🥶 The ultimate winter test: Yukon Cybertruck solstice trip

[getsometom]

Great write up. Thank you for sharing.

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[CTInProcess]

What an Amazing trip. No other electric truck could have pulled this off. Elon did well in designing and making this happen.

 

[trentsize]

Awesome to see! I believe my Blizzak snow tires are the same size as the T sportline ones. The one calculator I found online put them at 55psi cold, so that may help if you need to inflate a bit more.

https://tiresize.com/pressure-calculator/

 

[HaulingAss]

Now that I've officially had my truck in Alaska for a week, I figured "This is going great so far...why not put it to the ultimate test?" So I loaded up the wife and 11-month old baby, and enough gear for ice skating, skiing, and snowboarding for the three of us, and drove it to Whitehorse, Yukon for the winter solstice!

For context, we live in a quiet, remote town called Haines, Alaska. The nearest town is Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, 140 miles away in arctic conditions, up over the 3,500ft Haines Pass. There is exactly one 50kW CCS charger in Haines Junction, and then from there it is another 95 miles to Whitehorse, capital city of the Yukon. The roads up here are often quite bad in the winter, so on any given weekend you can expect very difficult conditions. We brought plenty of extra blankets, arctic jackets, and supplies. I also just installed TSportline wheels with Nokian Hakkapeliitta snow tires, which were 100% mandatory for a trip like this.

I have the A2Z CCS adapter for Cybertruck, it was brand new and untested up to this point.

We left Haines Friday afternoon, fully preconditioned and charged to 97%. It was +15°F. Temperatures along the way quickly dropped to about 0°F as we headed up the pass.

I had some work to finish up, so I mounted the Starlink mini to the roof glass with suction cups, plugged it directly into the USB-C port, and was fully connected on my laptop while my wife drove the truck. I had my laptop and Starlink plugged in for about 4 hours, and it barely drew 1% from the battery.

The trip planner expected us to arrive in Haines Junction with 37% remaining on the battery, and it was spot on! Even with all the elevation change, cold, and poor conditions. We pulled into the Flo charger at 36%. It was -2°F. Now came the moment of truth -- Will the charger and adapter actually work??? ?

Initially, they did not! Panic started to mount as I anxiously tried over and over to remount the adapter and start charging. After several tries, I called the phone number on the station which connected me to BC Hydro 24/7 support. They were super helpful and helped me to get charging started. It turns out I needed to turn on the station through the Flo app while the CCS plug was still docked in the station, and THEN plug it into the truck. We breathed a sigh of relief when charging finally started and ramped up to 44kW. We watched Netflix, warm and cozy in the truck, and charged for about an hour to get to 70%, and then continued on our way. All Flo chargers in the Yukon are free, as in $0/kWh, which is amazing.

As we made our way towards Whitehorse, the temperature dropped to -10°F. It was clear the battery management system was working hard to keep the pack warm, as range dropped faster than the trip planner expected. Expected arrival charge dropped from 30% to 20% by the time we arrived.

We found the fastest charger in Whitehorse, a 120kW Ford charger at the dealership, which took credit cards. Power flowed through the A2Z adapter at about 80 or 90 kW, which was nice, but it was very pricey, at about $1.00/kWh. Also, we quickly realized that we were in a bad part of town, at a bad time of night...9pm on Friday. There were groups (gangs?) of bored teenagers roaming the streets looking for trouble, and being the first Cybertruck in Whitehorse made us a huge target for unwanted attention. After a few negative encounters with these drunk hoodlums, we decided it wasn't safe to stay any longer and got the hell out of there. We had gotten the battery back up to about 50%. Which was more like 47% when we parked for the night at our AirBNB. We left the truck unplugged for the night at about 0°F. When we woke up, it had dropped to about 37%, mainly from reserving a large part of the capacity due to the cold pack.

We spent Saturday in Whitehorse, enjoying the ice rink, trails, stores, and restaurants. There was one Flo charger that we could not get to work with the truck, and had to drive a few miles away to a different Flo charger, which worked great.

Saturday night we found a 110V 15-amp plug near the driveway and plugged in for the night. This kept the battery warm and even added a few % charge as we slept.

