Which Cars Have Heated Windshields?

Scraping ice off your windshield on an Arctic morning is a painful chore — even for those loopy folks who just scrape a porthole for the driver. It’s a luxury, then, to have a heated windshield to melt the ice the way rear-window heaters clear the back glass.

Related: Which Cars Under $40,000 Offer Heated Exterior Mirrors?

Sadly, the feature comes mostly with luxury sticker prices these days, at least in the U.S.; availability is more common (and more mainstream) in Europe. It wasn’t always this way stateside. After a brief first effort by Ford for its 1974 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, the company offered a heated windshield called Insta-Clear in the U.S. for the mainstream 1986 Taurus, as well as for its European models. GM also had a heated windshield on such vehicles as the 1989 Cadillac DeVille. But option cost and reliability were issues for these early efforts — that and the fact that it’s a feature with only regional and seasonal appeal.

Here are the model-year 2023 and 2024 vehicles that offer heated windshields as standard or optional equipment. The 2023 list is complete, while the 2024 list includes only vehicles for which 2024 U.S. specs have been officially announced as of this writing. That list will grow throughout the year.

2023 Cars With Heated Windshields

• Bentley: Bentayga, Bentayga Hybrid, Continental GT, Flying Spur, Flying Spur Hybrid
• Jaguar: E-Pace, F-Pace, F-Type, I-Pace, XF
• Lamborghini: Urus
• Land Rover: Defender, Discovery, Discovery Sport, Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar
• Lexus: UX 250h
• Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-EQ: G-Class, EQE Sedan, EQE SUV, EQS Sedan, EQS SUV
• Porsche: Cayenne, Cayenne E-Hybrid, Macan
• Rolls-Royce: Cullinan, Ghost, Phantom
• Volkswagen: ID.4

2024 Cars With Heated Windshields

• Jaguar: E-Pace, F-Pace, F-Type, I-Pace, XF
• Land Rover: Defender, Discovery, Discovery Sport, Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar
• Lexus: UX 250h
• Mercedes-EQ: EQE Sedan, EQE SUV, EQS Sedan, EQS SUV
• Porsche: Cayenne, Cayenne E-Hybrid, Macan

What It Is and What It Is Not

What we’re talking about here is a fully heated windshield similar to the electric rear-window heating that’s standard on most new vehicles these days (and used for aircraft windshields since World War II). It’s less common for car windshields because it’s harder to do; the sturdy but highly visible grid used in rear windows would be a safety hazard. The climate system’s forced air is also an easier heating alternative in the front — unlike what it would take to pipe that air to the rear window.

What we are not talking about is the electric limited heating just at the bottom of the windshield behind the wipers, such as on many Hondas and Subarus, among others. Other more limited alternatives include heated wipers, such as the VisioBlade wipers available on the Lincoln Aviator, and heated windshield washer fluid or washer fluid jets.

How a Heated Windshield Works

There are two main ways to accomplish electric windshield heating. One is a network of very fine conductive wires, often with silver and other metals, that are embedded between the layers of glass — a system used by Jaguar and Land Rover, among others. The other involves a conductive film sealed between the glass layers. An example is the Volkswagen ID.4, which uses a silver-based layer between the glass along with wire at the base of the windshield to warm the wipers; the system also will be used for the coming 2025 ID.7 sedan and ID. Buzz van. The silver layer offers a bonus in warm weather as a passive heat reflector, as well; VW says the silver layer can reduce the cabin temperature by up to 15 degrees more than regular tinted glass and cuts the load on the EVs’ climate system.

What’s Not to Like?

Heated windshields are great when you need them, but they have some downsides. While the initial cost added has come down, either type remains a more expensive windshield to replace when the glass becomes damaged. And if the heating system malfunctions, replacing the windshield may be required to fix it.

The wire-based systems also are nearly invisible. For some drivers, once you see them, you can’t unsee them and they become an annoyance. For other drivers it’s not an issue. Only you can decide.

Either system puts metal between you and the world in front of you, metal that can act as a kind of Faraday cage — the type of shield many people use to protect key fobs or credit cards from unauthorized use — that can interfere with signals needed for toll road transponders or radar detectors. Many heated windshields provide a metal-free space; the ID.4 has a small space to the right of the rearview mirror, for instance. Other types of reflective coatings or glass can also have this effect, and many toll road systems have a list of vehicles that might need to use a bumper-mounted transponder or other workaround.

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