How good is your Taycan at winter?

[d00d]

Assuming ambient is lower, when I leave the house after charging (and pre climate), the battery is 53F/11.7C.
I'd like to be able to pre condition the battery to the 86F/30C ideal operating temperature.
I'll look around in PIWIS to see if there's any hidden capability to do that.
Running in range mode to close the radiator shutters, when ambient is lower than 40F/4.4C battery temperature drops, higher it rises.

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[KK34]

I'm not sure there is a solution to this, but I have found that snow and ice accumulates pretty quickly in the wheel wells and builds up to the point of rubbing tires. Anyone have success stories on preventing this by chance?

 

[d00d]

Active and passive HV battery heating information.

 

[ovonrein]

I'd like to be able to pre condition the battery to the 86F/30C ideal operating temperature.

I thought that Sport Plus will do that. Otherwise you could fool the charge planner.

PS: Where did you get the thermal management write-up from? Astonishingly complicated.

 

[d00d]

Sport Plus mode (column 4) has been recommended for DC charging, it keeps the HV battery cooler than if the car was off (column 5).
I got the write ups from someone here, don't recall who.

 

[ovonrein]

Hm... Not how I read those columns. The red line - active heating - reaches higher than even DCFC (the charge planner, I assume).

 

[d00d]

Was referring to keeping the HV battery temperature down towards the ideal when DC charging (blue line), I'm assuming the DCFC column is when you are charging with car off.
I agree, Sport Plus would be better than other modes when driving towards a DC charger without route planning, assuming HV battery at less than ideal.

 

[f1eng]

I never preheat the battery before charging on a journey because I plan my charge stops to coincide with meal breaks and the extra battery used to heat itself up isn't worth it for me.
I always use preheating before leaving home in winter for the better consumption and response.

 

[ovonrein]

This is a fair comment. In the end it comes down to understanding these amazingly complex control loops, so that you can do what's best for you. As someone else commented, the charging planner is dangerous when you get to the planned stop and do not charge - for whatever reasons. The expensive heater then stays on and you may never make it to the next charger as a result.

 

[DavidR]

This is the first winter with my Taycan 4s. (It's my daily and parked on the driveway, not garaged.)

How do you find your performs on a very cold day?

I have a set of winter wheels and tyres and they are performing exceptionally well on the slush, snow (only a tiny amount so far) and generally thoughout our cold and wet winter days.

When it's a bit frosty, so perhaps down to -1, the pre heating function is great. 15 mins is all it needs so I can have a de-misted warm car with a heated wheel. Perfect.
(After company tax, this was a key reason I switched to an EV.)

However, today was -4 at 07:30 and perhaps got to -8 during the night.
Even with 35 mins preheating, the door glass was frozen and wouldn't drop, making it hard to open the door and then impossible to properly close it.
Only after another 10 mins with the heating on max could I fully close the door. I had to set off with it partly open - not ideal.
Tomorrow I will do 1 hour pre heating.

For such an expensive car, couldn't they have developed a simple solution to overcome this issue?
Perhaps a heating element in the rubber door seal and / or in the door where the glass freezes to a component?

The cold weather also batters the battery. 35 mins pre heating and a 6 mile / 12 min drive used 12 kW!

How do people manage in colder countries such as the Canadian winter?

This is the first winter with my Taycan 4s. (It's my daily and parked on the driveway, not garaged.)

How do you find your performs on a very cold day?

I have a set of winter wheels and tyres and they are performing exceptionally well on the slush, snow (only a tiny amount so far) and generally thoughout our cold and wet winter days.

When it's a bit frosty, so perhaps down to -1, the pre heating function is great. 15 mins is all it needs so I can have a de-misted warm car with a heated wheel. Perfect.
(After company tax, this was a key reason I switched to an EV.)

However, today was -4 at 07:30 and perhaps got to -8 during the night.
Even with 35 mins preheating, the door glass was frozen and wouldn't drop, making it hard to open the door and then impossible to properly close it.
Only after another 10 mins with the heating on max could I fully close the door. I had to set off with it partly open - not ideal.
Tomorrow I will do 1 hour pre heating.

For such an expensive car, couldn't they have developed a simple solution to overcome this issue?
Perhaps a heating element in the rubber door seal and / or in the door where the glass freezes to a component?

The cold weather also batters the battery. 35 mins pre heating and a 6 mile / 12 min drive used 12 kW!

