Like all vehicles, Teslas require a little extra attention during the cold winter months. A common query among Tesla owners is the appearance of a blue snowflake icon next to the battery indicator on their vehicle's touchscreen and in the Tesla app. This icon is not just a quirky design choice; it carries important information about the state of your vehicle's battery, particularly in cold weather conditions.
What the Blue Snowflake Means
The blue snowflake icon warns that the battery is too cold to access its full power and range capabilities. When this icon is visible, owners might notice a reduction in regenerative braking and acceleration. The vehicle’s range is also reduced and charging may be slower than usual, especially at Superchargers. This is a protective measure by Tesla to prevent damage to the battery under cold conditions. The lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla vehicles, like those in other electric vehicles, are sensitive to temperature extremes. Cold temperatures can significantly impact the battery's chemical reactions, reducing its ability to store and release energy efficiently.
How Much of the Battery Is Affected
The Tesla app visually represents the battery's charge level, with the affected portion displayed in blue. By tapping on the battery icon or the charge button in the app, or similarly on the vehicle's touchscreen, users can jump to the Charging section in settings. Here, the portion of the battery displayed in blue represents the "locked" or unusable part of the battery due to cold temperatures. The extent of this blue section gives you a rough idea of how much of your battery's capacity is currently restricted.
Range Impact and Restoration
The vehicle's displayed range already accounts for the portion of the battery that is currently unusable by cold temperatures. This means the actual available range might be more than what is shown. As the battery warms up -- either through driving, charging, or preconditioning -- the additional range will be unlocked, and the blue snowflake icon will disappear. It's important to note that the colder the battery, the more range is temporarily inaccessible. Achieving normal operating temperature is crucial to unlocking this additional, temporarily unavailable range. Moreover, a cold battery can also diminish the vehicle's acceleration performance.
Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
The primary reason for this phenomenon is to safeguard the battery's integrity in cold weather. To minimize the impact of cold temperatures and prevent the snowflake icon from appearing, Tesla recommends keeping the vehicle plugged in whenever possible and maintaining a charge level above 20% when unplugged. Additionally, storing the vehicle in a garage and keeping it plugged in can help keep the battery from getting too cold. However, seeing the snowflake on colder days is still normal. Preconditioning the vehicle before use, a feature that preheats the battery and cabin can also mitigate the effects of cold weather on the battery.
Preheating enhances comfort and ensures that the battery operates efficiently from the moment you start driving, meaning that not only will you have full access to the vehicle’s power, but also its regenerative abilities and range. This approach, coupled with keeping the vehicle charged and stored in warmer conditions, can significantly reduce the occurrence of the blue snowflake icon, ensuring that your Tesla performs optimally, even in colder climates.
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Tesla maintains two primary software branches: the main feature branch and the FSD branch. In general, the FSD branch lags behind on new features pushed to the main branch but provides a more recent FSD version.
However, now Tesla is updating the main branch to a much more recent version of FSD.
Current FSD Build & Shadow Mode
Nowadays, the main branch always includes an older but stable build of FSD. It’s been on FSD V12.3.6 since July 2024. So, if you subscribe to FSD in North America, this is the FSD version you’ll receive until you get added to the FSD track.
Even if you don’t subscribe to or have purchased FSD, your vehicle has v12.3.6 on it. That includes vehicles in regions where FSD isn’t available for general use, such as Europe and China. In those cases, FSD runs in Shadow Mode, providing training data to Tesla if you’ve agreed to their data privacy policies. So Tesla is always analyzing what the vehicle would do compared to what the driver does. When there are contradictions, these are the clips and data Tesla will want to analyze.
FSD V12.5.4.2 on Main Branch
For the first time in five months, Tesla has now updated the baseline version of FSD in the main branch. The new version included with 2024.44 updates is FSD v12.5.4.2. This Tesla is updating the baseline FSD version to FSD V12.5.4.2
FSD 12.5 includes many features for a much smoother experience compared to FSD 12.3.6. Many users will appreciate that it gets rid of the steering wheel nag and instead relies on the cabin camera to provide real-time driver monitoring. This version also includes support for sunglasses with driver monitoring. It’ll be a big upgrade for anyone coming from FSD 12.3.6.
It's always a good thing when Tesla updates the baseline FSD version—that means that Tesla is confident that this new baseline is considerably safer and will continue to train the fleet against it.
What Update Am I Getting?
If you’re already on FSD V12.5.4.2, you’ll likely remain on that FSD build unless V13.3 manages to make its way to the public as Tesla originally planned, but that’s unlikely to happen before the Thanksgiving holiday. In all likelihood, you’ll be getting update 2024.44, which will give you some additional Tesla features while keeping you on the same FSD version.
For those who are already on 2024.44 - if you subscribe now, you’ll have V12.5.4.2 enabled on your vehicle.
If you have a Cybertruck, then you’ll receive update 2024.39.5 with FSD V12.5.5.3. They’re on a unique build for the moment, and this will likely be the case until Tesla acquires enough training data from the Cybertruck fleet.
The Cybertruck is having an eventful November. Just last week, we shared the news that Tesla isn’t offering their in-house wrap service for the Cybertruck anymore; the Foundation Series is now available in inventory in select US locations, Crossbars have arrived, and faster charging is around the corner. Now there’s even more to discuss about the stainless steel beast.
Projection Puddle Lights
Like the recently launched puddle lights for the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla has introduced a set of add-on Projector Puddle Lights for the Cybertruck. These Cybertruck-specific ones go for $75 USD, or $105 CAD and are available in both the Canadian and US Tesla stores.
However, these don’t have the Tesla wordmark - instead, they feature the iconic Cybertruck symbol and, in our opinion, look even nicer. Here’s to hoping Tesla also introduces a set with the graffiti-style Cybertruck wordmark.
Powershare in Canada
While the Foundation Series Cybertruck has been getting delivered in Canada since November 7th, there was no news on Powershare being supported due to regulatory constraints. On the 20th, Foundation Series owners in Canada began to receive emails to get their Powershare installs started through Tesla’s official installer - Qmerit.
More to follow on pricing and the process as we receive our Canadian quote from Qmerit soon.
FSD in Canada
The Cybertruck Program Manager, Siddhant Awasthi, confirmed that with Powershare now becoming available, FSD for the Cybertruck in Canada will also become available soon. Canadian trucks shipped with a factory software build that didn’t include FSD, but did include TACC and stoplight/traffic control.
Early this morning Tesla began rolling out a new version of FSD 12.5.5.3 for the Cybertruck, which is update 2024.39.5. Will this be the version that rolls out in Canada?
Update: Yesterday, Tesla started rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck in Canada for the first time. The update being rolled out is update 2024.39.5, which not only features the latest FSD available on the Cybertruck, version 12.5.5.3, but it also includes all the features update 2024.38, which includes the huge Sentry Mode improvements that reduce power consumption by about 40%.
Following Integrated Flight Test 6 for SpaceX’s Starship, Elon Musk confirmed that uncrewed Starships are likely to begin making their way to Mars in about 2 years. You’re probably going to ask what’s going to be in those Starships - that’s what Brett Winston on X asked as well. Elon confirmed that Cybertrucks and Optimus robots will be among some of the first items landing on Mars.
That’s a ton of awesome news for Cybertruck, and there’s absolutely going to be more around the corner, especially as we await the big Tesla Holiday Update. While you wait, why not take a look at our Holiday Update Wishlists?
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