Tesla: Can You Camp Overnight In A Model 3 In -26 Degrees Celsius Weather

Can you sleep overnight in a Tesla Model 3 in negative temperatures? One of our favourite Tesla YouTubers Bjørn Nyland is putting his extremities on the line by finding out exactly what it takes to sleep overnight at -26 degrees Celsius, and we’re going to talk you through it.

The video begins with Nyland fast charging the car while also heating up the inside of the car by activating heating via the rear vents. He shows us that when you leave the car and move the key far enough from the car for it to lock, the rear vents deactivate. An interesting tidbit for you.

The video fast forwards to 3am after he’s found somewhere to sleep. The car’s surrounded by snow and he’s reading a -25.5 degree ambient temperature outside. The battery is sitting at 37 degrees, and sat stationary, the car is pulling 1kW of energy. He puts up insulation over the car windows to help keep heat in, and later on records the car pulling around 0.6kW with all the lights on and the heat pumps active. It’s very efficient while the battery is still radiating heat.

Throughout the night he uses the main display to stream videos, and after an hour the battery temperature has lowered to 15.5 degrees roughly, and the power use sits at around 860 watts. He also notes that he doesn’t quite trust the car’s exterior temperature sensor, but a third party sensor shows a similar number, if not slightly colder.

Nyland wakes up the next day after a good night’s sleep, despite a noisy compressor. Over 7 hours, the battery cooled down to 5.5 degrees with the car actively keeping the battery at this temperature. He crawls through the car with a thermal imaging camera to show us exactly where the car’s weak points are, and he finds that the parking sensors are heated, as are the side repeaters, and the side cameras.

Watch the video below to see his full findings on the experiment. It’s really quite interesting and worth 20 minutes of your time.