Extreme Winter Driving pros and cons with Taycan

[Donlam]

Interesting observation. Could this be linked to the use of Sport mode? My car (usually always in Normal mode during winter) will happily do 110 km/h on the motorway, even with battery temps well below zero degrees Celsius. The BMS seems perfectly OK with keeping the battery temp below zero, even when doing trips of 20-40 minutes on B-roads.

SW-mode for colder climates, perhaps?

I don't use normal mode on the motorway because sport / range mode have better stiffeness to our road surface here. Only use range mode set to 130kph (max) and sport mode. It might without any restriction in normal mode. I will try if I got a chance when the battery temp drop to 1 degree celsius.

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[Gru]

Interesting observation. Could this be linked to the use of Sport mode? My car (usually always in Normal mode during winter) will happily do 110 km/h on the motorway, even with battery temps well below zero degrees Celsius. The BMS seems perfectly OK with keeping the battery temp below zero, even when doing trips of 20-40 minutes on B-roads.

I had the same observation during (cold) trips last year : BMS is fine with a cold battery in Normal mode.

I did (another...) test this morning :
- outside temp about 3°. car stayed outside all night, unplugged.
- drove the car for about 15 mn (no pre-heating),
- shutdown the car for about 10 mn,
- started pre-heating for about 20 mn

observations:
- heater will instantly heat the heater fluid used to heat the cabin. it'll go from 12A (seems to be the maximum) down to 5A and less when the heater fluid reaches 80° (max. temp ?) after 5 or 6 mn. goes down to 0 when car is shut down....

....however the BMS cooling inlet (warming in this case) fluid is not heated at all during driving (-> 11:17). Battery temp. remains at 2°. Only when starting the pre-heat (11:30) fluid is warming up to 35°, heater goes up to 12A, and battery temp increases up to 13° (max.)

I should try again in Sport Plus mode, but temp will go up to 10° today and next days, i'll have to wait another cold wave

 

[mikezhang31]

As much as I love this in depth analysis and insight into the cars heating logic. Please, no more cold waves or snow! Lol

 

[Scandinavian]

@Gru , nice diagrams of the Battery heating etc! Did you configure this in CarScanner?

 

[KLHubb]

It is interesting that at high temps one is not suppose to use Range mode, per the manual(see page 82, lower right) Also see the Tortoise icon explanation on page 126..."Restricted Drive Performance Light".....occurs when the battery may be at border line operating temperatures due to very cold outside temperatures.

 

[KLHubb]

I don't use normal mode on the motorway because sport / range mode have better stiffeness to our road surface here. Only use range mode set to 130kph (max) and sport mode. It might without any restriction in normal mode. I will try if I got a chance when the battery temp drop to 1 degree celsius.

Have you considered adjusting the chassis mode to "normal" in normal mode? I have broken a wheel in a pot hole due to having the chassis height at "low", as in Sport Plus or Range.

 

[Gru]

@Gru , nice diagrams of the Battery heating etc! Did you configure this in CarScanner?

yes.
you can create pages with the parameters you'd like to monitor.

once done with the measurements, you can go to your dataset and select the parameters you want to display in one or several diagrams.

 

[Gru]

It is interesting that at high temps one is not suppose to use Range mode, per the manual(see page 82, lower right) Also see the Tortoise icon explanation on page 126..."Restricted Drive Performance Light".....occurs when the battery may be at border line operating temperatures due to very cold outside temperatures.

that explains what I experienced once: car stayed overnight in a ferry from Greece to Italy, very hot inside.
I exited the ferry, in Range mode, and had to drive up hill to reach the highway: car wouldn't go more than 50km/h.

I didn't know Range mode would also reduce the battery cooling

 

[Vercingetorix]

I didn't know Range mode would also reduce the battery cooling

I think at the very least it closes the radiator intakes for better aero.

 

[Scandinavian]

that explains what I experienced once: car stayed overnight in a ferry from Greece to Italy, very hot inside.
I exited the ferry, in Range mode, and had to drive up hill to reach the highway: car wouldn't go more than 50km/h.

I didn't know Range mode would also reduce the battery cooling

There was a reference to this issue when leaving a HPC charging station. It was recommended there not to drive off in Range mode in hot weather with warm battery. I can not find it in the online manual now.

But I never heard that this could happen when just driving in hot weather

 

[Jonathan S.]

