, CT has been plugged in for about 24 hours now.. Battery drain seems pretty bad, especially with no sentry mode on..

The snow flake never goes away, even with preconditioning on.. I can literally drive it 50 miles roundtrip to work and back and snowflake is still on.. Granted its 15 degrees outside, but CT is parked in garage at all times. Is this normal? First EV by the way.

Why is ur charge limit set only to 55%?

 

[kdn]

I took this screenshot of my CT charging. I think the blue on the charge line explains the power loss because o the battery not being at "optimum" temperature. I believe the snowflake makes you are of the power loss. The other day I drove for 1-1/2 hours before is disappeared

 

[CyberGus]

Why is ur charge limit set only to 55%?

Why set it higher?

 

[eswimm]

I have several Teslas and some are in a heated garage, the snowflake is triggered by the weather network info for your area, and the blue bar will tell you the impact on the battery once it’s out and running in the cold. Having it in a heated garage makes getting it warm easier and helps with charging. My older model S doesn't have that, but the Y does.

That is not the case. The snowflake symbol means the battery cells are cold and the discharge depth, discharge rate and charge rate are all limited due to cell temperature. The definition of what the battery considers cold (under about 65F) and what people might consider cold is also quite different. Since the Cybertruck battery differs so greatly from other Tesla models, we don't have a lot of winter experience with what it takes to warm the battery. It's a much bigger battery, with bigger cells than the 3/Y and still substantially bigger than the S/X. There also seems to be a larger air gap between the top of the cells (covered with insulating foam) and the cabin floor, that may result in the battery staying cooler when the cabin is heated. The difference in inaccessible energy between a battery at 60F (small bit of blue bar) and one below 30F (larger chunk of blue bar) should be pretty significant.

Technically, if people are keeping the CT in a garage heated above 65F, they shouldn't be seeing the snowflake while parked. The CT is a really efficient vehicle, so there's a good chance that there's simply not enough waste heat generated while driving to significantly heat the battery up. Entering navigation to a nearby Supercharger should trigger the battery warming routine and heat it well beyond the snowflake threshold.

I keep my CT parked outside and it was in the low 40s today. A short drive and a 45m level 2 charge (8.5kWh added) was enough to heat my battery enough the snowflake went away.

 

[cbrtrckrsrvd112219]

Why set it higher?

1. Tesla recommends 80%
2. What if you need to drive more than usual
3. Li batteries dont like to be empty
4. Why not? ?

but really curious of your logic for 55% battery limit

 

[CyberGus]

1. Tesla recommends 80%
2. What if you need to drive more than usual
3. Li batteries dont like to be empty
4. Why not? ?

but really curious of your logic for 55% battery limit

1. Tesla recommends 80% as a maximum for daily use
2. I set a higher limit when planning a longer journey
3. Lithium batteries love to be at low SoC
4. Higher storage SoC accelerates degradation

 

[mongo]

The little green Lightning bolt in a circle there under the headlight indicator is showing there is reduced regenerative braking.

FWIW, that icon is a disk brake rotor and caliper.

 

[ChiTownCT]

1. Tesla recommend 80% as a maximum for daily use
2. I set a higher limit when planning a longer journey
3. Lithium batteries love to be at low SoC
4. Higher storage SoC accelerates degradation

Yea what Gus said, I go no more than 50% usually.. Enough for my daily use

 

[Jbrazda]

Well my truck sits in a heated garage and snow flake is there so definitely it is a bug.

Mine too. And I never see the snowflake. 10 degrees outside right now. 70 in my garage. No snowflake. When I go park at work I’ll get the snowflake.

 

[DreBoh]

That is not the case. The snowflake symbol means the battery cells are cold and the discharge depth, discharge rate and charge rate are all limited due to cell temperature. The definition of what the battery considers cold (under about 65F) and what people might consider cold is also quite different. Since the Cybertruck battery differs so greatly from other Tesla models, we don't have a lot of winter experience with what it takes to warm the battery. It's a much bigger battery, with bigger cells than the 3/Y and still substantially bigger than the S/X. There also seems to be a larger air gap between the top of the cells (covered with insulating foam) and the cabin floor, that may result in the battery staying cooler when the cabin is heated. The difference in inaccessible energy between a battery at 60F (small bit of blue bar) and one below 30F (larger chunk of blue bar) should be pretty significant.

Technically, if people are keeping the CT in a garage heated above 65F, they shouldn't be seeing the snowflake while parked. The CT is a really efficient vehicle, so there's a good chance that there's simply not enough waste heat generated while driving to significantly heat the battery up. Entering navigation to a nearby Supercharger should trigger the battery warming routine and heat it well beyond the snowflake threshold.

I keep my CT parked outside and it was in the low 40s today. A short drive and a 45m level 2 charge (8.5kWh added) was enough to heat my battery enough the snowflake went away.

Interesting, I’m not sure that’s what I’ve experienced, however, I'm going to observe this a bit more, as the technical explanation makes a lot of sense.

 

[AlmostHuman]

The little green Lightning bolt in a circle there under the headlight indicator is showing there is reduced regenerative braking. You see it a lot when you have a snowflake.

You used to have much less braking when that symbol is on, but I haven't noticed that happening with my Cybertruck. The 2020 MY, yes. Cybertruck, no.

You may not notice it if you have it set to apply the brakes when regen is limited. I for sure notice it when the icon is there and I do not have it set to apply the physical brakes.

 

[AlmostHuman]

FWIW, that icon is a disk brake rotor and caliper.

I think this icon is a carryover from the power display on some of the first models. For example our X the way it displays regen or power being delivered is with an energy graph that is round. When regen is limited it is represented with dashes in the bottom of the regen graph. It is a little difficult to see but the power meter on the Cybertruck (other models that have the meter as well) will also so dashed lines when regen is limited (would be at the red arrow in the below pic) I assume they added the green icon to make it more apparent so people are more careful. Once you get use to the distance needed to stop with only regen as soon as that is reduced it can surprise you that physical brakes are needed for the same stop you have made hundreds of times with only regen.

Model X energy graph:

Cybertruck power meter:

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