I apologize if this has been talked about in another thread. I couldn’t find it in a search (I found zillions of posts that contained Tesla, and could figure out how to narrow it down to only include those with “glass roof”), but maybe I am searching wrong.
Someone who has a Tesla says it can get very hot in the sun - he said about 120 deg (but I think he is from Texas, which gets a lot of sunlight), because it has a glass roof, which creates a greenhouse effect.
Given that many Tesla buyers were trying to mitigate a global Greenhouse effect, and Tesla has some very smart engineers, it seems implausible that they would make such a basic mistake.
Is it generally true, or true for all models?
If it is true, how do Tesla owners mitigate this? Do they just open the doors and windows to air it out, and after that is done, turn on the AC in the summer? (Which I guess would draw a lot of energy, and tend to reduce any environmental benefits of using an EV, and possibly decrease battery range and lifetime. Plus it would still be initially uncomfortable.)
Given that they are luxury cars, I assume it unlikely that owners would ruin the appearance by attaching reflective insulation under the roof. Right?
P.S.
Please, don’t turn this question into a political fight about Tesla and Musk. We aren’t going to come to a consensus here, and it is irrelevant to my questions.
And no doubt any environmental benefits depend a lot on how your local electric power is generated, and how much of that is lost in power lines. I don’t want to debate that either. That is irrelevant to my questions too.
Sun load on any car will be higher in the south. And the more glass you have, the hotter is gets! Nearly 200 degrees in some cases.
The Tesla glass roof is a design choice by stylists not an engineers (or environmentalists) choice. Just makes the AC load that much higher.
Darker cars get hotter than white or silver. Cars with more window area get hotter. Cars with sunroofs with no get hotter.
Yes, it uses more energy in any car, including a Tesla. A ceramic tint film can reduce that load like.on any other car… Those of us who live in hot sunny climates are well acquainted with our tint shops, especially if we own black cars!
I’ve become aware now that color and glass matters. My current Toyota Venza is nominally Silver (but more light gray than mirror-finish metallic), and gets quite hot around Washington, D.C. in the summer. Some of my prior vehicles were white, and had sunroofs or moonroofs (which I can’t add to the Venza, because was told it would weaken the relatively weak roof too much to carry sea kayak(s), which helped keep things cool. I bought the Venza used, and the air conditioner doesn’t work very well. But Toyotas are so expensive to repair, that I mostly drive in the summer with 2-4 windows wide open. And I open the doors too before getting in. And I put reflective insulation under the windshield. It is as about as tinted as local law allows. The high angle to vertical windows contribute both to heat and to remarkably poor visibility. I regret buying it, and would never repeat that mistake again.
But people don’t buy Venzas out of environmental activism. They did buy Teslas for that. Almost anyone with a passing knowledge of the greenhouse effect would have realized a glass roof creates a greenhouse.
Tesla is an engineering company, on the technological forefront of a number of areas. Surely the designers would have received feedback from the engineers. Or they would have done a market study, and received feedback from consumers. And Tesla headquarters is in Austin, Texas, which has a fairly hot climate. How could they not be aware of the potential issue?
(Plus anyone in a region which gets a lot of hail might have some degree of hesitation buying something with a glass roof, whether or not that is justified in the Telsa case.)
I suppose by my logic, almost car maker has to have some pretty good engineers, and therefore shouldn’t make any major mistakes, but we all know that isn’t altogether true.
Panoramic glass roofs have become common with luxury vehicles.
The Lexus RZ electric vehicle comes with a panoramic roof in some trim levels, they do not come with a factory sunshade. Accessory sunshades are available for $400; some owners have made their own sunshades. The Lexus has a selectable opaque feature for the glass to reduce sun load.
Tesla panoramic glass roofs have extra ultraviolet sun light protection but are not completely effective at reducing interior heat, for that a sunshade can be added.
Yeah, my Model 3 is hot when I get into it after parking in the sun. So was every other car I’ve owned. Hondas are bearable when you enter if you roll the windows down 20 or more feet from the car. Press the window down button twice and hold it until the windows and sunroof are completely retracted. By the time you get to the car it’s tens of degrees cooler than before.
