Teslas are clogging up a Chicago Supercharger station as freezing temperatures play havoc with EVs
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
- Tesla drivers in Chicago are battling freezing temperatures .
- Fox 32 reported that EV drivers faced long lines at charging stations throughout the city.
- One Tesla owner told Fox she was forced to abandon her car after it failed to charge.
Tesla drivers in Chicago are struggling to charge their cars amid brutal temperatures.
On Monday, dozens of Tesla owners were seen desperately trying to power up their cars at a Tesla supercharging station in Oak Brook, Illinois, Fox 32 reported . One driver, Tyler Beard, told the outlet he'd been trying to charge the EV since Sunday afternoon.
He said his Tesla was "still on zero percent" despite spending more than six hours at the supercharger.
The Chicago area was hit with some of its coldest weather in five years over the weekend, with wind chills dropping to minus 32 degrees on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Fox reported that EV drivers faced long lines at charging stations across the city.
Some drivers simply gave up and abandoned their freezing EVs. One Tesla owner, Chalis Mizelle, told Fox she was forced to leave her car and get a lift from a friend after it failed to charge.
EVs are known to struggle in cold weather, with car batteries draining much faster and significantly affecting vehicle performance.
Tesla owners have complained about facing issues in freezing temperatures before. Several have shared videos that appear to show car doors frozen shut .
In 2022, one Tesla owner told Business Insider his car wouldn't charge in freezing temperatures , leaving him stranded on Christmas Eve. After trying to charge the car for 15 hours, Domenick Nati said he was forced to cancel his Christmas plans altogether.
Last week Hertz said it was selling tens of thousands of Teslas — about a third of its total — partly due to the cost of repairs.
Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI, made outside normal working hours.
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How far away are we from these cars really being practical?
More than a quarter of a century ago I was quite impressed with the concept of the hybrid Toyota Prius. I have owned and enjoyed driving Toyota Camrys so I'll bet the Prius, being a hybrid, is a lot more reliable and sensible than EVs that run on batteries alone.
Hybrids are still more practical for many urban dwellers who do not have the convenience of home charging. Yet, EVs now go over 300 miles per charge and Americans seldom drive over 150 miles from their home. Today most American families have more than one vehicle and the transition from ICE vehicles is well on its way.
In optimal conditions only. Weather like the frigid north in the US is getting now that range is diminished greatly. Not many can afford charging stations at their homes.
Prove it. Most American families that own more than one vehicle have more than one driver; and more than one person working. In weather like this no one wants to be stuck with an EV. Employers tend to frown on workers not showing up due to weather. "I can't charge my EV is not a good excuse".
Bazinga …. Buyer beware …… as they are finding out in places like Chicago right now.
Yep, hybrids are the answer. Now and into the future until EV energy storage improves to be practical for the average consumer year round.
A hybrid is far more reliable. I have no arguments with those.
EVs are already extremely practical for daily driving using a home charging system, although hybrid systems are still better for long hauls. In the end electricity is way more practical and efficient compared with hot burning combustion engines for most applications. It only costs about $50 to power a 1,000 HP EV for 1,000 miles. A 150 HP Subaru will only go about half that far on $50 of fuel. It is called progress...
OMG!
HERE:
"Automakers have done a tremendous job extending the range of electric vehicles but, for the most part, most electric cars still can’t compete with the range offered between fill-ups by gas-powered vehicles. Furthermore, charging a vehicle is still nowhere near as fast as filling a gas tank. If you’re buying an affordable electric car, there’s a chance that you’re getting cars with a battery range of just 120 to 150 miles, maybe less in some instances. But these numbers still pale in comparison to the kind of range gas-powered cars have. Sure, most gas-powered vehicles average around 300 miles on a full tank of gas, but the more efficient models can have more than 500 miles of “range” before they run out of gas. Models like the Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra Eco, and Toyota Yaris Sedan all return around 35 mpg (combined). Depending on tank size, you can travel anywhere between 380 and 490 miles before you start running on fumes. Electric cars can’t beat that, at least not yet.
We’re still at a point where gas stations outnumber car charging stations by a ratio of 1,000:1, maybe even more. Imagine taking a road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco. That’s a distance of almost 400 miles. If you’re driving a fuel-efficient car, you can make that trip on one full tank of gas. You might still have to make pit stops along the way, but they won’t be because you’ve run out of fuel. Now, take that same trip in an electric car and you’re all but guaranteed to stop at a charging station because you’re going to run out of juice before you reach the Bay Area. In some ways, you can count yourself lucky because you’re driving to a place where there are enough charging stations available. Imagine making a similar trip covering the same distance in places where there aren’t as many charging stations around. It’s a nuisance that can be avoided if you instead bring a gas-powered car on your trip.
