It's a charger issue, did any one read the damn article?
Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
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Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#22This is where a hybrid powertrain / PHEV is superior to EV. In an ideal system you want redundancies, especially redundancies that cover for each other's weaknesses.
Not just a hybrid but a series-type hybrid. Electric motors drive the wheels and the gas engine is just there to generate electricity. At every level of society I see products being designed for the "best case" only. For example, unlocking your car with electronic keys. I am afraid a generation will have to live through "hard times" in order to get us thinking about resilience again and planning for the "worst case".…
I don't know why these aren't the default.
It electrifies the 99% use case of commuting, driving around cities etc. and allows for road trips without range anxiety.
And expands the operating temperature significantly over electric.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#23My "favorite" thing about these stories is all the anti-EV'rs coming out and going "hahaha, stupid EV drivers". Except they don't realize their ICE car is part of the problem. These extremely unusual storms and cold snaps are part of climate change and their pointing and laughing is only going to make things worse.
At the end of the day, the real story is that EV's are having teething problems in unusual cold conditions. It's still relatively new technology (on the scale of cars in general), and we need to learn how to handle these different scenarios properly. My grandparents in Northern Minnesota had an engine block heater that they'd leave plugged in anytime their ICE car (decades ago) was home. Why? Because it'd get so cold you couldn't start the car. But this wasn't laughed about on the news because it wasn't new. We as a society had learned how to deal with it and it wasn't a big deal. EV's will get there one day.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#24A friend hypothesized that a lot of Tesla drivers charge the same way they refilled their gas cars, by waiting until the last minute and supercharging back up to "full". This doesn't work when it's so cold so people need to learn to charge a little at a time.
The bottom half of the battery charges a lot faster than the top half, so that behaviour is rewarded. In the winter, better to put up with longer charging times and never let your battery go below 25-50%. If you get stranded turn off cabin heat and rely on seat heaters -- a full Tesla battery should be able to run just the seat heaters for a month, so by ensuring your battery is above 25% you should have a few days of seat heat.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#25My sister lives in Chicago and her ICE car also won't start due to the extreme low temperatures. The Canadians solved this problem by having resistive heat elements installed in their engine, I think EVs probably need the same.
They do, there are resistive elements on older Teslas and heat pumps on newer ones. The trouble is - they require electricity to operate and so they suck the battery dry. In this case it sounds like charging stations also bombed out...
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#26My sister lives in Chicago and her ICE car also won't start due to the extreme low temperatures. The Canadians solved this problem by having resistive heat elements installed in their engine, I think EVs probably need the same.
I learned to drive on a 1976 VW Rabbit diesel. We had a block heater for it, and in the winter, we had to plug it in to warm it up. You'd think there'd be some way to do that for EVs.
> You'd think there'd be some way to do that for EVs.
You would, and you'd be correct. Many or most EVs do have this.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#27Its been -10F in the upper midwest the last few days. Lots BEV and ICE vehicles are dead. Its not just an EV issue.
In both cases, it's the batteries in the cars that died. The ICE engines work just fine once you warm them up and jump them.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#28[flagged]
My bias: I'm not from the US, and to me, Bloomberg is right-of-center.
I think foxbusiness (like foxSport) is a good source of news. Their main bias are on the angle of attack and choice to tell some stories on somewhat political news, as well as the "business" liberal/center-right bias that is shared by all business media (a social science paper will lean left by nature). It is not Fox News: i would trust their stories (while knowing is probably not the entire truth).
And i think its interesting reading about how the other side see some events. You shouldn't dismiss information solely because of the source.
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#29Illinois area gas stations are also lined with ICE vehicles unable to fill gas because gas pumps are frozen.
https://www.wcia.com/news/local-news/cold-weather-causes-fro...
I wonder why the Fox Business article does not mention that?
Re: Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold
#30It's a charger issue, did any one read the damn article?
That's not what the article says. The article doesn't even state the problem.
The actual problem is that cold batteries have higher resistance, so these cold cars aren't charging. The owners need to run the heaters in their car for 30-45 minutes before they try to charge to be able to effectively charge at all.