Taycan 4S+ Cold weather experiences

[HK111]

And very well suited to Intro by the XX

I also looked at the central display and the song name and searched for it on Spotify

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[[email protected]]

Another trip to the winter cabin. This one started out annoyingly bad with another round of the dreaded dead 12 volt battery thing. Car was on direct charge with no timer or profile set, and no app usage nor background update. Still.....

After getting the thing going with my now well used start-booster, the trip to the cabin went well enough. The drive mode steering wheel knob was dead the first hour after using the booster, but gradually came alive after a while - very strange.

Of course, the automatic driving light dimming & adjustment system (or whatever Porsche calls it) fails after an hour or two in the snow & ice. Cameras & sensors are freezing over etc. No worries though, I rarely rely on such things anyway.

Parked at the cabin, popped the frunk to have easy access to the 12 volt battery - in case...again... Plugged in the Porsche “emergency charger” as it’s called over here and hooked it up to the cabin’s 230 volt outlet. Door handles are still in the “out” position two days later, don’t know why. Could be that the car want to be locked in order for them to sink back in, but there’s NO WAY I’m locking the car up here. Would be a nightmare trying to pry open the locked driver side door with that tiny toothpick of a mechanical key.

Other than that, so far so good (he said - hoping he didn’t jinx it all....). Gone from 25% charge to 52% in two days of charging, should be almost good to get home in another day or so.

 

[feye]

But still, I think a lot of "us" buying into the Taycan dream did so thinking

Doesn't it sound a bit like the 12V thing got to you?

For me my Taycan is daily reality and I reply on it. Well, not this week, I went skiing well up north.

 

[feye]

Another trip to the winter cabin. This one started out annoyingly bad with another round of the dreaded dead 12 volt battery thing. Car was on direct charge with no timer or profile set, and no app usage nor background update. Still.....

After getting the thing going with my now well used start-booster, the trip to the cabin went well enough. The drive mode steering wheel knob was dead the first hour after using the booster, but gradually came alive after a while - very strange.

Of course, the automatic driving light dimming & adjustment system (or whatever Porsche calls it) fails after an hour or two in the snow & ice. Cameras & sensors are freezing over etc. No worries though, I rarely rely on such things anyway.

Parked at the cabin, popped the frunk to have easy access to the 12 volt battery - in case...again... Plugged in the Porsche “emergency charger” as it’s called over here and hooked it up to the cabin’s 230 volt outlet. Door handles are still in the “out” position two days later, don’t know why. Could be that the car want to be locked in order for them to sink back in, but there’s NO WAY I’m locking the car up here. Would be a nightmare trying to pry open the locked driver side door with that tiny toothpick of a mechanical key.

Other than that, so far so good (he said - hoping he didn’t jinx it all....). Gone from 25% charge to 52% in two days of charging, should be almost good to get home in another day or so.

Wow, just read this now, it does get to you! Sorry!

I love the pictures!

 

[Genau]

Of course, the automatic driving light dimming & adjustment system (or whatever Porsche calls it) fails after an hour or two in the snow & ice. Cameras & sensors are freezing over etc. No worries though, I rarely rely on such things anyway.

Does the camera cleaning feature have any effect? The screenshot below only mentions the thermal imaging camera, but elsewhere in the Good to Know app it says the camera cleaning works on the rear park assist camera.

 

[[email protected]]

Camera cleaning works fine - at the rear, for about 15 minutes in this climate. I don’t know, but I think the automatic headlight dimming and cornering adjust relies on the front camera? And for some reason my 4S+ doesn’t have any cleaning faucet there. Anyways, I keep getting error messages on the headlights, but as long as they still light my way I’m fine. I can always dim the lights when approaching vehicles on my way.

 

[[email protected]]

Heh...just read that bit on the ”internal heating” on the front camera..... now that would be a great thing to have on the windshield wiper washer fluid faucets!!!

 

[Aigle836]

Another trip to the winter cabin. This one started out annoyingly bad with another round of the dreaded dead 12 volt battery thing. Car was on direct charge with no timer or profile set, and no app usage nor background update. Still.....

After getting the thing going with my now well used start-booster, the trip to the cabin went well enough. The drive mode steering wheel knob was dead the first hour after using the booster, but gradually came alive after a while - very strange.

Of course, the automatic driving light dimming & adjustment system (or whatever Porsche calls it) fails after an hour or two in the snow & ice. Cameras & sensors are freezing over etc. No worries though, I rarely rely on such things anyway.

Parked at the cabin, popped the frunk to have easy access to the 12 volt battery - in case...again... Plugged in the Porsche “emergency charger” as it’s called over here and hooked it up to the cabin’s 230 volt outlet. Door handles are still in the “out” position two days later, don’t know why. Could be that the car want to be locked in order for them to sink back in, but there’s NO WAY I’m locking the car up here. Would be a nightmare trying to pry open the locked driver side door with that tiny toothpick of a mechanical key.

Other than that, so far so good (he said - hoping he didn’t jinx it all....). Gone from 25% charge to 52% in two days of charging, should be almost good to get home in another day or so.

