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Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

nytimes.com

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Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#31

Post by incomingpain »

I find myself a bit of an outcast in my social groups. My conservative friends dislike EVs, but I very much love them and will be buying an EV next. I'm holding out for a solid state battery generation.

When it's -40c and you're running the video security systems. It only drains about 1% a day.

Yes you have less range, but so does gasoline. About the same amount of loss.

Turning it on... harder for gasoline. Better plug in those block heaters!

Blackout at your house because the grid failed because renewables arent generating? Your car is your house battery backup.

Very poor traction? Better put sandbags in the bed of your truck. Oh wait not a problem for heavy EVs. Not to mention traction control is next level in EVs.

The cherry on top... 0-60 for EVs is amazing!

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#32

Post by bluGill »

tambourine_man wrote: post #8

Yes, because combustion engines are also great at starting in freezing temperatures. If you manage to get it going, it's fine after a few minutes. But the cold start is a pain.

Even if you get them started, diesel fuel can gel and clog your fuel filter. I had to stop plowing early Saturday because my tractor was no longer able to make power. (with some anti-gel in the tank and yesterday being warmer I was able to finish the job)

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#33

Post by _ea1k »

pmontra wrote: post #19

A 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…

They already do this, but it tends to turn off at low states of charge. I'm guessing that people saw the lines and tried to put off charging as long as possible.

If everyone does that and shows up to chargers with cold-soaked batteries, the only result can be chaos.

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#34

Post by GnarfGnarf »

Let's put things in perspective. In Calgary, and many other cold cities, every apartment's outdoor parking lot has outlets where you plug in your ICE's block heater and battery blanket. Without them, you probably won't start your car this morning.

When I lived in Calgary, I sometimes had to spray a can of ether into the carburetor to get my car started.

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#35

Post by fortran77 »

Im_your_dada wrote: post #25

Also door handles freeze as Musk genius design failed to include cold climate drivers. Now inapp unlock is an upgrade that you have to pay. You would have to pay me to own a Tesla.

Agreed, but that's only on the budget-end "3" Model. I think Tesla made a mistake branding their entry-level model as Tesla. They should have called it a "Yearn" or a "Strive"

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#36

Post by _ea1k »

wyldfire wrote: post #4

I'm not sure that this warrants such a generalization from the title. The article itself goes on to quote: > “This is not a categorical problem for electric vehicles,” he added, “because it has largely been sorted out in other places.” > ... Cold weather is likely to be less of an issue as companies update electric vehicles models. Even in the last few years, companies have developed capabilities that allow newer mod…

True, and the issues haven't been prevalent in other cold parts of the US as well. Less urban areas wouldn't have the same issues, even if they are colder.

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#37

Post by kci225 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #17
doubleg72 wrote: post #12

Okay.. 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.

Hey signed up just to answer this. We have had an EV in Saskatchewan for 2+ years now. We live on a farm and have a daily commute of about 40km. Other vehicle is a gas F150. The EV has been far and away the better vehicle in our bitter winters. Have not had one single issue. Heats up super quick. Yes when it minus 50 we lose half our range but still leaves us with 200km or so on the worst days. As far as charging in the extreme cold it hasn’t been a noticeable difference whatsoever to charging in the summer. Just plug it in and forget about it. Truck averages 17 litres per 100km in the winter and car does about 25-30 kWh/100km on those absolute worst days and 14 kWh /100km in the summer. Electricity costs 15 cents a kWh and gas $1.40 a litre so even in the worst examples for the EV it is way way cheaper.

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#38

Post by FirmwareBurner »

tw04 wrote: post #6

90% 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…

>90% of the complaints appear to be from folks who have no ability to charge at home.

That's a significant demographic of the car owning population, especially here in Europe. Having your own house with a charger is an extreme rarity.

Re: Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

#40

Post by brad_Saggy »

chollida1 wrote: post #20
aa_is_op wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's the funny part I don't understand. We want EVs to become mainstream but all apartment/condo dwellers should magically have a personal charging station.
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