Thumbnail Image Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

Despite what some people would like you to believe, Tesla's electric vehicles are very capable in winter weather, and in many ways they outperform their internal combustion engine counterparts. However, there are a few downsides to driving any electric vehicle during the winter, like, for example range loss. So, in a battle against the elements, just how well do Teslas really perform?

Why Electric Vehicles Lose Range

In order for lithium-ion batteries to function optimally, they must be kept within a specific temperature range. The battery management system built into an vehicle communicates with the vehicles thermal management system which works to keep a battery within that tolerance. Not too hot during the summer, and not too cold and during the winter. While extremely hot weather does lead to range loss, extreme cold has more of a negative effect on range much in part due to the energy needed to keep the battery pack and vehicle cabin warm. Heating the cabin and the battery pack consumes quite a bit of energy, which normally would be spent powering the motors and driving you down the road. However, do note that all Teslas are now equipped with a very efficient heat pump, whereas in the past they were equipped with less energy efficient resistance heaters. Because of this, the range loss associated with colder temperatures is less than it previously was.

Heat Pumps vs Resistance Heaters

When it comes to just how much of a difference a heat pump makes versus resistive heating in cold, this Electrek article from December of 2020 talked about how YouTuber Bjorn Nyland did a video comparison of a 2019 Tesla Model 3 without a heat pump and compared that to a Model 3 with a heat pump. As this article mentions, after running the heat in these cars for around 3 hours, the Model three with a heat pump consumed around one third as much energy as the vehicle with a resistive heating. So, as you can see, there's a huge difference between the energy consumed with a heat pump and without, and this is especially important if you live in a colder climate.

Electrek Article Quote: “He [Bjorn Nyland] let the heat run in both cars for several hours at 21C (70F) to see how much of a difference the heat pump made. Based on his test, he concluded his 2019 Model 3 without the heat pump required 2,170 watts to maintain the temperature. The new 2021 Model 3, on the other hand, needed only 735 watts. That’s about three times more efficient.”

Now, when it comes to the exact amount of range last that you can expect while driving a Tesla on average in order to get some good hard data, I reached out to Tessie, who is a maker of the Android and Apple phone application for your Tesla, which allows you to monitor a number of different things about your Tesla, including battery health, and they graciously shared some data and a few graphs with me showing the average range loss that Tesla drivers experienced during colder temperatures as compared to their respective EPA ratings. Now, one of the key reasons why I like to get this data from Tesla is because it covers a huge dataset from over 29.6 million drives. Now do note that this data includes Teslas with a heat pump and without a heat pump, so if you have a heat pump, your numbers might be a little bit lower than this, but this is a good general average for Tesla EVs.

Now, moving beyond the combined chart to data for individual Tesla vehicles, for the Model 3, on average, if you're driving in temperatures around 7° Fahrenheit or -14 degrees Celsius, you can expect somewhere around 60% of the EPA rated range actually being available during that drive.

For the Tesla Model S, the range loss associated with colder temperatures is somewhat similar to the curve of the Model three. However, at -14° Celsius (7° Fahrenheit), that the range loss is a a bit higher than the Model 3.

When it comes to the Model Y on the colder end, that curve looks very similar to the Model 3.

And here's that same curve for the Tesla Model X:

Gas cars lose range in cold weather too!

Now, I want to make it very clear that internal combustion engine vehicles also have less range and do not operate as efficiently during the winter as well. As stated on fueleconomy.gov,

“Fuel economy tests show that, in city driving, a conventional gasoline car's gas mileage is roughly 15% lower at 20° F than it would be at 77° F. It can drop as much as 24% for short (3- to 4-mile) trips.”

Translating these percentages Into real world range.

When it comes to some range expectations for a Tesla electric vehicle at 20° Fahrenheit, using the data that Tessie provided, below is a chart showing the average range loss as compared to the EPA rated range for each of these vehicles.

When equipped with 19 inch tempest wheels, the Tesla Model S, Rang Range AWD variant has an EPA rated range of 405 miles, however, you can very well expect a range of around 259 miles of actual range if you're driving and whether that's at around 20° Fahrenheit or (-6° to -7° Celsius).

The most efficient version of the Model 3 gets up to 358 miles of range, and during that same temperature range, you can actually expect somewhere around 240 miles of range.

The most efficient Model X version gets up to 351 miles of EPA rated range, but you can expect, somewhere around 225 miles of usable range in at around 20° Fahrenheit or (-6° to -7° Celsius).

