Charging in Extreme Cold

[NY_Rob]

She should have driven as far away as SOC would allow and then navigated to the charger so the vehicle would precondition the battery for charging.

.. and upon arriving with a super low SOC pray that charger works.

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[Doug]

IT worked well….as well as a 50 kWh charger can work. It’s well reviewed in Plugshare, but if it didn’t work, we would’ve been in trouble. The Brainerd lakes area is a dead area for CCS fast charging. It’s sort of shocking to be honest. Circle K is rolling out a 180 kWh CCS system in Baxter, but it hasn’t broke ground yet. Otherwise….it’s this 50 kWh Crosby spot or nothing.

Down in our part of the state 50 KW chargers are the norm. We have one EA in Worthington which is the only real fast charger for over 100 miles. They recently raised the price to .65 KW. I am glad the ZEF charger worked for you. We have used some but ZEF chargers but have found some needing service. I have had my truck a little over a year but last winter I stayed close to home as I was not confident in the charging situation. Now we take it everywhere just do a little research on plugshare before we go any distance.

 

[Redline]

Down in our part of the state 50 KW chargers are the norm. We have one EA in Worthington which is the only real fast charger for over 100 miles. They recently raised the price to .65 KW. I am glad the ZEF charger worked for you. We have used some but ZEF chargers but have found some needing service. I have had my truck a little over a year but last winter I stayed close to home as I was not confident in the charging situation. Now we take it everywhere just do a little research on plugshare before we go any distance.

I’m assuming the Tesla network access will be a big deal for you? Do you have many down there?

 

[Doug]

I’m assuming the Tesla network access will be a big deal for you? Do you have many down there?

Yes. We have some in both directions on I90. I think the one in Monticello is open to ccs already do you get that direction and have you checked it out? I am working there next month so I will be using it if it is available.

 

[Doug]

Good advice Don, it was a chilly 62 degrees on the North Shore of Kauai yesterday so I had to get in the ocean- 77 degrees- to warm up? I’m a Nebraska kid- I know what you guys are going through- hang in there, but I understand that doesn’t help your battery issues in cold weather.

Hey Gman, We were in Kauai a month ago and it was 53 decrees and it was 55 in Minnesota that day. How things have changed. We love Kauai we just hit a cold day.

 

[Redline]

Yes. We have some in both directions on I90. I think the one in Monticello is open to ccs already do you get that direction and have you checked it out? I am working there next month so I will be using it if it is available.

Yep, I’ve used it multiple times. Works well but they did have multiple chargers down for a while.

 

[Fred6v]

This is an electric vehicle forum where the base price of the cheapest configuration is around $80,000. Every single "problem" here is a first world problem. You're just participating in bad faith for the sake of it.

Well said. There ought to be a way. Not sure if possible without change to the mechanicals..

 

[Gman]

Hey Gman, We were in Kauai a month ago and it was 53 decrees and it was 55 in Minnesota that day. How things have changed. We love Kauai we just hit a cold day.

That must be new record low for Kauai- I Googled it and it indicated 58 degrees on Dec. 8, 2017. We live in Hanalei-750 steps to water. It can get chilly in winter. Also up in mountain at Kokee on west side. Sorry you hit a bad day- headin to Wailua this am for our north shore group golf day- 77 hi for day, but no trade winds?

 

[Doug]

That must be new record low for Kauai- I Googled it and it indicated 58 degrees on Dec. 8, 2017. We live in Hanalei-750 steps to water. It can get chilly in winter. Also up in mountain at Kokee on west side. Sorry you hit a bad day- headin to Wailua this am for our north shore group golf day- 77 hi for day, but no trade winds?

We were up at Waimea Canyon and it was very foggy and raining. It was warmer down lower. I could get used to Hawaii in the winter.

 

[Budman]

Successful example of charging in extremely cold weather

https://insideevs.com/news/705254/tesla-charging-canada-negative-31-degrees/

 

[s4wrxttcs]

A lot of these cold weather charging issues seem to be due to a combination of infrastructure issues along with so many new EV owners this year. Somewhere around 1.2 million EV's were sold in the US in 2023, and all those people are new to experiences with EV's.

New owners don't typically know all that much about preconditioning or the impact cold has on range.

Even Rivian the company didn't even have preconditioning when they first started to sell vehicles. They introduced it in a SW update for an L3 charging destination, and then over a year later allowed people to have scheduled departure preconditioning (mostly for the interior, but I believe it also warms the battery).

New owners also don't know about what will freeze shut. It doesn't really matter what charger someone uses if they can't even get the charger port opened.

A coworker in Finland had his ID4 charger port frozen shut, and his wife ended up breaking it by trying to force it.

I believe every manufacture needs to release a cold weather guide for their vehicles to help customers know what they need to be prepared for. What to do in various situations.

 

[Greg Chick]

The new OTA system keeps my batteries warmer than before, but I am leaving it plugged in to a L2 charger all night.

 

[Chumsticker]

We just went through a week of temps between -20 and 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Our L2 home charger (outdoor, no garage, no carpart, fully exposed) charged between 50% and 75% of its normal speed when the battery was cold, speeding up to around 100% once it warmed up over an hour or so.

Other than that, had zero operational issues. The car started no problems on the -20 mornings, while my neighbors gas vehicles had issues turning over, and a few buddies with diesels had their fuel gel.

The range was obviously impacted at those lower temperatures, but I had to see I had no issues or worries about my vehicle while everyone else seemed to struggle with gas or diesel around me.

 

[NY_Rob]

I believe every manufacture needs to release a cold weather guide for their vehicles to help customers know what they need to be prepared for. What to do in various situations.

This is the exact same thing I said to my wife the other day when she showed my the NBC "In Depth" report on EV and the cold.

Yes, it's on the owners when they do not follow instructions.. but when you have a 400 page user manual it's hard to know what's important and what's not for a new EV driver. Instead of 97 pages on tire and seatblet warnings.. how about a prominent stand alone booklet/PDF on cold weather operations?

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