Electric vehicles may be the way of the future, but many EV owners are having trouble dealing with Chicago’s bitterly cold temperatures.
Public charging stations have turned into car graveyards over the past couple of days.
“Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent,” said Tyler Beard, who has been trying to recharge his Tesla at an Oak Brook Tesla supercharging station since Sunday afternoon. “And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday.” [emphasis, links added]
Beard was among the dozens of Tesla owners trying desperately to power up their cars at the Tesla supercharging station in Oak Brook.
It was a scene mirrored with long lines and abandoned cars at scores of other charging stations around the Chicago area.
“This is crazy. It’s a disaster. Seriously,” said Tesla owner Chalis Mizelle.
Mizelle was forced to abandon her car and get a ride from a friend when it wouldn’t charge.
Another man summed up the situation succinctly: “We got a bunch of dead robots out here.”
But it was no laughing matter to people like Kevin Sumrak, who landed at O’Hare on Sunday night to find his Tesla dead.
Sumlak was forced to hire a flatbed tow truck to try to find a working charging station.
Tesla didn’t respond to FOX 32’s emails or calls, but a Chicago area car expert says there are some things EV owners can do when it gets this cold.
“Like any new technology, there’s a learning curve for people,” said Mark Bilek of the Chicago Auto Trade Association.
Bilek said all EVs can have problems dealing with extreme cold, and drivers need to hit their preconditioning button before they charge their battery.
“It’s not plug and go. You have to precondition the battery, meaning that you have to get the battery up to the optimal temperature to accept a fast charge,” said Bilek.
Read more at Fox32
Before there was a push for electric cars I had a GPS running watch powered by a rechargeable lithium battery. Occasionally the electronics of the watch locked up. An effective way to deal with this sort of problem with various electronic devices is to cycle power. However, the watch had no off switch. When there was the need I would put it in the freezer. This dropped the voltage of the battery enough to power off the watch. The low output when cold of the lithium battery was useful in resetting the watch, but is very inconvenient when relying on such batteries for your ride home.
Just suppose they parked some RV,s under the UN Facticity charges their Batteries and wait to see what happens Next lets do the same for the HQ of all the leading Eco-Freak groups at night without anybody there
This blog was… how ddo I saay it? Relevant!!
Finalky I’ve found somnething wgich helped me. Thanks!
Isn’t it odd that these stories aren’t showing up in the national media? Actually, no it’s not. Nor are we hearing anything from from the cabinet heads of DOT (Mayor Pete) or DOE (Jennifer Granholm, last seen pushing EVs down south) about these problems. If I need to refuel my ICE vehicle I just pull into any number of gas stations and fill it up in minutes even in bitter cold. Guess that’s not possible for EVs.
I’m surprised that some entrepreneur hasn’t developed a retrofit kit that turns a Tesla into a plug-in hybrid. Turn a pumpkin into a car(riage).
I would rather precondition my ICE Silverado by simply STARTING it knowing I’ll be toasty warm after a couple of miles.