Tesla Turmoil! (Brake Check Ep25)
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- This episode we talk about the extreme winter weather in Chicago and how multiple Tesla owners were stranded by charging stations.
We also want to thank our sponsor PMS. Without them we couldn't save the manuals. Thank you PMS, thank you.
Tesla owner here and I only drive EVs. Chicago was not the only city affected by the cold, but was the only city with this issue. Please note that EVs are also very popular in Canada, Europe and a growing community in Alaska.
Back to the cold! Yes, cold temperatures affect the batteries. This has been known for years, but since EVs main source of energy is a battery, the whole car is affected by it. I live in NC with a semi winter, where temperatures average about 25-30 degrees at night. We often get a quick drop in the teens, or even below 0, but is not common.
As an EV owner, I need to be very aware of the winter season driving my EVs. I often charge a little extra and pre-condition the battery for level 3 charging (Fast Charging). No, the battery does not need to be warmed up for levels 2 or 1 (slower charging). Also, I will configure my car to have an additional 10% charge when I arrive at my destination, because I expect the range to be less in the Winter months. The ideal temperature for a battery is between 60-70 degrees. So fall and Spring are the better months for battery health. Summer is not bad, because the driving breeze tends to cool down the battery as you drive, but batteries don't like it too hot either (anything over 100 - 110 degrees).
Bottom line, the issue in Chicago could be blamed on EVs owners who don't know what they are driving, Tesla superchargers that failed, and the amount of UBER/Lyft Teslas in the city. This was a bad combination that resulted on chaos. I don't use superchargers. I charge at home and my car is always at 80% when I leave my house. I understand many people live in apartments and do not have the ability to charge in their garage, but you should always have a plan B in case superchargers are not available. The car is very smart and can tell you which chargers are working and how many people are waiting to use it.
My recommendation: Do not buy an EV just because they look cool. Take a minute to research what it takes to own an EV, and make sure you can live with the limitations. We are early adopters of an amazing technology that is getting better day by day. I dislike when dealers push EV cars on people that have no clue what they are buying.
#peace
You bring up some good points, I wonder if any of the Tesla owners in Chicago had their batteries preconditioned. I remember some people reported leaving their cars plugged in overnight and they were still at 0%, I think that’s interesting because I would assume that the Tesla would know the temperature and would use the power from the supercharger to warm up the battery so it can take a faster charge. But idk. - Jason
Final thought. My thing is electric cars were never designed for the cold weather they were designed for California weather Texas weather Florida weather. They were never designed to be in this deep cold
I think the electrical components including the motors should be pretty good in extreme weather conditions actually. It’s really just the battery that can’t handle the extreme cold. there’s a lot of extremely promising battery technologies that are being worked on so if a company can get a battery figured out to handle the cold and heat better these problems may be a thing of the past.
I’m saving two manuals: 91 Twin Turbo 300ZX and a 2003.5 Mazda Protege5 wagon.
We at Brake Check and PMS thank you for your contribution to saving manual transmissions! - Jason
What's weird is that wasn't really that cold I live in North Dakota and it get super cold here like at that time is was -53 with the wind chill and I drive a 2019 chevey 2500 Duramax diesel and it started hard but ran just fine with this cold extreme weather and look when I get my hands on an EV soon I will do a deep test in our extreme cold weather to see how it holds up in our with -40°F weather we experience here I would like to see how much energy drain you get from. Just driving it down the highway at highway speeds here at 75 mile an hour. Do 100 mi run. See if it can make it first off. See how long it takes to supercharge from anywhere between 0 to 5% all the way up to 80 to 100%. Unfortunately I don't have the money right now to afford one but when I do that's going to be the first test I do in the cold
I wonder if because it’s more normal to get extreme weather there if gas stations are better at treating their diesel fuel, Where we are in Kansas it doesn’t get to that extreme very often so I don’t think gas stations treat their diesel very well here. I’d be curious to know how your EV handles those temperatures. Make sure to precondition your battery and give us an update! - Jason