Electric Vehicles are not practical in cold weather regions like Chicago. (retired, state government)
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The article didn't say, but is it the charges that aren't working in the cold, or is it the car or batteries that are the problem?
I have some experience working with electronics in the cold, and if they are not hardened for frigid temperatures they can fail
They have stories about what happened last winter with the "arctic blasts".
The EV's won't go as far, they need charging more often and it takes twice as long to charge.
They said EV's were good for short trips but not long trips in the cold.
This was Christmas time last year with plenty of articles on this if you look.
It should be no surprise..even batteries have "minimum optimal temperatures" to work correctly and take a charge.
My key fob has a hard time working when it's this cold in the Midwest ... what the hell did people think was going to happen to the actual EV?
Bunch of frickin' morons.
Probably someone who has never used a cordless/battery operated tool. Or paid attention to the actually battery life and charging times of their phones, computers etc. Can't put an ev/charger next to the night stand.
just like banning incandescent bulbs, the market solved it by developing superior led lighting. i am confident Chinese EV makers will solve the issues plaguing EVs so that everyone can own an EV regardless of the temperature. also, if everyone had an EV the climate would stop changing and you no longer would have to worry about extreme hot or cold weather as the earth will reach a static temperature of 72 degrees and the north and south poles will be static at negative 500 degrees so the ice caps will always be frozen.
The problem was, government rushed ahead to ban incandescent bulbs before we had developed the LED bulbs that were acceptable.
We all suffered with these horrible fluorescent bulbs that failed often, were slow to turn on, slow to brighten and contained mercury. It was not until many years later that the private sector caught up to our needs.
That's interesting, I wouldn't have figured that. I don't think he was referring to degradation over time though. I think he meant if it's cold it depletes faster then and there.
Because gas vehicles always start in freezing cold temperatures? Uh-huh.
As a preface I'm an EV believer. The day Jeep or Ford offers a high torque low center of gravity/mass EV 4x4/offroader I'll be a buyer.
Gasoline freezes at around -99F.
A decently charged auto battery freezes at around -35/-40F.
Modern fuel injection systems yield many times easier/better cold starts than carb systems of yore - even modern diesels cold start well.....thank you ceramic glow-plugs.
Somewhere around Avon CO. we keep a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee turbo diesel 4x4 it cold starts just fine every time, Howes keeps the diesel from jelling. Full disclosure, it's usually garaged and I do keep it on a Marine style battery charger as we sometimes go months without being there. That said I've cold started the thing after motel stays and on hunting trips in temps well below zero. No problem ever.
So yea a good ICE with fuel injection is a 100X better bet in very cold climates than current EVs.
exactly. buy 'em if you like 'em, but the government shouldn't be forcing ICEs off the market and EVs onto it
Exactly! But putting the horse before the cart is what the zealots in government do best.
Since we are talking about Chicago, many homeowners park in the street in front of their house. It's first come first served, so it's not a guarantee that your spot will not be taken. Someone on the pro-EV side needs to figure out how those people parking their ICE vehicles in the street, will be able to charge their EV, after the government bans ICE vehicles.
that's ok, a certain poster may soon arrive to post aggressively for the next 4 days straight about the joys and wonders of EVs.
That poster is too busy being “fly off the handle” angry and heavy-handed toward folks who spread EV “disinformation” in another sub-forum.
The pro-EV “I like my EV and because I like my EV, everyone else should be FORCED to buy one” crowd doesn’t care about any inconvenience related to cold weather. They’ll give you a number of reasons why diminished range in cold weather is nothing to worry about and if they can’t convince you why diminished range is a somehow a good thing, they’ll tell you that you shouldn’t really be on the road in bad weather anyway, so your EV is ‘saving’ you from the risk of having an accident.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - 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
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