Deer [email protected],

I have been following your cold weather experience with interests as I live in Québec, Canada where the winter climate is also quite harsh.

Because of that I have been skeptical about EV cars in our climate. I am probably not alone in Canada thinking that way as Taycan sales seems slow here. I have been looking at it and my dealer has offered me a Taycan 4S in stock at a substantial discount.

But I am still wondering if it is for me. One question I have is that I spend a good amount of time at my cabin. It is not accessible by car in the winter, only by snowmobile and Quad with tracks. I park about 1 km away and no electrical outlet is available. My question is can you let a Taycan packed outside, unplugged, for 3-4 days at -30°C ? Going to and from the cabin to home or work where I could access some good charging is about 40 km. So I am wondering if it is fine to let the battery in the cold like that for long periods unplugged ? I asked my dealer but they do not seem to know for sure. In the Tesla Forums, it seems you should keep the car plugged in to keep the battery heated to prevent it from freezing.

Thanks.

 

[PanameraFrank]

@Aigle836 This would not work well, unfortunately. -30C is pretty extreme temperatures and you're going to get miserable range and probably kill your battery. There are just so many questions and such a high chance you run into trouble. You would want a sturdier ICE vehicle for those Winter conditions, although the Taycan would do beautifully for you in the summer.

If you can get a really great deal on a Taycan and also buy a winter beater car, do that! The Taycan should do just fine in -10C and warmer, it's just that EXTREME cold that's a problem.

 

[[email protected]]

@Aigle836 I’m no expert on EVs at all. But from my experience with the Taycan vs. my 35 years of ICE cars up here in the Norwegian mountains, I would not recommend the Taycan as your primary winter vehicle. Unfortunately, because it’s still the best car I’ve ever driven, also on snow. But there’s just too many glitches and bugs popping up when using the car below 0 celsius over time. Nothing major - except for the dead 12 volt thing - but it all adds up to me not completely trusting the car to work continuously at these temperatures. Granted, it has taken me up & down the mountain a couple of times so far this winter. But that has been me alone in the car, so a breakdown along the road would only have affected me, and not the entire family - which is a dealbreaker for a winter vehicle in my book.

This weekend the whole family’s been up here, and my wife drives the BMW 530 Xdrive touring while I’m in the Taycan. Even if I could pack all and everyone in the Taycan, which I can’t, I still would not have gone that route. I’d actually have taken the 12 year old diesel station wagon from Bavaria instead. It has earned that trust after faithful service for many years. And when something sometimes breaks, I usually get a warning or two in advance, so I can usually take action and get it fixed or temporarily circumvented. The EVs are very “digital” in that they’re either “on” or “off”, and if there’s a bug showing up then it’s not necessarily logical or to be expected (i.e. the stuck door handles I now have), at least in my experience - YMMV.

Also, as PanameraFrank states, the cold is a real performance killer for an EV. This weekend‘s been subzero between minus 5 to 12, - and charging’s been really slow, and though I don’t have the figures in front of me - consumption driving up was higher than last time. And from a Norwegian to a Canadian; let’s face it - minus 12 is not really all that cold. Come January we sometimes see minus 25 to 30 over here too. And even though I’m able to have the Taycan hooked up to power all the time at the cabin, I’ll probably leave the it in it’s garage at home when that time comes.

 

[Chris 911]

Deer [email protected],

I have been following your cold weather experience with interests as I live in Québec, Canada where the winter climate is also quite harsh.

Because of that I have been skeptical about EV cars in our climate. I am probably not alone in Canada thinking that way as Taycan sales seems slow here. I have been looking at it and my dealer has offered me a Taycan 4S in stock at a substantial discount.

But I am still wondering if it is for me. One question I have is that I spend a good amount of time at my cabin. It is not accessible by car in the winter, only by snowmobile and Quad with tracks. I park about 1 km away and no electrical outlet is available. My question is can you let a Taycan packed outside, unplugged, for 3-4 days at -30°C ? Going to and from the cabin to home or work where I could access some good charging is about 40 km. So I am wondering if it is fine to let the battery in the cold like that for long periods unplugged ? I asked my dealer but they do not seem to know for sure. In the Tesla Forums, it seems you should keep the car plugged in to keep the battery heated to prevent it from freezing.

Thanks.

I used to have a Tesla Model S 100D, which I had quite a lot of winter driving experience with here in Norway. Apart from horrible build quality (will never own a Tesla again), the battery and heating systems worked well. Took it up for a trip to the mountains where you park at 1000 m above sea level to take a snowmobile the last hour into the cabin. Made sure I had quite full battery (about 70%), and left it parked outside in -20/ -25 celcius for 5 days. The morning I was leaving it was -25. Started pre-heating an hour before I was about to leave. Came to the car which at that time had +12degrees C inside. The only challenge was low tire pressure due to temperature. The Teslas are also known for draining more battery while parked than other EVs, but did not see much loss over the 5 days (maybe 5%).

