We've had our Model 3 71 plate for about 2 months now; first electric car nevermind first Tesla.

I been reading loads of posts about people smuggly going out to their preheated cars while their neighbours are scraping their windshields etc but, while the preheat is amazing, the outside of the car has been frozen pretty much every morning this week.

Temps around-6⁰ where i live mean I've been heating the car and trying the defrost feature but it's still been so frozen outside that I can't use the door handles or open the boot.

Inside of my car is toasty warm but I can't get in it anyway haha

Am I missing something?

Again, I'm a really new owner so all help would be appreciated.

Had to snap a couple photos of this cool texture!

So a friend of mine got a 24 MY RWD Long Range in Nova Scotia, Canada (so all kind of maritime weather, from wet, dry snow to ice rains..)

Now as winter and snow set, he has discovered 3 issues, which I would have expected Tesla to have resolved by now:

Headlights get covered by snow - you cant see nothing, once he was driving out of the street illumination, suddenly it got really dark and he went out to check why and realized the snow blocks them.

Horn - if the snow accumulates at the right location, apparently it blocks out the horn and acts as an insulation - pedestrians cant hear it.. unless he cleans the car entirely.

Handles - had to use significant force to open the handles, after a snow storm.

He says from his experience, Tesla is not well designed for winters yet.. which I find hard to believe, tell me there are solutions to these issues, after years of selling in snow regions?

From riding with him, I can say those handles are inconvenient when carrying two 2 Liters growlers of beers in your hands, and only having 1-2 fingers available to pull on the door handle - I can do that on regular car handles, but not the Tesla handles.. is there a solution?

I also saw those videos of the CT (I am still a reservation holder, but waiting for the cheaper, bug-free versions) - I already saw videos complaining about the headlight snow issue, similar to his complaint #1 above.. is that true as well?

What does Tesla say about all those issues? Moving to SoCal isn't a solution for everyone unfortunately :)

Hi everyone!

This is my first winter in northern Europe with my model 3. Please people who live in colder climates, give me your tips!

Currently (thank you climate change) the weather can go from +8 degrees to -8, so there is raining and the next day it's all ice. So, the "invisible" door handles can be completely frozen, there's like a freaking layer of ice on top, and I just can't push them open. I have tried the defrosting mode, but it doesn't do anything for the doors/handles. I'm afraid if i try to break the ice I'll damage the handles/paint etc.

So, what do you do??

Thanks all!

Someone else posted this recently, as an FYI for MY owners who may have frozen handles in the upcoming cold weather. I assumed from the post that for some reason wasn't an option on the M3, but turns out it is! Not sure if it's new, but I don't recall seeing it before. I searched and searched, but wasn't able to find the previous post, so I'm making another one incase anyone else has frozen handles this winter. Enjoy!