How good is your Taycan at winter?

[wilho]

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?

Hi, coming from Finland, last weekend we had -30C My Taycan J1.2 GTS ST, delivered at the end on Nov-25, had been staying at airport for 2 days, pre-conditioning worked well, windows opened well. The battery had something like 15-18% left and additionally, the battery was also -25C initially. Anyway, with the turtle mode activated I managed to drive home well and safe with the car a bit stiff, but everything working well.
I have been driving also in heavy snow fall, with >10cm slush between lanes etc. Taycan works very well even driving through the heavy wet snow, even initially I was worried it being so low. Safe but deterministic behaviour - of course I have high quality nordic winter tyres, but really impressive traction. Car is using the front wheel drive to straighten the car if the rear slips to the side, amazing implementation, which you couldn't do with conventional 4WD cars.
Just prepare for more frequent charging stops (-12C is not that cold), antifreeze (-18C), long ice scraper with Gummipflege sounds good.
Just a small proposal - clean wheel archs if the snow packs in there, cameras, parking sensors. Otherwise this should be ok from my experience.

Sponsored

 

[GMarcs66]

Sadly, the guessometer is as good as it gets. It annoys me that there is nowhere in the Taycan that I can read out the instantaneous power draw. But cold weather driving has been atrocious.

My Taycan has pretty poor efficiency anyway. Our Mini happily does 4m/kWh, the Taycan will do 3m/kWh in summer. On cold days, it struggles to get to 2.5m/kWh - even on long trips.

I know from accidentally having the recharge planner on that the battery heater draws enormous power. So best to preheat while charging at home. And the Taycan takes an amazing amount of time - relative to our Mini - to get the cabin up to temp. So, yes, 1hr min for preconditioning.
Mirrors only heat up when rear heated screen is on,which doesn’t come on with preheat. Ridiculous setting
My feeling is also that the Taycan requires much more power (than our Mini) to keep the cabin at temperature. I have a suspicion that this comes down to the poorer insulation offered by the panoramic sunroof. Add to this the car's on-going effort to keep the HVB sweet.

Reason I returned to the forum today is that even after preheating the car for one full hour, the mirrors were still unusable because of moisture. Did I miss some control somewhere "Please clear mirrors during preheat"? I noticed also during driving that those mirrors aren't clearing as well and as quickly as they should. To the inside, there is usually some residual moisture that won't clear.

EDIT: And while we are on the subject, the steering wheel heating seems some weird after-thought. Did I miss an indicator in the dash that tells the status? Reason I ask is that the preheating activates the steering wheel heating but when I get into the car, I have no idea whether (it is on and) I need to switch it off.

Mirrors only heat up when rear heated screen is on,which doesn’t come on with preheat. Ridiculous setting

 

[GMarcs66]

My car on preheat from the app heats the cabin fine after about 15 minutes, but sometimes longer to demist as well and certainly longer before the windows are no longer frozen to their seal. It takes a full hour to warm the battery to a level where it is efficient though.
The heater is 10kW so yes, pretty powerful.
I would not expect the same consumption between a mini and a Porsche, either driving the car or heating the cabin.
It is slightly disconcerting not knowing whether conditions are such that the heated rear screen, wing mirrors and steering wheel on but I know whether my steering wheel is on by its temperature.

I get ~2.6 m/kWh on a long run in summer, ~2.3 in winter.
Short journeys around 1.6 in summer and ~1.2 now.
FWIW

I get the same figures, not a concern for me but can understand people get worried about range.
I was coming back from France in -4 and snow last year and had to stop every hour as showed 100mike range. Porsche just told me the mirrors only come on with rear screen heating. Mine still don’t defrost though. Been ongoing for 5 years!

 

[wilho]

Mirrors only heat up when rear heated screen is on,which doesn’t come on with preheat. Ridiculous setting

Hi,
At least for me preheat activates both mirror and rear screen heating. J1.2

 

[f1eng]

Mirrors only heat up when rear heated screen is on,which doesn’t come on with preheat. Ridiculous setting

My 3 year old Taycan decides for itself whether to switch on seat heating, steering wheel heating and rear/mirror de-mist, presumably depending on ambient temperature. The things I can directly control are temperature and which seats to heat (but not whether)

 

[wilho]

My 3 year old Taycan decides for itself whether to switch on seat heating, steering wheel heating and rear/mirror de-mist, presumably depending on ambient temperature. The things I can directly control are temperature and which seats to heat (but not whether)

This must be the case and my experience is from Finland from +3 to -30C only for less than past two months, where both rear/mirror heating has started every single time

 

[ovonrein]

...which doesn’t come on with preheat.

