Tesla Winter Performance And Wheel Repair Photos

Snow Days!

On the first weekend in February, the Seattle area got hit with the biggest snowstorm they've had since I moved here last year - 8 to 10 inches. Granted, that's not much compared to what the East coast gets, but it's pretty rare for this area. School was cancelled for three days and I worked from home all week instead of just two days,

The snow itself wasn't bad. It was the icy roads that caused the problems. It was particularly bad around our house. We live near the top of a mountain with curvy roads leading down into town. Evergreen trees overhang much of the road, meaning sunlight doesn't reach the pavement to melt the ice. Driving is quite treacherous in some spots.

On the third day of staying at home, the snow appeared to be lessening and I attempted to go in to the office. I only made it about 3 miles, before deciding to not risk it and head back home. I posted a couple of the dashcam videos to my YouTube channel.

Spoiler alert: These are the most boring YouTube videos you will ever see.

This video shows just one of the hills I have to go down (and up) to leave my house. There is another way I can get into town, but that has more downhill curves, so I figured this was the safer route. In this clip, you can see one car (a Jeep Wrangler) stopped on the side of the road. I'm not sure if he tried to make it up the hill and couldn't or what. The car in front of me was a Jeep Cherokee and I waited to make sure he could get up the other side. I figured if he could, I could too.



The second clip gives you an idea of the conditions I was driving in. It was at this point, I decided to turn around and head back home. Towards the end of the clip, you can see the snow being blown along the ground, which gives you an idea of the wind.




This last clip is me going back down the dip I just went through. It's only about 4 minutes after the first video and you can see in that short time, a van has spun out and gotten stuck. I'm not sure if the car in front of the van also got stuck or had stopped to help the driver of the van.




All in all, I actually felt pretty safe. The Model S is heavy and only slipped slightly once, as I passed the van in the last video. I had my foot lightly on the brakes. As soon as I felt my tires slipping, I took my foot off the brake and let the regenerative braking do all the slowing for me.

Ice Tests

Because I grew up in Southern California and lived many years in Arizona, I'm pretty inexperienced with driving in the snow, so I was going very slow and being extra cautious. The next day, the street in front of my house had a solid ice patch about 100 feet long. There was no one around and it was a straight stretch of road, so I decided to see how the computerized car handled on ice.

I drove slowly onto the ice patch and then stomped on the accelerator for about a half a second. I felt the wheels start to slip, then the computer kicked in and limited power, causing the slipping to stop. The car felt under control at all times.

I then did the opposite test - I drove onto the ice and braked hard. The ABS engaged and I felt the pedal pulse under my foot as the car came to a smooth stop without sliding. This experience wasn't that new to me, as I have experienced ABS in action on other cars.

The car handled really well on ice. Now, I was going in a straight line, so the chances of me spinning out of control were pretty slim. Still, it was good to get a little bit of experience of the car's traction control systems in action.

Cold Weather Battery Life

I typically charge my car every day or two, so I don't worry too much about battery drain due to really cold weather. However, last weekend, we took a weekend trip to Las Vegas and I was a little concerned about how much energy the car would lose while it was parked outside in freezing weather at the airport. The Seattle area had just had 2 weeks of unusually heavy snow and sub-freezing temperatures and I was worried there might be more snow and freezing rain while we were gone.

I did some Googling to see what other owners have experienced while parking in cold weather and found this article on Teslarati. The owner parked his Model S at the airport for two and a half days at an average temperature of 16 degrees Fahrenheit. He lost about 2.3% of rated range per day - roughly 14 miles total.

Based on that, I figured I would be OK leaving my car at the airport for 4 days. Using his recommendation of 3% loss per day, as opposed to Tesla's 1% per day recommendation, I figured I would lose 12% of my charge while out of town. To be safe, before I left for the airport, I charged to 100%.

When I arrived at the airport, my battery was at 79% and the temperature was 38 degrees F. The article linked to above mentioned putting the car into energy saving mode to help conserve power. I looked for this option on my car, but couldn't find it. A quick check of the owner's manual told me that, while this used to be an option on early versions of the Model S, the functionality has now been automated, so there was no longer an option for users to enable or disable it. (On a side note, I love that the owner's manual is electronic and can be searched from the display screen.)

We left Thursday afternoon and returned Monday afternoon. Here are the high and low temperatures while we were away:

Day	High (°F)	Low (°F)
Thursday		37
Friday	46	35
Saturday	44	33
Sunday	44	32
Monday	44

When I returned, my battery was at 74%. That 5% loss represents roughly 15 miles of rated range lost over almost exactly 4 days. That is more in line with Tesla's 1% per day guideline than the 2.3% the Teslarati article author experienced. Granted, the temperatures for my test were about 15 degrees warmer than he experienced, but all in all, I was happy the loss was less than I expected.

Just like my cross-country road trip eliminated any last vestiges of range anxiety, this test eliminated my fear of losing charge while parked out in the cold.

Wheel Repair

As I mentioned before, I had some curb rash on one of my tires repaired. I'm really pleased with the results. I can't even tell where the work was done!

Before 1

Before 2

After 1

After 2

I spoke with the person who made the repairs and he said they first grind down and buff out any damage to the metal of the wheel. He said not enough metal is removed to affect the wheel's balance and my particular mark was so slight, barely any metal was removed. Then they mix matching paint, apply it and feather it in with the rest of the wheel, then dry it. They actually get the exact color from Tesla, so the match is perfect.

Now I just have to keep from hitting another curb!