How do people manage in colder countries such as the Canadian winter?

I live in Headingley Manitoba, Canada, just on the west side of Winnipeg. We are in the middle of the prairies and it gets very cold in the winter. -25C with the windchill pushing it to -35C is not uncommon. These temps are really hard on my 2020 4S. I can easily lose up to 40% of my range. Mileage often clocks in at 30+kwh/100km! I try and mitigate this with a heated garage and preheating the car and battery while plugged in to the charger. If I preheat the car after it has been sitting in a parking lot for a while it will consume up to 5% of the charge. Regardless of this the car handle snowy roads beautifully

 

[KLHubb]

I live in upstate New York, and face similar challenges in the winter.
As you indicate range takes a hit, but the weight, four wheel drive and rear wheel steering makes the car a dream to drive in the winter. However, one caveat....the wheel wells can pack snow in heavy, wet snow.

 

[anonymouse]

A useful thread as we are about to do our first winter road trip, to Bavaria (overnight -12 this week), and a bit nervous about what we may find.

One feature of EVs that I always try to remember is that with no engine heat, the front stays very cold - any ice blocking headlights needs to be manually removed or it can be surprisingly gloomy on the road ahead.

I do get a batch of sensor warnings, with various bits of automation disabled, quite often. Sometimes this is genuinely salt on a lens but I think it can also just be the low angled winter light confusing them: parking and turning off/on clears it.

in terms of roadholding, though, on my Porsche Experience Day I was amazed by the protective systems we have in our car. If it can handle winter conditions the way it intervenes in a skid pan simulation that is worth the high price of this car.

For our road trip we have put on 3PMSF-rated winter tyres, increased the antifreeze screen wash ratio, packed ice scraper and de-icing spray, given the door seals a coat of Sonax Gummipflege to deter sticking. Anything else we should do?

 

[BjörnfromHamburg]

30+ kWh/ 100 km is common and quite "ok".
Using range-mode eg. no battery-heating helps a bit.
The only downside of less range is compensated for me by always entering a cozy warm car with no need of heating up a motor and having excellent dynamics at all times.
Range is totally sufficient for my usecase.
When driving my 1000 km to Austria twice a year in winter, charging 2 times more than usual does not bother me.

 

[ovonrein]

A useful thread as we are about to do our first winter road trip, to Bavaria (overnight -12 this week), and a bit nervous about what we may find.

You will be fine. Likely spoiled for choice with HPC along the motorways and probably find AC chargers in many hotels (take a cable along, if having). I have just done 750 miles over the weekend in partially atrocious winter conditions. The windscreen and wing mirrors are a real problem. I go into the ventilation menu, "Individual" then direct all airflow "up". You then obviously need to regulate the fans yourself. 3 or 4 notches on the motorway is below the tire rumble. At that setting, I need to dial in 24C to keep the cabin at an acceptable 20C. Recall, the 24C bounce off the freezing windscreen and hence arrive much cooler in the cabin. Also remember to turn on cabin air recirculation when setting out - the cabin heats up waaayyyy faster. (Obviously turn off once up to temp.)

Fuel consumption was absolutely atrocious. 2m/kWh on the way out with roof rack; 2.2m/kWh on the way back without. My tire pressure was way low on the run down to Dover and so put an extra 0.5 bar into the tires on the ferry. Zero difference in fuel consumption, which surprised me.

In the UK, I struggled with high humidity misting up the mirrors. It is really weird - the mist would recur every few minutes or so, then clear again. I figured that the mirror heating must apply some power-saving algorithm. The only way I know to override this algorithm is by pressing the rear window heater. That clears the mirrors in no time but comes at the expense, of course, of the rear window heating too...

PS: Found my answer to the anti-lock question I posted elsewhere the other day. On freezing road surfaces, the Taycan appears to disable regen breaking itself and only does pad breaking, hence getting ABS.

 

[RodeoDrive]

... a dream to drive in the winter. However, one caveat....the wheel wells can pack snow in heavy, wet snow.

We just had real snow for the first time in years and the same happened to me - I wonder if this is due to my 21" CT Design wheels? Or rather just to wheel well space being tight on the Taycan?
It gets annoying fast when at city speeds with the obstruction causing some vibration.

Apart from that and the wipers freezing over a lot, it is a lovely winter drive in deed. Awesome in gravel move, too!

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