I learned this ridiculous trick by now. Comes on with Timer, and ONLY with Timer.

 

[ovonrein]

Hi, coming from Finland, last weekend we had -30C

Can I just check - what tires do you have? I never really understood what "winter tires" were supposed to accomplish but read in Taycan manual with some surprise that temps below -15C ruin summer tires. We are not spoiled for choice on those rims and I could not find any all-season tires.

Do you switch wheels mid-year?

 

[f1eng]

Can I just check - what tires do you have? I never really understood what "winter tires" were supposed to accomplish but read in Taycan manual with some surprise that temps below -15C ruin summer tires. We are not spoiled for choice on those rims and I could not find any all-season tires.

Do you switch wheels mid-year?

PMFJI I swap to winter tyres when it is regularly below 7C and back when it is regularly above 7C.
There aren't any all seasons I like in Taycan sizes they would be fine for winter here in Oxfordshire.
I learned over 30 years ago how useless summer tyres are at low temperatures.
is fun!

 

[wilho]

Can I just check - what tires do you have? I never really understood what "winter tires" were supposed to accomplish but read in Taycan manual with some surprise that temps below -15C ruin summer tires. We are not spoiled for choice on those rims and I could not find any all-season tires.

Do you switch wheels mid-year?

I’m using Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 EV studded tires, which I know are forbidden at least in many mid-European countries. The friction on snow is amazing, but works also on icy roads. The other alternative is Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5, a studless alternative. Both of these are nordic winger tires. They offer superior handling characteristics on snowy and icy roads compated to summer tires. It actually mandatory to use them here.

and yes, I switch winter tires around end of October and back to summer tires in April. Two sets of wheels is mandatory here.

 

[ovonrein]

@f1eng Well, I get the use of winter tires when snow is all around us. That happened to me once in 25 years. And I chose not to drive. (Discovered bread making that winter.) My question is more about the difference on clean dry roads in simply low temps. That's the typical winter around here.

In the snowy winter wonderland our T-shirt donning hero shot that video in, I in fact wonder whether his summer tires with snow chains fitted would not perhaps have outperformed the winter tires. Although Porsche says you can only fit them to the rear of the Taycan which does not solve the steering problem. (Unsure why I can't fit them to the front axle.)

 

[Flying ace]

The Taycan AWD system is very good in my experience in snow. With snow tires, drive with high confidence.

 

[f1eng]

The Taycan AWD system is very good in my experience in snow. With snow tires, drive with high confidence.

It is.
Tyres still make the most difference though on snow and an electric drive train can have much faster and precise torque control than a piston engine so the combination is superb.

In the snowy winter wonderland our T-shirt donning hero shot that video in, I in fact wonder whether his summer tires with snow chains fitted would not perhaps have outperformed the winter tires. Although Porsche says you can only fit them to the rear of the Taycan which does not solve the steering problem. (Unsure why I can't fit them to the front axle.)

Chains on summer tyres isn't a bad emergency choice, pretty sure there isn't enough wheelarch clearance for them at the front, so I wouldn't consider them personally.
I learned during my decades in motor sport that it is crucial to be on the right tyre so I just do it.

A set of winter wheels and tyres are a fairly expensive option but very much better value (in an engineering sense) than body kits, carbon fibre embellishments or a glass roof IMO

 

[Alain13]

PMFJI I swap to winter tyres when it is regularly below 7C and back when it is regularly above 7C.
There aren't any all seasons I like in Taycan sizes they would be fine for winter here in Oxfordshire.
I learned over 30 years ago how useless summer tyres are at low temperatures.
is fun!

If you only talk about low temperature, and not snow vs no snow, then I prefer to show this video from Jason:



So like Jason always says:
"If you live in mild climate and see only max 2/3 days of snow a year, the All-Season is the better 'Winter' tire."

 

[f1eng]

If you only talk about low temperature, and not snow vs no snow, then I prefer to show this video from Jason:



So like Jason always says:
"If you live in mild climate and see only max 2/3 days of snow a year, the All-Season is the better 'Winter' tire."

Yes, I know all seasons are better winter tyres in the UK, and I do choose them for my other car, but the ones I like are not available in Taycan sizes and whilst on a completely dry road summers brake well even at low temperatures as soon as it is a bit damp they struggle and EV rated Porsche approved tyres start out with very little tread depth even new so I use winters which are better in wet and aquaplane resistance is hugely better.
I looked to see if the new Crossclimate 3 sport was available in 20" Taycan size, but it is not and the Michelin tyre selector in their web site proposes winter tyres for the Taycan size.

Sponsored