Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather

[David P]

Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather By Schmall and Gross, Jan. 17, 2024, New York Times With Chicago temps sinking below zero, EV charging stations have become scenes of desperation: depleted batteries, confrontational drivers and lines stretching out onto the street.

“When it’s cold like this, cars aren’t functioning well, chargers aren’t functioning well, and people don’t function so well either,” said Javed Spencer, an Uber driver who said he had done little else in the last three days besides charge his rented Chevy Bolt and worry about being stranded with a dead battery — again.

Mr. Spencer, 27, said he set out on Sunday for a charging station with 30 miles left on his battery. Within minutes, the battery was dead. He had to have the car towed to the station.

“When I finally plugged it in, it wasn’t getting any charge,” he said. Recharging the battery, which usually takes Mr. Spencer an hour, took five hours.

With more people owning electric vehicles than ever before, cold snaps this winter have created headaches for electric vehicle owners, as freezing temperatures drain batteries and reduce driving range.

And the problems may persist a little longer. Chicago and other parts of the United States and Canada this week have been stunned by bitterly cold temperatures. On Tuesday, wind chills plummeted near -30 degrees across much of the Chicago area, according to the National Weather Service. Dangerously low temperatures and waves of snow are expected to stick through the end of the week.

[Paul]

Guess who bought a car that has no battery conditioner.

If the article does not mention the model of Edsel the individual bought, it make it harder to laugh at the twit.

A battery conditioner, heats the battery to the correct temperature for charging. Charging commences once the temperature is correct. Virtually all *modern* car companies have figured this out.

Using the heat pump in the car, running on heat cycle, the fluid that circulates through the pack is heated, which gives a nice uniform temperature. The same path through the pack that implements cooling, is used for the heating fluid cycle.

The heat pump is powered by the charging cable, so even if the battery was flat, the energy to heat it, comes from the charger, not from the battery.

On a cold day, you can even program the car (while the charging cable is still connected), to not only condition the battery temperature, but also condition the cabin temperature. That means, at least your drive to work is toasty warm, and only the afternoon return will be hard on the battery energy. There will be less range degradation on the trip to work, with programmed conditioning in the morning.

Cars have features. Who knew.

Paul

[nib]

...

One of my favourite features!

Off for work on a freezing dark morning, neighbours scraping their windscreens, there's my car waiting for me, heat pump whirring, windscreen clear and nice and warm inside!

nib

[Tim+]

David, does that echo chamber that passes for your mind have anything useful to contribute?

Tim

[Smolley]

I used to do that with my G-Wagon GDS diesel, start it and then go and have breakfast.

[Andy Bennett]

+1

[SteveW]

But with the electric car, you don't even have to start it, just remotely set the aircon going or pre-set it on the charge app - and it runs off the charger for 10 minutes.

In the morning, I come out of the bathroom, start the aircon, have a glass of milk, put my stuff in my bag and everything is ready to set off.

[fred]

I am able to use a BMW app to remotely start the heating. This worked fine wih the i3 when I could have it start immediately but with the current version on my X5 Hybrid I have to selct a departure time one day in advance. p.I.T.A.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, I am given to understand that the US is going through a cold snap where it normally would not get one, and the shortcomings in charger design are showing up since the chargers normally never have to use the extra current to get them warm.

I also noticed that The operators of the bus that caught fire the other day have stopped using them pending safety checks on the fleet. This no doubt has meant a shortage of electric busses in many areas. The fire occurred at Hammersmith. You would think that a bus which has to transport passengers should not have any way that it could catch fire though, would you not. Brian

[SteveW]

I can set the departure time and select pre-heat, in the charging app, but I can also simply switch the pre-heat on from the car's own mobile app, giving me more flexibility - I tend do that instead, as I come out of the bathroom in the morning and it's ready by the time I'm ready to go.

[Andrew]

The chassis with all the batteries and control gubbins come from China Brian. The coachbuilding is done in the UK or somewhere close.

[Rod Speed]

There have been ICE buses that have caught fire. That is unavoidable given the very flammable fuel they have to carry with them.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

[Andrew]

On Todays BBC1 Bargain Hunt, one of the 'star purchases' made by the expert was a Mustang Grill complete with pony and headlights.

He paid £40 for it and it sold for £55 at auction, maybe to someone who wanted to adorn his man cave.

[Paul]

"Switch presented the findings of its investigation to TfL on the morning of May 25, where TfL accepted the evidence that a conductive coolant was inadvertently added to the battery coolant system that was only designed to be used with a non-conductive substance."

Aha! Rocket scientists :-)

That's the best way to train people, is one burned-bus at a time.

Paul

[Paul]

So what kind of electric golf cart will you be buying ?

The one on the right, doesn't have a seat heater.

Paul