Winter Driving Tips| A Step-by-Step Guide

Your Tesla has many features designed to make your cold-weather driving experience by Winter Driving Tips. All Tesla vehicles deliver optimal winter driving performance thanks to even weight distribution, high responsive motor control, and dynamic anti-roll bar. During cold weather, cars consume more energy to heat the battery and warm the cabin, and it is normal to notice increased energy consumption.

We’ve made numerous updates to improve your driving experience during freezing temperatures, including better overall battery thermal performance, faster supercharging, and improved cabin air conditioning.

Many of these features are enabled automatically, or you can enable them before or during your trip. We encourage all drivers to take advantage of them to achieve their best performance during cold weather conditions.

Comfort and luxury features

1. Connect your car

When your vehicle is plugged in, power-intensive features, such as battery and cabin preconditioning, rely on the external power source rather than the vehicle’s battery. Hence, there is more energy available for driving once the car is unplugged.

2. Scheduled departure

Save a lot of energy at the start of your trip with the ‘Scheduled Departures’ feature. Once you set your departure time with the touchscreen or Tesla app, your car will prepare on its own by determining the best time to start charging and pre-conditioning. Proper preparation ensures that your vehicle is at the desired charge level and cabin temperature at the time you leave, and that peak efficiency and performance are available from the moment you start driving. If your battery is not adequately pre-conditioned, it will use some of its energy to heat itself up instead of using that energy throughout your driving range.

Preconditioning just before you drive

You can manually preheat your cabin by activating the preconditioning or defrost feature via the Tesla app.

Preconditioning: Open the Tesla app and select ‘Climate’ > ‘On’.

Defrost: Open the Tesla app and select ‘Climate’ > ‘Vehicle Defrost’.

Driving tips

Updated Energy app

The Energy app on your touchscreen provides a visual representation of your vehicle’s real-time and planned energy usage.

As you drive your car, it measures real-time versus predicted consumption and lets you know if you’re hitting or missing range based on several factors. Range tips are available to guide you on how best to optimize your energy consumption.

A blue snowflake icon may appear on your touchscreen and in your app if your battery is too cold to operate at full power and ideal range. When this icon appears, you may notice a decrease in energy-producing braking and acceleration.

Leaving your car plugged in, whenever possible, and keeping the charge level above 20% when unplugged will reduce the impact of cold temperatures.

Once the battery warms up, the snowflake icon will disappear. Charging, driving, and preconditioning are all methods aimed at warming up your battery.

Shipping Tips

Use the navigation in your car

If you plan to Supercharge during your trip, we strongly recommend that you go to each Supercharger or your destination, even if you know your route. When you switch to a Supercharger, your car will automatically provide pre-heating to your battery to increase charging speeds once it’s plugged in. Navigating to your destination activates Trip Planner, which in turn directs you to Superchargers as needed, and begins the automatic preheating process as you approach each Supercharger. Preheating can improve your charging session time by five to ten minutes, so you’ll be back on the road faster.

We’ve updated Trip Planner to include the following features to improve supercharging and long-distance driving:

• More accurate charging plans: Road trip charging plans are made more accurate by taking advantage of improved consumption estimates based on weather conditions and long-term and short-term driving trends.
• Intelligent Pre-conditioning: The car pre-conditions based on the power available at the specific Supercharger you are directed to.
• Real-time pricing and wait times: Additional Supercharging information helps you plan your trip on the go.
• Enhanced dynamic routing: View up to three route options and choose your preferred route. 

Tips for snow and ice

When you expect snowy or icy conditions, these tips can help you save your Tesla and drive it safely.

Adjust the position of the wipers and mirrors

If you expect snow or ice to accumulate, put the wipers in service mode and disable the auto-folding mirrors to help prevent icing.

Wipers in service mode: Select ‘Controls’ > ‘Service’ > ‘Wiper blade service mode’ > ‘On’.

Melt snow and ice

And in freezing conditions, use the Defrost feature in your Tesla app to defrost snow and ice remotely before driving from the comfort of your vehicle.

Wipe down important surfaces

Double check that important surfaces are not frozen or covered in snow before driving as you would any vehicle. You must remove any snow accumulation from the hood, roof, and tailgate to prevent it from flying off and causing serious damage to you or the cars behind you.

Model 3 and Model Y: You can now unlock the driver’s door via the Tesla app so you can open it without using the handle. To access this feature in the app: Touch and hold one of the quick controls that appear below your car to open the Customize Controls view. Select ‘Unlock door’, then drag and drop the control to one of your quick control points. You can now open the door with one tap from the home screen in the app. 

To manually clear ice from a frozen handle, squeeze the handle with the tip of your gloved fist until the ice breaks up.

To move frozen mirrors and windows:

If your mirrors are frozen, open and close the mirrors manually to restore the auto-folding feature. If your windows are frozen, defrost using the Defrost feature in your Tesla app.

If the Autopilot sensors and cameras freeze:

For optimal performance, clean the Autopilot sensors and cameras from snow, ice, mud and dirt. For more information, see the ‘About the driver assistance system’ section in the owner’s manual.

Frozen charging port:

Defrost the charging port by activating either the preconditioning (on HI) or the Defrost feature in the Tesla app. A frozen charging port will allow AC charging at low rates with a flashing amber indicator appearing.

Frozen or covered cabin air intake port:

For optimal cabin heating, remove all ice, snow and any forms of debris from the cabin air outlet at the bottom of the windshield.

Winter tires and accessories

Winter tires

Winter tires are recommended if you drive on snowy, icy roads, or if required by local regulations. Purchase winter tires from select Tesla Service Centers . See additional installation information in the ‘Winter Tires’ section of your owner’s manual.

Tire chains

Tire chains provide extra traction when driving in snowy or icy weather conditions. Check your local regulations to see if tire chains are recommended or required during the winter months. Snow chains are available for purchase at select Tesla Service Centers . For more information, see the ‘Using Tire Chains’ section of your owner’s manual.