A new software update has reportedly wreaked havoc on several Tesla owners’ vehicles in the Canadian prairies as temperatures drop and some of the EVs’ heat pumps have failed.
The update rolled out in the middle of December for both the Model Y and the Model 3, Tesla’s more popular vehicles. However, since then, CTV News has received multiple reports of drivers with no in-cabin heating in the vehicles.
Diving deeper, it appears this may be a wider Tesla issue as many users have shared stories of a wide variety of components related to heating failing far further back than mid-December.
Tesla North states that last year, Tesla replaced sensors related to heating on all vehicles after encountering bugs. It’s difficult to tell if the users in the prairies are driving outdated cars or if a new software update has added additional heating system issues.
Well @elonmusk having some buyers remorse. Last Feb had our Model Y in the SC for a month with no heat. New Super-manifold and thought it was fixed. New set of sensors last week and now this. -30c in #Saskatchewan and a very cold 1 hr drive later we barely made the supercharger pic.twitter.com/JLJ7Pmzc0P
— Mark Kroeker (@paateach) December 28, 2021
One driver was even caught out on a drive in -40 degree weather with young children in the car when the heat cut out.
According to CTV News, a representative of a Tesla Owners Club in Alberta says that they’ve been told Tesla is aware of the issue and it’s been “sent up the chain.”
@elonmusk @Tesla
Our Model Y could have killed my family today when the heat stopped working in -40c Called service and the reset and auto didn’t fix. Hour away from any service. Luckily we had family in an ICE vehicle that I could put my 2 kids under 3yrs old in quickly.— Tyler Selvig (@TSelvig) December 30, 2021
Hopefully, a software update will solve this problem, or perhaps Tesla will need to update its hardware to perform better in low temperatures.
Overall, this isn’t reassuring Canadians considering buying an electric vehicle (EV). The only EV I’ve been able to test under winter conditions has been a few Porsche Taycans models. In both instances, I didn’t encounter issues related to in-car heating, but I did find that took onger to top up the vehicle and that the battery doesn’t last as long when the temperatures are colder.
Source: CTV News Via: Tesla North