Official Cold Weather Driving Thread (Tips, Tricks, Tears)

[yizzung]

My current Audi has really only one major bug: the gas tank opening routinely “convinces” most gas pumps that the car is full. The tank holds about 13 gal and (even on empty) most pumps will do that auto-shutoff thing after adding about a gallon. So it takes 3 or 4 times as long to fill the tank vs a normal car. You can’t lock the handle and go clean the windshield. You also never know if the car is actually full because you get 10-12 false positives during refill. It’s super frustrating on a $55k new car and the service dept basically shrugs their shoulders. On my last ever ICE, it’s fitting that a defect in the gas tank is the most annoying thing about it. (Otherwise not a bad car!)

Sponsored

 

[crashmtb]

When we got our first EV, my wife literally said "I didn't know what a pain it was to go to the gas station until I didn't have to anymore."
We got rid of our last ICE this summer and are now a two EV household. Up until that time, getting gas for the hybrid became my duty. She decided she really didn't like going to the gas station

And that’s even in a place where you don’t have to/cannot pump your own gas! ?

 

[crashmtb]

The good news is we already travel in gear (except in spring) minus the boots so we can get on the slopes ASAP.

Maybe this is just too early to transition to BEV’s for my use case. I’ve got time to figure it out, hopefully there’ll be some 500 mile options in the pipeline or better battery chemistry.

With regen braking/one pedal driving, you should now be able to drive in ski boots!

 

[Dark-Fx]

My current Audi has really only one major bug: the gas tank opening routinely “convinces” most gas pumps that the car is full. The tank holds about 13 gal and (even on empty) most pumps will do that auto-shutoff thing after adding about a gallon. So it takes 3 or 4 times as long to fill the tank vs a normal car. You can’t lock the handle and go clean the windshield. You also never know if the car is actually full because you get 10-12 false positives during refill. It’s super frustrating on a $55k new car and the service dept basically shrugs their shoulders. On my last ever ICE, it’s fitting that a defect in the gas tank is the most annoying thing about it. (Otherwise not a bad car!)

My 02' Sonoma does this because the wiring for the evap system corroded away. I would think you have something wrong with the evap system as it's not normal.

(otherwise, heat things up by driving like hell)

Anecdotally, on my Bolt if it's cold soaked and you aren't plugged in, if its well below freezing, there's literally nothing that will get it up to a good temperature for fast DCFC. Driving 85 mph won't heat the battery up enough. A dozen rapid 0-60-0 doesn't do it either. In my opinion, its the biggest engineering failure on the Bolt (excluding the current battery fiasco).

 

[yizzung]

My 02' Sonoma does this because the wiring for the evap system corroded away. I would think you have something wrong with the evap system as it's not normal.

Could be. Has happened the entire time I’ve owned it so if it failed, it failed in a brand new car. Taken it to the service dept twice and got the runaround. We can’t reproduce it, tests were inconclusive, yada yada. I even sent them video. I’ll never own an ICE (nor an Audi) again.

 

[crashmtb]

Could be. Has happened the entire time I’ve owned it so if it failed, it failed in a brand new car. Taken it to the service dept twice and got the runaround. We can’t reproduce it, tests were inconclusive, yada yada. I even sent them video. I’ll never own an ICE (nor an Audi) again.

I had a similar problem with a MINI, turned out the filler neck hose had a little kink in it, enough to slow the flow of fuel so as to shut off the nozzle. Had to watch the angle of the nozzle.

I don’t imagine it’s any easier with the vapour recovery nozzles you’ve got.

 

[yizzung]

I had a similar problem with a MINI, turned out the filler neck hose had a little kink in it, enough to slow the flow of fuel so as to shut off the nozzle. Had to watch the angle of the nozzle.

I don’t imagine it’s any easier with the vapour recovery nozzles you’ve got.

I've had the car four years. I've tried filling the tank while standing on my head. There's no angle that can solve the problem... Weirdly, It works 100% fine on SOME pumps. You just never know which ones are going to give you a problem.

When I was reading Tesla's tips on cold weather, they briefly mentioned frozen charge ports and I immediately started having PTSD thinking about not being able to get my charge going in the Rivian.

 

[crashmtb]

I've had the car four years. I've tried filling the tank while standing on my head. There's no angle that can solve the problem... Weirdly, It works 100% fine on SOME pumps. You just never know which ones are going to give you a problem.

When I was reading Tesla's tips on cold weather, they briefly mentioned frozen charge ports and I immediately started having PTSD thinking about not being able to get my charge going in the Rivian.

I had that particular car for 5 years, dealer replaced the fuel filler assembly and it was fine for a while, then the problem came back. Definitely was more of an issue at certain stations. Like the one nearest my house ?.

fun thing on teslas is the door handles freezing, or the folding mirrors only going half way out in winter.

it’ll be very interesting to see how the Rivian does in the depths of winter comparatively.