I like my M3 and it doesn’t take noticeably longer to cool off than the two Accords I owned before it. The roof was tinted at the factory and I’m not sure what other tinting I could do. No matter, I don’t want to anyway. I park in a garage and solar heating isn’t a big deal for me.
As you can see from @Nevada_545’s linked article, there are valid engineering, safety, manufacturing, and cost reasons to use a solid glass roof. Oh, and Tesla’s HQ in Austin? That’s new. Their HQ was in Palo Alto, CA and moved to Austin in 2021.
Most dealers will send airconditioner work to a dedicated shop so find a shop and have it repaired . Toyotas are expencive to repair ? Where do you get that ?
A trick I learned after moving to Florida is to install vent shades.
These are plexiglass pieces fitted to the top of the windows that allow the windows to be open a couple of inches while it is raining but still not let water in. If you park your car with these and open each window 1/2 inch, the rain won’t come in but the heat will go out.
It keeps the car within a few degrees of the outside, not 80 degrees higher.
I remember getting into cars 30 years ago that were 10-20+years old at the time that in the summer when customer dropped off their vehicles and left the windows up tight that almost NO MATTER what vehicle is was, most would be in the 130-140+ temps inside the vehicle…
Tint your windows and or at least install window vent visors/rain gauds so you can lower your windows an 1" or 2" without letting rain in if it rains…
Also, when you start your vehicle, lower the windows (if not already) enough to push the hot air out while the fresh air is coming in and turn on the A/C on (if not already) with fresh air until the inside temp is about the same as the outside air, then roll your windows up and turn on max A/C air, if your auto climate control does not automatically do it for you, none of mine have ever changed from fresh to recirculate so not sure about yours…
But like already said, this has been happening wayyy before Tesla was ever thought of… At least in my part of the very humid south… lol
Excellent answer to one of my questions! “Tesla sunshades” would solve the problem, and could be much more visually appealing than attaching reflective insulation with something like duct tape would be. Some of them are reasonably cheap, relative to the cost of a Tesla. Are they in common use?
Are you thinking of a Tesla ? From your other posts you are heat sensitive so even why care about the glass roof because you are unlikely to buy a vehicle with one . A dedicated Tesla forum might give you better answers , All cars get hot when closed up and parked in the sun light. At 73 degrees F a closed vehicle can reach 100 in 30 minutes.
So far the costs of maintaining my Toyota have been relatively high, partly because the parts are much more expensive than vehicles like basic Ford trucks. (But that was also true for the Honda CRV I used to own.) And partly because they make it hard for the owner to do even basic maintenance - e.g., it was very difficult to replace the air filter in the glove compartment, and replacing a sun visor is pretty complicated too. (Though the need for that is my fault - since I’ve been unable to find an adhesive that sticks to the textured dashboard for long, and it is illegal in Maryland to cover almost any part of the windshield, I hung my GPS from the visor, which created an excess weight load.)
The extra wheel rim to add a full size spare tire would have been close to $600 new - though I found a used one.
Part of the problem is that I have yet to find a reasonably priced honest repair shop who works on Toyotas in my geographic area (suburban MD). I found one through Yelp in upstate NY, which I sometimes visit, and had them do routine service, and have been very pleased with them. I will have them work on the AC next visit.
I’m sure Tesla’s glass roofs help create superior visibility - a huge plus. But they aren’t in the same price range, and my desire to take long drives in rural areas with no unusual brand mechanics or parts made them impractical anyway.
But that’s not what my questions were about. I was only trying to understand the one issue, one important to me because I often have things in my vehicle that can’t get very hot.
Window vents worked well in my 1994 Ford Ranger. I also had a sliding glass window in the cab, and chose a cap that had one too, which helped too. But my last two vehicles, a CRV and the Venza had curved windows, to which the most common brand of window vent in auto parts stores fit poorly and only adheres well for a day or two.
Anyway I only asked about Teslas. At their price tags, I would expect perfection.
My M3:has worked well for me, except for the autopilot. Then again, I won’t pay for it and only use it when they have a free trial. It gets better each time, but it is still not worth the price IMO.
