Tesla brings Supercharger battery heating feature for fast charging in cold climate

Winter is here and Tesla has brought a Supercharger battery heating feature that will allow its electric vehicle (EV) users to charge at a fast rate.

Tesla Supercharger battery heating capability is now live for V3 and V4 posts in cold climates.

After plugging in, Superchargers can now pre-heat batteries for Tesla Model 3 and Y with standard range, rear wheel drive. This addition aims to help achieve fast charging speed.

“Supercharger battery heating is now live,” wrote the EV maker on X.

Tesla’s director of Supercharger in North America, Max de Zegher revealed that the tech uses AC ripple current coming from the Superchargers to heat the battery and enable fast charging on cold-soaked LFP vehicles.

The Supercharger chief also said that this was made possible through Tesla’s vertical integration and engineering.

Tesla Supercharger battery heating feature (Source – Tesla)

Pre-conditioning

In cold weather, moving parts, such as door handles, windows mirrors, and wipers could freeze in place. It’s suggested to precondition the vehicle before use. These will help you to warm the cabin and battery before driving or charging at a Supercharger.

You can access precondition from Controls > Schedule. It automatically calculates when the vehicle needs to start preconditioning. This will ensure that cabin climate and battery are preconditioned for driving.

If you don’t precondition, the battery will be too cold to charge. It can also help you to increase arnage on your next trip because a preconditioned cabin and battery consumes less energy when you drive.

It reduces energy consumption while driving the vehicle with heat pumps because heat in the battery can be used to warm the cabin.

Tesla has a list of best practices to get a better charging experience in cold weather. That includes a charger port heater. In cold weather or ice, the charge port latch could freeze in place and prevent you from removing or inserting the charging cable. You can use the Defrost car setting via mobile for this pre-conditioning.

(source)