Sunday morning we plugged in to the Flo charger at the Yukon Visitor Center, and let it charge up to 100% for about 70 minutes while we had a pleasant breakfast and coffee at Tim Hortons.

The drive back to Haines Junction was beautiful, in the Yukon winter twilight under a half moon. I used full self driving 13.2 for about 10 miles, the only spot on the Alaska highway that had bare pavement and visible lane markings. It was great!

Going back over the Haines Pass to the coast, we hit a snowstorm and used about 20% more range than expected. Luckily, we had anticipated this and charged up an extra 20% before making the attempt. We left Haines Junction at 80% and arrived back home in Haines at 23%.

We did this trip with the bed packed full of gear, tonneau closed, winter tires (soft compound) at about 53psi. The truck did absolutely great!!! It exceeded our expectations. Grip was rock solid, it felt like we were practically glued to the ice and snow (of course we were driving carefully and conservatively). We were plenty warm the entire trip, and the defroster was incredibly effective at melting out thick frost in the mornings, even at 0°F.

The view from the cockpit was spectacular, and the drive was far more pleasant than I could have imagined. It was just easy. The headlights were super bright and provided great visibility in all conditions we encountered.

We averaged 427Wh/mi from Whitehorse to Haines Junction, which gives us a winter range of 288miles!

The free charging in the Yukon is really incredible. It's not easy keeping these stations running in the cold conditions, and providing 24/7 support. Thanks Government Yukon for encouraging EV adoption and keeping the stations going! Also, if anyone from Tesla ever reads this, please, PLEASE put a supercharger in Whitehorse or Haines Junction. This stretch of the Alaska highway is super remote and really needs it.

Overall, an amazing adventure and I can't even believe how well the truck did. We will feel comfortable taking the CT for trips into the Yukon going forward.

Must be a fake, made-up story.

I have it from several mainstream sources that EVs perform poorly and are impractical in cold climates. ?

Now go to the Chevrolet Silverado EV truck forum and you will see why they offer such large batteries. Those poor owners are taking a huge range hit in temperatures more mild than what you experienced. It's plainly obvious that Tesla engineering took into account that their vehicles would be used in extreme cold (and designed the thermal management system to remain as efficient as possible). Just like gas vehicles, you still need to take special precautions for cold weather, but it's really not more burdensome.

I've never had an EV fail to start simply because the mercury dropped into arctic temperatures. Gas and diesel? You better know exactly what you're doing when you prep your vehicle or you're going to be in a world of hurt!

 

[Leo Snow]

That's quite a dope test to be honest.

 

[Balthezor]

Such a cool trip. Thank you for sharing. How's the reaction been to the CT in such a small town in the middle of nowhere so far for you?

Also, what do you do in this small town? Seriously, just curious. I live in the east coast and sometimes I do dream about living out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[sirozha]

Great report. Thanks. I’m disappointed to hear about gangs of drunk hoodlums in Whitehorse. I had no idea Canada had the gang problem outside Toronto and a few other large cities. Whitehorse, being a small town and so remote, having a gang problem is disappointing, to say the least. I’ve just read that violent crime is 249% higher in Whitehorse than the Canada’s national average. This is 3.5 times higher.

 

[TheDarkRanger]

I've been voting for Whitehorse Supercharger for years.

I wish others would too.

Great post!

 

[gillfoto]

Good to know, a very detailed and useful report. I look forward to Yukon roadtrip in 2025 with my Cybertruck from Juneau.

 

[electricAK]

Such a cool trip. Thank you for sharing. How's the reaction been to the CT in such a small town in the middle of nowhere so far for you?

Also, what do you do in this small town? Seriously, just curious. I live in the east coast and sometimes I do dream about living out in the middle of nowhere.

Haines is small enough that nobody is anonymous, so people generally act with kindness and respect. Even if they don't like the truck, the conversations are still civil. I'd say about 75% of folks have been stoked for me and genuinely curious about the truck.

I work remotely, in the engineering and tech fields. When i'm not working and parenting, I'm out snowboarding, jet boating, snowmachining, mountaineering, hunting, packrafting, and camping. I also build houses/cabins as a side gig.

