I’ve been seeing a lot videos of public chargers failing and in recent cold weather especially with the weather zapping the range. EV owners what has been your personal experience so far in these frigid temperatures?

 

 

There has been a lot of news coverage to this situation in the Chicago area. I wonder if things are improving today. It's currently -4F by me so the weather isn't cooperating but some minor improvement starting tomorrow.

 

That would totally ruin a trip if someone is traveling thru that area or for those who can’t charge at home.

 

We don't have that issue in California, so I have no experience in charging in weather less than 40F

 

My charger is working perfectly fine in my garage. I wouldn't own an EV at this time if I had to rely on public charging. It's fine for occasional road trips, but I wouldn't want it being my only option.

Oh, and there were dozens of ICE vehicles around town that wouldn't start the past few days. I didn't see any news on that. LOL

 

You’re actually close to where a lot of these stories are coming from. Have you traveled during winter and come across any issues charging?

How’s your range been in these temps?

 

It’s currently 8 degrees and we only have 8 SC stalls within 50+ miles.

 

I feel for you man! I was in San Antonio in the winter and it hit around 20F in the morning and I was freezing my azz off, although I was wearing a jacket, a sweater, gloves and beanie. I felt the cold all the way to my bones. I can't imagine 8 degrees

 

We've done some travelling, but only twice have we needed to use a supercharger since July. Both times there were plenty of chargers available, but the weather was milder than now. As far as range goes, I just use the battery percentage as a gauge, but have noticed we need to plug in a little more frequently now that it's been below 0f for a few days in a row. It's actually above 0 right now!

 

I just asked my friend who has a MYLR how his car been in snow and he said it’s used significantly more energy but it was nice and toasty inside. He also stated he felt his MDX with SHAWD did a lot better in the same road conditions.

We used to have a MDX with SHAWD and it’s pretty impressive in inclement weather. I remember launching it from a stop in pouring down rain and it felt planted!! I just put on a new set of tires so what better way to test them. 😁

 

We took my wife's 3LR out yesterday and efficiency wasn't great. We started at 80% or ~225 miles of range. Drove it approx 150 miles (per Google Maps) with highway speeds between around 75-80 and a temp of about 20F outside. We got back with 9% battery so efficiency was ~320 wh/mi for our trip. Not great, but there were plenty of superchargers if we needed them along the way home

 

I imagine this was a learning experience for quite a few of the stranded drivers and it might not be so widespread at the next cold snap.

 

I noticed our total range on our Model Y LR when we charge to 100% has fallen below 300 miles now. I think it was 330 when new last year.

 

This isn’t the first time it’s been cold Or is this the first time it’s garnered attention?