Speaking of charging stations, there’s something to be said, too, about the time it takes to charge an electric car’s batteries. Let’s face it; charging an electric car can be an issue, especially if you’re in a rush. In the likely event that you need to charge your EV, you’re going to have to come to grips with the reality that you’re going to spend more time waiting for the batteries in your car to charge as opposed to filling up your car’s gas tank with fuel. The latter takes no more than five minutes. Heck, even fast charging stations take up to 30 minutes to charge a battery pack to 80-percent capacity. That’s not even a full charge! It’s a manageable issue for some people, but it also comes with the caveat that if you plan a trip using an electric car, you need to do it carefully because running out of power can’t be solved by a quick pit stop at a charging station. You’re going to have to wait.
It’s true that electric cars rid you of the problem of paying for gas. But just because you save on fuel, that doesn’t mean you save on everything else. Those battery packs, for example, are expensive. They’re not as expensive as they used to be — battery packs used to cost around $1,000 per kWh a decade ago — but still, they’re still going to put a dent in your pocket. Multiply that by their total output and you’re looking at costs of around $12,000 to $20,000 to replace. While there’s no certainty that you’re going to have to replace them in a specific period of time, if you own an electric car and drive it long enough, there’s a good chance that a battery pack replacement will be in order down the road. Who knows, you might have to do it more than once over the lifetime of your electric car. Imagine paying more than $50,000 for an electric car, only to pay a fortune on a battery pack replacement down the road. We’re not even taking into account other issues that could happen to these cars.
This isn’t so much of a problem in the U.S. or a lot of European countries that offer fuel cost savings, tax credits, and incentives for electric cars. But what about the rest of the world? Unfortunately, the concept of an electric car is still foreign in a lot of areas in the world, particularly those that don’t have the infrastructure to support EVs. In other cases, it’s possible that some governments could impose higher taxes on electric cars, making them more expensive than they already are. Some countries even classify electric cars as “exotics,” which means that they fall under the same classifications as performance car brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Mclaren, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley. It’s surprising to think of it these terms if you live in a country like the U.S., but that’s the reality a lot of people face in other parts of the world when it comes to potentially owning an electric car.
There’s no denying that electric cars produce zero carbon emissions. But just because that’s true, that doesn’t mean that electric cars have no reliance on fossil fuels. See, electricity needs to be produced for electric cars to actually drive. There are a number of ways to do that, including hydropower, renewable sources, and nuclear power. But none of these things are the biggest sources of electricity. Five years ago, the U.S. Well, EVs need them — including coal, petroleum, and natural gas — because, without them, we don’t get electricity unless we go through other aforementioned means. Granted, those percentages are expected to drop with more focus being placed on renewable energy sources, but until we completely stop using fossil fuels to produce electricity, EVs will still rely on them, even if it's indirectly. At least we know that gas-powered need fossil fuels. EVs need them, too. It’s just that nobody mentions it.
There will come a point when electric cars dominate the road. That seems like a foregone conclusion now that every automaker that’s worth its salt has shifted its focus into developing as many EVs as it can. But that day hasn’t arrived yet. For now, gas-powered cars still rule the roost. This is what happens when you tap into the numbers game. You can still choose to buy an electric car, but you should know that you’re doing so knowing that the entire EV universe has yet to be fully explored. We know what we’re getting our hands on with a gas-powered car. There’s literally more than 100 years of history and evolving technology to tap into to see their benefits. As promising as electric cars are for the future, there’s still not a lot of history there to suggest that this is the way to the future. I know it sounds like a choice between a sure thing and an untapped prospect, but that’s the reality of the situation, too. Electric cars could dominate the roads of the world in the future. There are multitudes of points and evidence to suggest that we’ll end up in that place. But what if…we don’t?
Ok, so this applies mostly to high-performance electric cars and their gas-powered counterparts. It also puts the spotlight on your preference between being quick or being fast. If you want to be quick off the line, the electric car is the way to go, in part because they generate more torque than their gas-powered counterparts and it comes instantly. That’s an important distinction because torque is what drives a vehicle forward. Electric cars also don’t need traditional transmissions, eliminating part of the process of routing the power to the wheels. That’s where you get instant acceleration. But here’s the caveat: just because electric cars are quicker off the line, that doesn’t mean they’re faster. The problem with electric cars, at least compared to their gas-powered counterparts, is that they’re less likely to sustain that quickness because of the lack of a transmission to channel that power to higher notches. Gas-powered cars, on the other hand, don’t have that problem. That’s why when you see an electric car and a gas-powered performance car in a race, the safe bet is always on the electric car to accelerate quicker but on the gas-powered car to eventually catch up and pull ahead in a matter of seconds."
Gas-Powered Cars Will Always Be Better Than Electric Cars - Here's 10 Reasons Why (topspeed.com)
It is called REALITY
I road to work today in a EV for the first time. It was a Chevy BOLT. Comfortable ride. Owner was running heated seats and steering well to avoid running much cabin heat. A bit cold as it was 16 outside, but doable for the 25 min drive.