...Which makes Cybertruck the perfect truck for me.

 

[Balthezor]

Haines is small enough that nobody is anonymous, so people generally act with kindness and respect. Even if they don't like the truck, the conversations are still civil. I'd say about 75% of folks have been stoked for me and genuinely curious about the truck.

I work remotely, in the engineering and tech fields. When i'm not working and parenting, I'm out snowboarding, jet boating, snowmachining, mountaineering, hunting, packrafting, and camping. I also build houses/cabins as a side gig.

...Which makes Cybertruck the perfect truck for me.

That is so cool man. Happy for you. Thanks for sharing.

 

[electricAK]

Great report. Thanks. I’m disappointed to hear about gangs of drunk hoodlums in Whitehorse. I had no idea Canada had the gang problem outside Toronto and a few other large cities. Whitehorse, being a small town and so remote, having a gang problem is disappointing, to say the least. I’ve just read that violent crime is 249% higher in Whitehorse than the Canada’s national average. This is 3.5 times higher.

We were also surprised and saddened to see this. I've been visiting Whitehorse for 14 years and I never felt unsafe, until now. Something is different, maybe more drugs in town? Graffiti all over the place, I never used to see that.

 

[swinefeaster]

Great writeup! Really enjoyed reading this. I'm very similar to you, work in tech, can work remotely if needed, do lots of winter stuff.

I've had the truck since March but only now this winter season been able to really put it to the test. Got the Tesla OEM winter tires/wheel package and it's been great so far. I was also pleasantly surprised that fsd worked just fine on snow covered winter roads. I don't know how it decides where to paint the yellow lines but it does even though it can't see them lol.

The only thing I really miss about the model x was being able to sleep in it. I'm waiting for someone to build a hard top over the bed that extends over the tailgate for extra leg room, and stick a heat pump in there for warmth.

 

[sirozha]

We were also surprised and saddened to see this. I've been visiting Whitehorse for 14 years and I never felt unsafe, until now. Something is different, maybe more drugs in town? Graffiti all over the place, I never used to see that.

Were these recent immigrants or were these local kids? The 100% increase in crime rate in Canda's large cities like Toronto, Montreal, etc. is almost exclusively caused by recent immigrants who got in the country by millions in the last 5 years. I watched a report on CBC the other day about the smash and grab robbery of a jewelry store in Montreal that was incredibly brazen. A gang of recent immigrants backed their vehicle into the store, smashing the glass front, robbed the store of $600,000 in jewelry by smashing the display tables with hammers, and beat the owner with sticks and hammers when he tried to defend his property. He said that this was not the first robbery of his store. The previous robbery cost him over $1,000,000. Canada is literally turning into a hell hole from being such a nice country just a decade ago. It breaks my heart to watch such a nice and safe country being ruined right in front of our eyes.

 

[HaulingAss]

We did this trip with the bed packed full of gear, tonneau closed, winter tires (soft compound) at about 53psi. The truck did absolutely great!!! It exceeded our expectations. Grip was rock solid, it felt like we were practically glued to the ice and snow (of course we were driving carefully and conservatively). We were plenty warm the entire trip, and the defroster was incredibly effective at melting out thick frost in the mornings, even at 0°F.

The view from the cockpit was spectacular, and the drive was far more pleasant than I could have imagined. It was just easy. The headlights were super bright and provided great visibility in all conditions we encountered.

I'm glad the Cybertruck's heat pump is working so admirably in the Yukon cold! This is just one thing of many that people don't consider when selecting which EV truck to get. Many EV neophytes still don't understand that a Tesla is just miles better in adverse conditions than the EV products from Ford and GM. They think it should be the other way around but they just don't know any better.

We averaged 427Wh/mi from Whitehorse to Haines Junction, which gives us a winter range of 288miles!

That's roughly the same range the big battery folks in the 9000 lb. Silverado are getting in similar conditions! And that's why they think they need such a big battery, to deal with winter weather. But most of them don't understand that a Tesla will not have as severe of range loss in the extreme cold that they are experiencing.

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