 

[flabyboy]

a big question regarding charging is how rapidly will the gas station companies add EV charging, once EV adoption begins to pick up?

in Canada, petro-Canada has added DC fast charging from coast to coast on the trans-Canada highway. Other chains are starting to follow suit.

Shell has EV charging at stations worldwide, except in North America.

EV charging is already not much slower than a gas stop on a road trip - after all, when getting gas, you can’t really do anything else for the 5-15 minutes it takes to tank up. It’s put gas in the car, then go to the bathroom and get a snack etc. at least with an EV one can leave it charging and do something else while waiting.

Our politicians are bought and paid for down here in America. We will lag way behind. The new mileage tax they are proposing is going hurt as well

 

[flabyboy]

Sat down and had a talk with my wife tonight about the Max Pack. Also chatted with CS and asked when they anticipate the max pack rolling out in comparison to standard. Jan 2022 was the answer

 

[trmckin1]

My current Audi has really only one major bug: the gas tank opening routinely “convinces” most gas pumps that the car is full. The tank holds about 13 gal and (even on empty) most pumps will do that auto-shutoff thing after adding about a gallon. So it takes 3 or 4 times as long to fill the tank vs a normal car. You can’t lock the handle and go clean the windshield. You also never know if the car is actually full because you get 10-12 false positives during refill. It’s super frustrating on a $55k new car and the service dept basically shrugs their shoulders. On my last ever ICE, it’s fitting that a defect in the gas tank is the most annoying thing about it. (Otherwise not a bad car!)

this is going to sound ridiculous but... once you put the nozzle into the fill opening... twist/flip the whole nozzle upside down and then pump. Should solve the vapor lock from tripping too early. I've got the same problem on my tundra. You can only imagine how long that takes to fill up when it trips every 5-10 seconds. Flip it over, no issues.

 

[yizzung]

this is going to sound ridiculous but... once you put the nozzle into the fill opening... twist/flip the whole nozzle upside down and then pump. Should solve the vapor lock from tripping too early. I've got the same problem on my tundra. You can only imagine how long that takes to fill up when it trips every 5-10 seconds. Flip it over, no issues.

I have literally tried everything. Upside down. Left handed. At this point I'm just ready to push the car off a cliff and start driving my Rivian...

 

[crashmtb]

I have literally tried everything. Upside down. Left handed. At this point I'm just ready to push the car off a cliff and start driving my Rivian...

could be worse, you could have an original 2.7 allroad. Getting gas in would be the least of your worries ?

 

[ajdelange]

This is a 2019 Model X Standard edition. I have road tripped this in the winter. It's max range is 245 miles (lol I've *never* gotten this)

Here is my Wh/Mile since I bought the car, you can see that I have not been super cold as I live in NC but the worst efficiency % from the release 100% number is 63.9 vs 85 being the sweet spot of 75-80 degrees F.

TeslaFi thinks the rated consumption for my X (LR+) is 265 Wh/mi. It is actually 282. Thus TeslaFi consistently reports efficiencies as being 5% or so worse than they actually are and this may be thge case for you too. I too live in a warmish place and have little logged at below freezing, In that 30 - 35°F band I see 72%. Above 35 °F I get 95% and above 60 °F 100% or a little better.

 

[electrictaco]

I knew there would be cold weather range decreases, but 40% has me questioning not just my R1T preorder but this whole generation of EV’s.

Where we live (central NH) it will be below freezing from mid November to mid April and 20 or below for at least 2 months in mid winter. We even had a year recently where it was below zero for a month straight.

For most of my uses this would not be an issue (eg driving around town) but during the winter we usually drive ~2 hours one way (80-120 miles) to various mountains to ski every weekend. Some of these places have chargers, but very few, and they’re usually already taken before the mountain even opens. So more than likely the vehicle would be cold soaking for 8 hours in a parking lot having already depleted a significant amount of range. For reference our hybrid highlander will do most of these round trips on 1/2 to 3/4 of a tank.

Max pack would alleviate some of these issues but I’m not sure I can stomach 80k for a vehicle (any vehicle, looking at you lightning) that could lose almost half of its range for almost half of the year.

I realize these are probably worst case scenario numbers, but I’d frequently be in similar to worse situations (eg -10F two day cold soak at a condo with no option for a plug in).

I feel real anxiety every time I fill up one of our vehicles at the gas station and I despise the companies that extract the oil, so I have been itching to replace our vehicles with EV’s, even willing to risk being an early adopter.

Now I’m starting to consider PHEV mini vans (even though they are much less capable) as a stopgap until the next generation of batteries.

Already stated above by others, but better batteries won’t improve the losses to cold. There may be more range and improved battery management in the cold, but the best thing you can look forward to is better charging infrastructure. The great news is that the charging stations will only become more common the next few years (yes, even in relatively change-averse New Hampshire).

I would lobby your favorite mountains to put in more chargers (attracts more skiers and riders) and find the nearest DC chargers (I think there’s a new Electrify America station in Lebanon, Manchester, and Portsmouth). If you buy your Rivian this year, it will age like fine wine and get better with time!

Sponsored