Desperate Move Against the Heat Wave: I Slept in My Car for Just One Euro per Night, and It Was the Best Decision

It’s summer and it’s hot, but there are weeks especially tough in terms of temperature due to heat waves, like the one we’re experiencing these days in much of Europe.

In Spain we are somewhat used to these extreme heat episodes; in fact, it is common for our homes and shops to be equipped with cooling systems, but in the rest of Europe air conditioners are not as common, so some people take extreme measures to cope with the heat. As the saying goes: for big problems, big remedies.

“I’m going to do the same the next night”

That’s likely what Ulrich Rozier, a technology and automotive journalist, thought when he decided in the middle of the night to get out of bed, head to the garage, and sleep in his Tesla Model Y.

Note that this isn’t just any heat wave: on Tuesday, June 23, France registered its hottest day ever, and on Thursday, June 24, that record was broken again, with a countrywide average temperature of 30.02 °C (considering day and night).

That day Ulrich got into the car to sleep with his son, desperate, as he told via his X account (@UlrichRozier): “We gave up, we slept in the car with the air conditioning. We couldn’t get below 29 degrees during the night… and the night was a perfect 22 degrees. No regrets. I’m going to do the same the next night.”

Ulrich accompanied that post with a photo of the trunk of his Tesla, showing a mattress (the rear seats folded), a sheet, and pillows. It may seem absurd, but Ulrich explains that he has two portable air conditioners, one in the bedroom and another in his office, but they aren’t effective enough at temperatures this high.

“I’m not going to go into my life, but I’ve decided to renovate an old house, which has cost me a lot of money. We’ve made decisions like installing double glazing. The air conditioning, in reality, isn’t necessary in our home, except this time. Generally, during heat waves, we manage to absorb them,” Ulrich explains to clarify why he doesn’t own a more powerful air conditioner.

In the same X thread, this journalist explains that he spent only a few cents for the entire night and that it was worth it. Moreover, he didn’t sleep on the street because the car was in the garage: “We were in a garage, so there wasn’t a high outdoor temperature (27 degrees); it was 32 outside on average, and especially 37 degrees at 22:00 when we went to sleep.”

This last point is important. With a combustion-engine car, doing this in a closed garage would have been crazy due to the exhaust, but with an electric car, like Ulrich’s Tesla, there’s no problem.

The measure taken by Ulrich generated so much controversy on X that he wrote an article for Frandroid to explain and detail everything: “Four nights of heat waves, a house that’s no longer cooling and a Model Y in the garage. While France was breaking its hottest overnight record, I slept in my car for about €1 per night. And no, I’m not ashamed.”

One of the advantages of the Tesla Model Y when doing something like this, as Ulrich notes, is that it has a Camping mode. This feature turns the car into a kind of tent, keeping the air conditioning (or heating) running all night, powering USB ports and the 12V socket in case you need to charge any device, and keeping the infotainment system on.

In doing so, the car isn’t running, but it has what’s necessary to stay inside for the night while keeping energy consumption in check. “6 kWh for the whole night, about €1 at 17 cents per kWh. And therefore a full night at 22 °C for the price of a coffee,” Ulrich clarifies. 

He used between 8% and 10% of the battery and notes that Camping mode doesn’t work if there’s 20% of battery or less. He also specifies that this consumption is possible with his Tesla Model Y, which has a heat pump, but not with the previous model because it lacks this component.

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