Driving at -35°F in the Cybertruck. Range & Efficiency Numbers

[SentinelOne]

-9* here today and I had an airbag stick (no codes/warnings but could feel it)...funny, wife's SQ7 did the same thing today (she called me about it)...her's threw a warning but it soon went away. Other thing that happened today is that I had it set to precondition, which it did, but even though it was plugged in all night it was only at 68% battery when I went to leave!

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[electricAK]

The day started at -22°F, and the cold weather charging bug kept the charge from properly finishing overnight. I had to go over at 5am and set the destination to a supercharger in order to warm the battery enough to start charging again with AC for a couple more hours. The bug limits power to 2A when the battery is too cold (https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/2...ruck-charging-and-regen-issue-in-update-20252)

Anyways, it only made it to 87% charge instead of 100% like I hoped. Battery heated until the snowflake was gone at least. We did 135 miles with an efficiency of 613Wh/mi. The coldest temp I saw was -35°F, and it was still -22°F at 1pm. Regan lasted well into the day, but weakened eventually. Interestingly, below 30% regen was full even with the snowflake still showing.

Thanks for the report! You're nearing the temperature range that no vehicle can handle well. Oil turns to sludge, air intakes freeze up, metal becomes brittle and prone to breakage, tires go flat. Glad to hear all went well!

 

[scottf200]

I don't see the option in the cybertruck to turn off rear or feet vents? Is this new or in the app only?

There a front and rear option when you swipe up on climate bar, you can choose the modes next to the power button on left area of screen. The recirculating air option is at the bottom right next to fan speed it’s a rectangle

Manual display

 

[Vagis9780]

No no no! Just to make sure we are all on the same page. The only way to solve this issue is to heat the garage. If my wife asks any of you, we all agree that is the only solution. Garage must be heated.

Mr Cool 24 BTU, does an effic job of heating & cooling, easy DIY install

 

[Thunderstrike44]

So I charged the CT last night (-5°F in the garage) and then this morning turned on the Climate control (68°F) 10 minutes before hitting the road for work. I saw the charger did start charging again. The Tesla app had the Battery Warming 3 squiggles on and the snow flake was off. I drove 3 miles -1°F outside and the snowflake came back on? However the Regen braking was working all the way to work and power usage was down about 630 kW/mi not 900 kW/mi when I didn't do this. Yes, it does make a difference! I still had 70% battery after 16 miles verses 62% . Thanks to all who shared their experience I hope it helps other understand cold weather surviving .

 

[braddibbnd]

I charge my truck every night at 11:00PM in a heated garage to 55%. When I leave for work at 4:40AM it is down to 52% (without any pre-warming). I drive 5 miles to work one way and this morning it was -1 degrees. When I got home tonight at 4:30PM I had 35% charge. It cost me 20% charge to go 10 miles. No I don't have Sentry on at home. No I don't have any heat running when I'm not in the truck. No I'm not driving aggressively. I've had this INSANE vampire drain every since an update that I got in June I believe.

Same with me on the drain. Don't have sentry on at home and the truck will take 3-4% daily sitting in the garage. The MY that I had was far better with it only taking about 1% in 2 days. And the truck has a much larger battery.

 

[mongo]

Same with me on the drain. Don't have sentry on at home and the truck will take 3-4% daily sitting in the garage. The MY that I had was far better with it only taking about 1% in 2 days. And the truck has a much larger battery.

Interesting. In warmer weather, ours could go 3-4 days without topping up.

 

[Sousray]

I try to turn off AUTO on climate once its warm, it will choose to draw in the new air over recycle the air in the cabin which can probably save us range in the cold.

Also turn off the feet and second vent option, i just keep the vent that blows up and set it to about 68. Dont forget to turn off the rear vents if nobody is back there, thats wasting energy. I find that the seat heats use less energy draw than the air.

Can you show me where the feet vent ids located on the screen? I looked for it for my wife's feet , but could not find any control for it.

 

[Mammalian04]

The bank in town showed -43,. We live on Horse Butte but I’m in Gardiner for a couple weeks.

Do you have one of the Teslas in town? I’ve seen a couple of other trucks around but wasn’t sure if they lived here or not.

I don't think that bank sign is working right. It never matches what my car says when I'm at the post office and often seems way off from the forecast.

Our truck hasn't been there yet. I am upgrading the house electrical service in the summer and will then install a charger.

 

[mongo]

Can you show me where the feet vent ids located on the screen? I looked for it for my wife's feet , but could not find any control for it.

First turn off auto (located to the right of on/off), then you get the zone selection options to the right of that. Feet is the third one.

Manual display

 

[Jacob]

20% is high, you could try doing a double scroll wheel reset if you haven't already.

How much time does the 5 mile drive take? What is the SOC when you get to work and when you leave?
Preconditioning before leaving would use house power instead of battery, but for a 5 mile drive, it's not worth the energy.
Is the charging at 11 due to a lower electricity rate? If so, is it possible to set scheduled charging to end at 4:30-4:40 am instead? That would allow your early commute to benefit from the residual heat from charging.
If not, charging when you get home may be better wall efficiency wise.

I tried the double scroll reset. 5 miles takes about 10 minutes (only 2 stop signs). Charging at 11 is for off peak times. Charging right before I leave might be an idea to try. Thanks for your suggestions, Mongo.

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

We are in the MadAdd and I was monitoring down to -27 on my camera temp sensors (we are not there right now) . Looks like you guys being up the hill a couple miles makes a big difference in temp!

I am trying to decide what mini-split to add to the garage so that the EV doesn't have to work so hard while parked. Garage temp is 18 right now but Natural Gas in town is too expensive to heat it. I think a low-ambient heat pump will work most of the time (except last night!). Says they will keep making heat down to -22F. I can then use the same unit to cool another minisplit head upstairs in the house for the few warm weeks in the summer. Two birds with one stone and less wear on the EV heat pump.

There is a Hummer EV a few houses down. I've been meaning to ask him how his truck is doing.

I have a large property that we heat entirely with heat pumps, and I'm in eastern Canada so it does get cold here (though not quite as cold as you get). The key is a brand and model designed for deep cold; we have Mitsubishi (I can't remember the model line, but it has a special rating for -30). My parents have a Daiken system that works all through winter as well. When we purchased our system the local government advisors had 3 brands they recommended for efficiency, those two and another. We took out our oil system once the heat pumps were put in and haven't looked back. We put in a few $100 electric baseboards from Home Depot to complement the system on extra cold days in key areas like kids rooms, etc, but they barely use power since the mini splits do 90% of the work.

We don't have a garage yet but planning to build one this summer with a few rooms above. Definitely planning a Daiken heat pump to heat the top floor and keep the garage a nice temp for the Cybertruck. I find a massive increase in range and comfort on the coldest days if you keep a Tesla in a heated garage.

 

[trentsize]

I try to turn off AUTO on climate once its warm, it will choose to draw in the new air over recycle the air in the cabin which can probably save us range in the cold.

Also turn off the feet and second vent option, i just keep the vent that blows up and set it to about 68. Dont forget to turn off the rear vents if nobody is back there, thats wasting energy. I find that the seat heats use less energy draw than the air.

Recirculating seems to fog up the windows too much with 4 people inside. I haven’t tried that with AC on in manual, but I’d like to believe auto is most efficient.

 

[mongo]

Recirculating seems to fog up the windows too much with 4 people inside. I haven’t tried that with AC on in manual, but I’d like to believe auto is most efficient.

Manual recirculate will be more efficient, but can cause fogging/ air quality issues so auto uses more outside air.

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