The most efficient Model Y gets 330 miles of EPA rated range, but you can expect somewhere around 221 miles of usable range during that same temperature range.

In addition, an internal combustion engine vehicle operating during that same winter temperature range, should experience a 15% range loss or so, which would mean you can expect slightly under 300 miles of actual usable range if you began with 350 miles in ideal circumstances. Do note, that if you move to colder temperatures, these numbers, will go down a little bit further.

Winter Range vs Average Real World Range

So, as you can see, winter driving with a Tesla electric vehicle or any other electric vehicle does have some negatives. Now, I did want to show one more chart here and using that same data, I don't know if you noticed, but when it came to that data that Tesla provided, which was as compared to EPA estimates, you could see that based on this data as compared to EPA ratings, most Tesla drivers get a little bit below the EPA estimated range, and the optimal range for these vehicles is once again right around that 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit range. So once again, I think it's important that we take a look at this chart once again and compare the range loss associated with the average at about 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit as compared to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. And see what the actual range loss is as compared to average real world range instead of EPA rated range, which is once again a little more optimistic than what you actually get in real life.

So you can see for the most efficient, long range, all wheel drive version of these vehicles as compared to real world range data. At the optimal temperature, there's somewhere between a 23 to 25% range loss associated with these Tesla EVs. Now, obviously, once again, these numbers that I'm talking about are just averages. If you have colder temperatures, these numbers might be more drastic.

If you have a Tesla with a heat pump, your numbers will likely be slightly better than this because this data includes vehicles with and without a heat pump. So if you want to know the actual real time energy usage of your Tesla EV during winter driving, you can simply pull up the energy app on your touchscreen in your Tesla and it will show you real time data and a projected range based on your exact driving habits and environment.

What about Driving in the Snow?

Of course, it's always a good idea to equip your vehicle with good winter tires because that makes a huge difference when it comes to winter performance for any vehicle. When coupled with the right tires, Tesla's traction control system, coupled with their highly responsive electric motors, allow Tesla's electric vehicles, especially the all wheel drive models, to perform very well in somewhat slippery conditions. Driving in snow and ice can be dangerous in any vehicle, however, it appears like Teslas are better suited in this environment than a lot of other vehicles. The Engineering Explained YouTube channel has a great video showing how well a performance Tesla Model 3 does on Snowy Roads, and I definitely recommend you watch that full video. In this video, Jason appeared to be very impressed with how well his Model 3 performed and how much traction it was able to maintain.

Freezing Door Handles and Windows

Now, another topic that I must talk about when it comes to Teslas and winter driving is the issue with freezing door handles and freezing windows. This is, of course, something that Tesla owners have experienced in the past and will experience in the future. This problem is due to the handles of their vehicles being recessed into the body of the vehicle. While this does give the vehicle a nice clean look, a look that I definitely prefer, when it comes to water getting on the vehicle and then freezing, it can make it very difficult to open the vehicle with the handles.

Thankfully, however, Tesla does have some great solutions for this problem, and it's way less of a problem than it was before. On the support section of Tesla's website, where they list winter driving tips, they address this issue for each one of their vehicles. Here are a few quotes from the Tesla Support webpage:

Model S: “The door handles are designed to break through ice when they extend from the vehicle.”
Model X: “The front doors are equipped with ice breakers that push the automatic doors open even when encased in ice. Open a front door using the Tesla app or key fob if it’s difficult to press the handle.”
Model 3/Y: “You can now unlatch the driver door via the Tesla app to open it without using the handle… To manually clear a frozen handle, bump the handle with the end of your fist while wearing a glove until the ice is broken.”

Pre-Heat You Tesla

Now, there are a lot of ways you can mitigate this from happening in the first place, like by preheating your vehicle before you get into it. This is definitely something that Tesla recommends on the winter driving tips page, and it's definitely something that I recommend, because you can actually turn on the HVAC system which will defrost the windows and get the cabin on nice and toasty before you get in to drive. Pre-heating your vehicle before you drive should help keep you from having a lot of these issues.

When it comes to how well a Tesla vehicle can defrost itself it extremely cold weather, I found a great YouTube video from Sask Tesla, and in this video the driver was able to heat their cabin from -24° Celsius (-11.2° F) to a positive 20° degrees Celsius (68° F) in around 4 minutes. So, after 4 minutes the vehicle's ready to drive and was warm inside, even in extremely cold example.

With all things considered, although Tesla's electric vehicles, and EVs in general do have a few compromises to deal with during cold temperatures, overall, they make great winter vehicles.