Leaving a Tesla Unplugged in Winter Overnight: Battery Cold Test in Canada

How much battery range is lost in my Tesla Model 3 by leaving it unplugged overnight in the middle of winter, in Canada?

This video, I reveal my real world experience leaving a Tesla outside in the cold and snowy Canadian winter (-18C / 0F ) for over 15 hours, unplugged. I also share some actual car data, showing our car's range loss in the cold, battery efficiency in the summer vs winter, and more.

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[Hitmanxp]

Sentry Mode alone can take about 5% over night... if i park my SR+ in germany with 10-15°c in a garage it loses about 5% with sentry mode on and 0-1% without sentry Mode.

[ericspda]

FYI, It will NOT actively heat the battery under normal conditions. The range loss you see is almost all coming from sentry mode keeping the car awake, which uses quite a bit of energy, and the battery getting colder. The range and SOC indication is based off battery temperature, you can not loose any energy, and the SOC/Range will change if the battery temp changes. It comes back when the battery warms up. Preheating the car will heat the battery, but this takes 20-40 minutes and consumes a great deal of energy.

[JRCarReviews]

Thank God you washed it! That was so satisfying. ☺️

[matthewknobel]

I can tell by the squeak of the snow that it is or has been really cold.

[LouieGrind]

Why I like Canadians more than Americans: they freaking use the metric system.

[gavinbitz]

Great video, finally someone doing a true review of a Tesla battery loss in actual cold weather. Thank you.

[justmayonnaise]

I don't know why I'm watching this, I can barely buy half of a Tesla.

[jordenolson]

I live in Saskatoon, SK and never thought I would find a Tesla YouTube Channel from here.

[alpinedrift]

I am Swiss, and I find it’s the most useful tesla video around. Imagine this, plus going on the mountains?

[Kaynos]

I'm really impressed by how fast it heats up the interior.

[jackfishcampbell]

I'm from Winnipeg and you and I both know that _17c is a piece of cake and is warmer than average for both of us in the wintertime.

[ag-omnr]

I believe there were a number of people on the Trans Canada last winter that were not very happy with their Teslas for some reason !

[vikingpotet]

AS a Norwegian I find this very useful

[WyattMullin]

I gave you a like for enduring the prairie winter.

[voldar]

Although this is an old video, I would like to say that out of the 9% battery loss over 15 hours, 4-5% of that loss is due to Sentry mode. Sentry mode uses about 1% of the battery every 3-4 hours.

[marcgrondin]

I liked that you finished with the car-wash : as that's the first thing I noticed (ocd much eh ?). Next, being from Quebec city - I enjoyed the high-quality sound were you can hear the "crunchy" sound the car makes, then your footsteps. Salut !

[davidkettell]

this is the kind of video i have been waiting for.After having several vehicles refusing to start in cold temps in N.E. Ohio over the years i have been leery about fully electric vehicles and battery drain

[Chuckers]

Great to see videos like this of electric cars in the cold to see real world range. I’m on order for the Ford Lightning and live in Vancouver with real mild weather compared to the prairies. We see -5 C tops a couple of weeks in the winter months. I’ll be using it for work and It’s not rare for me to be driving +400 km in a single day locally. When I’m not working she will be nestled in my garage warm and plugged in. I’m very confident in my next purchase. Thank you for the great review!

[philiptrautman]

This pretty much matches my experience in Jackson, WY, where it's been -18C (0F) or colder every night for the past few weeks. We park our car in an underground parking garage that gets close to outside temperature with no ability to plug in. Day time highs have been around -10C. When doing in-town driving, the battery does not fully warm up. (Snowflake stays on.) One thing worth noting is that when you plug in to charge or supercharge it takes 10-15 minutes just for the battery to warm up and start charging. We usually supercharge while grocery shopping, but that extra 15 minutes means the car isn't ready when we are. I've started taking it to a Chargepoint charger (level 2) that's a block away from our apartment as a convenient alternative when we don't need the car.

[caturlifelive]

I'm watching it even though I've never seen Tesla or snow in my entire life