So, can you rely on an electric vehicle in cold climates, just need some preparation, and not have the 12V issue. You do need some preparation with an ICE vehicle as well, as for example Diesel needs to be appropriate for cold weather (otherwise you may have trouble starting)

On EV you have an issue with frozen nozzles for the windscreen washers and the wipers. I am surprised that they did’nt put heat in them. On an ICE vehicle you don’t have as much of a problem due to the engine heat. However you can get it when the engine heat melts the snow on the wipers enough for it to turn into water, but the wind makes it freeze. I believe it was the Land Rover Discovery that had the option of heated wipers.

In terms of Space, the Taycan is not really a roadtrip family vehicle, especially in the winter with extra luggage, but works perfectly for two. (I kept the Panamera Sport Turismo for that reason )

 

[Aigle836]

Thanks for your answers [email protected], PanamaraFrank and Chris 911.
I do have cars that I use year-round, Cayenne Turbo 2014 and 997.2 Targa4S (it's 12th winter !). With good 12V batteries there is no issue. Even the 911 is actually quite fun in winter (it's AWD) except in winter storms. But I have been getting crazy looks for 12 winters for using a 911 in winter over here

As I already got summer cars (Boxster S 2004 and GT4: I cannot even get out of my inclined driveway in winter due to poor winter traction with snow tires) I do not want a summer only Taycan. If I cannot take it to the cabin in winter, it would not be very useful.

I have doubts about EV around here due to our climate, but the government has announced a ban on new ICE cars for 2035. So being an engineer I am thinking about getting one to form my own opinion. But first I have to make sure I would not damage the battery right away if I leave the EV outside at -30°C for multiple days unplug. I will certainly get horrible range, but it is part of the experiment I guess. And I do have the heated garage at home where I can thaw all my cars regularly, as they do all froze up over time (yes windshield washer nodes, wipers, mirrors, sensors, you name it !)

 

[Chris 911]

Thanks for your answers [email protected], PanamaraFrank and Chris 911.
I do have cars that I use year-round, Cayenne Turbo 2014 and 997.2 Targa4S (it's 12th winter !). With good 12V batteries there is no issue. Even the 911 is actually quite fun in winter (it's AWD) except in winter storms. But I have been getting crazy looks for 12 winters for using a 911 in winter over here

As I already got summer cars (Boxster S 2004 and GT4: I cannot even get out of my inclined driveway in winter due to poor winter traction with snow tires) I do not want a summer only Taycan. If I cannot take it to the cabin in winter, it would not be very useful.

I have doubts about EV around here due to our climate, but the government has announced a ban on new ICE cars for 2035. So being an engineer I am thinking about getting one to form my own opinion. But first I have to make sure I would not damage the battery right away if I leave the EV outside at -30°C for multiple days unplug. I will certainly get horrible range, but it is part of the experiment I guess. And I do have the heated garage at home where I can thaw all my cars regularly, as they do all froze up over time (yes windshield washer nodes, wipers, mirrors, sensors, you name it !)

Glad to hear someone driving a 911 all year round. Had a 964 C2 20 years ago I used to drive all year round. Put some winter tires on, some weight in the frunk (30-40 kg barbell plates), and voila, perfect winter car. The air cooled engine was marvelous, heating the cabin in 2-3 minutes, and the rear mounted engine over rear wheel drive made for amazing traction
Now my current C2 is in winter hibernation, but thinking of building a winter 911 for fund.
Attach a picture taken today where we had 2 feet of fresh snow

 

[ThumbsUp]

Glad to hear someone driving a 911 all year round. Had a 964 C2 20 years ago I used to drive all year round. Put some winter tires on, some weight in the frunk (30-40 kg barbell plates), and voila, perfect winter car. The air cooled engine was marvelous, heating the cabin in 2-3 minutes, and the rear mounted engine over rear wheel drive made for amazing traction
Now my current C2 is in winter hibernation, but thinking of building a winter 911 for fund.
Attach a picture taken today where we had 2 feet of fresh snow

I had a 911 C4s that I drove for many snowy winters. I would get all sorts of critical looks and comments, but the car was great in snow, if not too deep. I chose to drive it in winter over the other car and SUV that I had. Sold it several years ago and missed it. One of the main reasons I bought my Taycan.

 

[[email protected]]

Xmas vacation over. Getting ready for the return trip.

This time I added some extra coolant in the washer fluid to see if that would prevent the washer faucets from freezing up. Also ran the preheat program just prior to take off. And it seemed to do the trick. Was able to enjoy clean windows across the mountains.

The drive mode knob was still reluctant to cooperate in the cold though. I’ll have the dealer look at that next week. Seems very strange that intermittent malfunction.

Started out with about 70% charge, temperatures around minus 5 to 8 the first 1.5 hours of the drive, between 0 and 4C plus for the remaining 2.5 hours. Parked at home with 18% charge left after close to 270 km of driving - all in one go in Range mode. At one point on pretty much the top of the mountain (coldest part) the computer thought it a good idea to shut down air heating in order to conserve enough juice to get all the way home. But after 30 minutes descent, it switched it back on again. The descent down from the mountain is long enough for the car to regenerate about 3% of juice. So, the trip up used about 65% charge, return trip about 52%. Same route, same load, range mode and temperatures about the same - maybe a bit colder going up.