Tommy L Garage continues its exploration of the Tesla Model Y Performance in winter conditions, and after two episodes about a snowy driveway (here and here), it's time to check the car on snowy roads.
Let's recall that the car is equipped with all-season tires. Nonetheless, the result are pretty good, which might be an important input for those wondering whether to stick with all-season tires or not.
The car copes well on roads fully covered by fresh snow, and - thanks to all-wheel drive - does not get stuck, even when starting uphill from a full stop.
However, according to the video, it's worth noting that the regenerative braking might lock the wheels, which is dangerous. The advice is to set regenerative braking at low/disable. Tommy L Garage found that it's better to select Roll setting, so the vehicle becomes free rolling like a vehicle in Neutral at low speeds.
There were some braking tests with a conclusion that it's "definitely slippery," but nothing really scientific. We guess that without winter tires, the speed should be kept low.
Anyway, the video proves that the Tesla Model Y, even with all-season tires, is pretty well suited for basic winter driving and the all-wheel-drive helps a lot.
The smooth control of electric drive is a huge advantage of electric cars, not only Tesla.
On the other hand, it's not a proper scientific test to be able draw conclusions. We must also remember that for better performance (braking, higher speeds), specialized winter tires would be a good idea.
Hopefully, we will see more tests of EVs in winter conditions with repeatable and measurable tests that would allow us to see how good they are overall and in different settings.
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