Tesla Summer Guide | 3 Things You Should Know About Your Car
As we shift from winter to spring, Tesla owners should be aware of certain things about their cars, especially regarding range and energy usage.
Here are the top 3 things we believe you should know during the seasonal switch.
Winter vs Summer tires: range difference
Because we are transitioning from winter to spring, the time has come to replace our winter tires with summer ones and finally get the actual range of our Teslas. But many people don't know what the actual difference is between both, and this is something we will look into today.
Our friend Bjørn Nyland did a summer range test and a winter range test a few years ago with a 2021 Tesla Model 3 SR+ with a 54 kWh battery. For the summer test, he rocked the Michelin PS4 summer tires, and for the winter test, he used the Frigus EV Ice 3 winter tires, both 18” in diameter. The final results revealed that at a constant driving speed of 120 km/h on a highway, the energy consumption of the Model 3 was around 20% more during the winter, resulting in a 16% drop in the estimated range.
Keep in mind that when it comes to range and choosing the right tires, there is more to it than the climate conditions and the season. For example, tires designed for fuel-based vehicles are quite different from tires designed for EVs, and not all EV tires are suitable for a Tesla. That is why it’s very important to choose the right ones for your car instead of simply going for the cheapest options. That way, you can prevent the loss of energy and enjoy comfortable drives over the long term.
Air Conditioning: Power Consumption
During winter, we tested the heat pump’s efficiency on our 2024 Model 3 at an outside temperature of 0°C. We found that the battery consumed 1.1 kWh in 2 hours, warming up the cabin from 8.4°C to 24.5°C.
Now that the weather is getting warmer by the day, your Tesla’s interior components will also get hotter. That is why many people will use the Cabin Overheat Protection, or simply the A/C to cool off their vehicles and maintain a proper temperature. But how much energy will this draw from your Tesla battery?
Well, ADAC conducted a test to find out exactly that, using a 2024 Tesla Model Y. To replicate summer conditions, they set the lab’s temperature to 35°C and used a lamp to simulate sunlight. Inside the Model Y, the HVAC temperature was set to 20°C, and they left it for 8 hours straight. After the final results came in, ADAC found that the car consumed 12 kWh throughout the test, which translates to around 1.5 kWh per hour, which is about 2 times higher than our winter test.
So, if you want to get the most out of your range, make sure to keep the A/C at a temperature, closer to the outside one unless, of course, you want to prioritize comfort.
Automatic Wipers: Cameras vs Rain Sensors
The Tesla wipers are notorious for not working properly during the rainy season when you are driving on Autopilot. That’s because the Autosteer sets the wipers to Auto mode, and unlike traditional systems that use dedicated rain sensors, Tesla relies on its cameras and its AI to detect rain and control the wipers.
While this works in theory, in practice, it can be hit or miss. Sometimes, the wipers activate unexpectedly on a perfectly sunny day with no rain in sight. Other times, it’s pouring steadily, and the wipers fail to engage at all. What’s worse is that you can’t do anything about it because the Tesla computer has taken control of you, which can be annoying.
And after years of waiting for the right update to drop, which will make all of our wipes work perfectly, this never happened, so we had to do something about it.
Our Commander unit allows you to set your Auto wipers to off every time you activate your Autosteer. That way, you will have full control over them and will not have to worry about them getting overused for nothing.
Conclusion
So, there you have it! We gave you our top 3 things you should know about your Tesla now that we are switching to warmer weather.
We have also included a small sneak peek of what our products can do to your car, just so you can familiarize yourself with its capabilities.
For more informational posts like this one, keep following our blog!
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Stoyan Gyurov
04/16/2025