It seems like electric cars necessitate garages. Basically all these problems seem to be caused by people leaving them outside unplugged overnight, which I don't know how they deal with during the summer even. I can't imagine driving a car I have to stop for an hour to publicly charge every week. I guess it would be fine if you could charge it on the street or whatever, but you would still be using a lot of power just to heat the darn thing.
Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
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Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#12Okay.. Gas car owners confronted a hard foe in Calgary this week too: frozen gas pumps.
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#1390% of the complaints appear to be from folks who have no ability to charge at home. I would agree with the sentiment that if you have to drive any significant distance daily, and live in an apartment where you can’t charge at home, having an EV is going to be a giant pain and it might be a little too soon to go that route. I’d imagine we’re still several years away from having robust enough charging infrastructure a…
I'm confused that these people are confused. Why did they buy an EV if they don't have a place to charge it. It's like buying a surfboard while living in Iowa.
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#14It seems like electric cars necessitate garages. Basically all these problems seem to be caused by people leaving them outside unplugged overnight, which I don't know how they deal with during the summer even. I can't imagine driving a car I have to stop for an hour to publicly charge every week. I guess it would be fine if you could charge it on the street or whatever, but you would still be using a lot of power jus…
this is basically what some cities try to enforce at the moment: everyone convert to electric, without enough garage places
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#15Temps got down to -10F here this week, and our MY did great. The heat pump is incredible. Our Leaf with resistive heating, on the other hand...
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#16Okay.. Gas car owners confronted a hard foe in Calgary this week too: frozen gas pumps.
The differences are a) you don't lose notable range in cold weather (and your car continues to reliably tell you your remaining range), and b) there's always another gas station a block down.
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#17Okay.. Gas car owners confronted a hard foe in Calgary this week too: frozen gas pumps.
-50 is a different world compared to -5.
But now I’m curious how an EV would handle being an outdoor car in -50 windchill.
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#18Temps got down to -10F here this week, and our MY did great. The heat pump is incredible. Our Leaf with resistive heating, on the other hand...
"MY" == "Model Y"?
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#19A simple solution would be to warm the battery to a reasonable temperature but I don't know if that's feasible for such a large battery. It's not as easy as keeping a phone in an inside pocket vs an outside one. The car should be built with heaters around the battery. The power must come from the charger at charge time (but maybe the battery self warms itself while charging,) then from the battery. What's more: power for the heaters or power to move the car? Probably the latter.
Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
#2090% of the complaints appear to be from folks who have no ability to charge at home. I would agree with the sentiment that if you have to drive any significant distance daily, and live in an apartment where you can’t charge at home, having an EV is going to be a giant pain and it might be a little too soon to go that route. I’d imagine we’re still several years away from having robust enough charging infrastructure a…
I'm confused that these people are confused. Why did they buy an EV if they don't have a place to charge it. It's like buying a surfboard while living in Iowa.
They do have a place to charge their cars. There are charging places all over the place, and possibly at their work.
They just don't have one at home. That's going to become even more common as not every single parking spot can be turned into a charging space.