Some Older, Pre-Heat Pump Teslas, May Now Be Having Heating Problems

Tesla Inc TSLA has been quietly working to fix a problem with its heat pumps in its newer vehicles. Some customers in colder climates, below -20°C, have been experiencing loss of heat, leading to dangerous driving situations.

Now Drive Tesla Canada has compiled information from several owners of older Tesla Model 3 vehicles that are not using a heat pump, but recently started experiencing heating problems in extreme cold. Owners had started experiencing these problems after Tesla's holiday update, even though they have the older resistive style heaters.

Owners mostly seem to be from Canada and are only experiencing the problem in extreme cold. Part of the larger issue is that since these vehicles are older, some of them are out of warranty. Owners said Tesla quoted them an out-of-warranty price of around $1,200 to replace the faulty heating unit. While there is no confirmation from Tesla, several owners of these older Teslas seem to be having similar issues all pop up about the same time at these low temperatures. 

From customers' experiences so far, it does not seem this heating problem is related to the heat pump issue that has had software fixes pushed by Tesla, though it's unclear if the heat pump issue has been fully resolved itself. 

Without a public relations department, media and customers are left wondering exactly what the full story is relating to any heating issues customers are experiencing, whether it be software or hardware related, or if these latest batch of failures are purely a coincidence. 

Photo: Model 3, courtesy of Tesla Inc.