Parked my CT early Wednesday morning at the ski resort for free charging ($20 worth at my home electricity prices), then headed off into the backcountry.

Emerged from the woods almost nine hours later to discover that what had been dry weather under the tree canopy was a freezing mist out in the open.
Walked past someone in the nearly dark and almost deserted parking lot chipping ice off his windshield.
My clothing was now shellacked, my fingers numb.

Arrived at my Taycan to find that the cabin heating I had activated on the app while still in the backcountry (excellent reception!) had cleared the windshield.
Removed my snow-caked ski boots and wet soft shell jacket inside the ~85F degree car with the seat heaters set to Incinerate.
(Oh, and of course the CT with CC2 tires handled wonderfully on the snow-covered roads during the pre-dawn drive. During the evening, steady rain as the temperature slowly rose during my drive home from 31F to 34F, but fortunately the extensive salting and steady traffic prevented any black ice from forming, so glad to say I unable to report on how the Taycan deal with ice!)

The punchline of sorts is that this outing was near the location of this misadventure:
https://nypost.com/2024/01/21/news/23-lost-skiers-and-snowboarders-rescued-in-killington-vermont/
... although I was there four days later, after another snowstorm.

Best reader comment exchange from that article:

• Billy Kidd
  16 hours ago
  
  Agree... but think a much more important question is... is the Wobbly Barn bar still open in Killington and does it still have stale beer stench, questionable age appropriate customers, acceptable use of recreational drugs, and great live music ?
  
  • James korth
    16 hours ago
    
    Billy, you are definitely part of the baby boom generation.
    
    
  • BxIrishCath
    9 hours ago
    
    Oh yea the Wobbly Barn is still rocking.
    
    
  • Jose Jimenez
    4 hours ago
    
    I’m going

 

[KLHubb]

There was a reference to this issue when leaving a HPC charging station. It was recommended there not to drive off in Range mode in hot weather with warm battery. I can not find it in the online manual now.

But I never heard that this could happen when just driving in hot weather

It is interesting that at high temps one is not suppose to use Range mode, per the manual(see page 82, lower right) Also see the Tortoise icon explanation on page 126..."Restricted Drive Performance Light".....occurs when the battery may be at border line operating temperatures due to very cold outside temperatures.

 

[KLHubb]

Parked my CT early Wednesday morning at the ski resort for free charging ($20 worth at my home electricity prices), then headed off into the backcountry.

Emerged from the woods almost nine hours later to discover that what had been dry weather under the tree canopy was a freezing mist out in the open.
Walked past someone in the nearly dark and almost deserted parking lot chipping ice off his windshield.
My clothing was now shellacked, my fingers numb.

Arrived at my Taycan to find that the cabin heating I had activated on the app while still in the backcountry (excellent reception!) had cleared the windshield.
Removed my snow-caked ski boots and wet soft shell jacket inside the ~85F degree car with the seat heaters set to Incinerate.
(Oh, and of course the CT with CC2 tires handled wonderfully on the snow-covered roads during the pre-dawn drive. During the evening, steady rain as the temperature slowly rose during my drive home from 31F to 34F, but fortunately the extensive salting and steady traffic prevented any black ice from forming, so glad to say I unable to report on how the Taycan deal with ice!)

The punchline of sorts is that this outing was near the location of this misadventure:
https://nypost.com/2024/01/21/news/23-lost-skiers-and-snowboarders-rescued-in-killington-vermont/
... although I was there four days later, after another snowstorm.

Best reader comment exchange from that article:

• Billy Kidd
  16 hours ago
  
  Agree... but think a much more important question is... is the Wobbly Barn bar still open in Killington and does it still have stale beer stench, questionable age appropriate customers, acceptable use of recreational drugs, and great live music ?
  • James korth
    16 hours ago
    
    Billy, you are definitely part of the baby boom generation.
    
    
  • BxIrishCath
    9 hours ago
    
    Oh yea the Wobbly Barn is still rocking.
    
    
  • Jose Jimenez
    4 hours ago
    
    I’m going

It's so great to see Taaycans well used in extreme weather

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Ooh, especially love seeing what I think of as a Miami color buried under snow!

 

[KLHubb]

^ Ooh, especially love seeing what I think of as a Miami color buried under snow!

Yes, Mamba Green metallic looks great in a snow drift....I dust it off each morning and drive off to the play in the snow. It is a great winter car..

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