For All You Tesla Haters - Enjoy!

[0t60-3.5]

Many issues going on... Charge time and frequency goes up dramatically in extreme cold. My MME Select is now only about 1.6 miles per kWh here in Iowa (brutal cold spell, below zero as highs and down to -15 nightly). Quite poor. At 68kWh, that's only a range at 95% charge of 106 miles. That means charging much more often. The surge of charging occurs, and batteries need to condition/warm up, making charging at the "pump" a longer interval, and what you have my friends...

T H E P E R F E C T S T O R M of inadequacies in the whole EV / EV charging market even before mass adoption.

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[Teslaeata]

Yes, Tesla manufactures and sells all Tesla vehicles currently available for sale, (Models S,3,X,Y, and CT), they manufacture and install all Tesla supercharges currently in operation (Versions 1,2,3,4), they write the application software that operates and integrates the two, and they own and maintain all of the backing infrastructure for all of this.

Apologies, discounted them because wouldn’t ever consider a car from them??‍ Principle still applies, though, they sent people to chargers that don’t work-charge point only provider apps don’t do this??‍??‍

 

[ChasingCoral]

The story continues:


No surprise a Fox station picked up on this. They’ve been pretty anti-EV nationally and in many markets.

 

[TheSteelRider]

Ironic that the car meant to curtail global warming can't charge in frigid temperatures.

Maybe by 2024 they expected Greta Thunberg predictions to be true, and the oceans to be 100ft. higher and global temps to be 3 - 4 warmer with death and destruction everywhere. No need to expect freezing temps in a few years right

 

[TheSteelRider]

As usual the news media is inadequate. What is the actual mechanical issue that causes the Tesla chargers to fail at super low temperatures? I assume the chargers have cooling systems that freeze in subzero temps? Is it moisture in the contacts/relays that freeze?

Sounds like some Silicon Valley engineer didn't do his homework correctly ?

Of course I don't know, and we may never know (Tesla isn't known for exposing negative information), but a year ago when Kyle (Out of Spec) did his CCS charger tests with EA, EGgo, etc. and they all failed supposedly that was because of a relay. Again, not saying this Tesla failure was also a relay, but just saying we have one example in the past so it wouldn't surprise me if this was a common failure point.

 

[nvabill]

Mohegan Sun in CT is the only authorized location where you can purchase & take delivery of a Tesla.

You mean in CT. correct?

 

[superdave80]

Again, why I would never use an electric vehicle for long distance driving.

This has nothing to do with 'long distance'. These are people that use them for normal day-to-day charging.

 

[ArthurDOB]

Something for all you Tesla haters to enjoy! ?

As much as I enjoyed this story, it's bad press for EVs in general. This is a unique situation, something that is not made clear in the story.

 

[TheSteelRider]

Out-of-Spec just did a deep-dive on the story

The TL;DR is that, there was likely a lot more details behind the headlines and not as simple as "chargers didn't work". It's a good, and unusually not very long, coverage of the issue. And, a Mach E owner makes an appearance!

 

[Pedro Diaz]

This is clearly false news. Everyone knows that Tesla chargers are the most reliable chargers. Every Tesla owners says so...

It seems legit to me. On a city where people depend on Tesla supercharger but can't get to them due to weather. You know the last thing that gets plowed is a charging station. I believe it.

 

[Blue highway]

Out-of-Spec just did a deep-dive on the story

The TL;DR is that, there was likely a lot more details behind the headlines and not as simple as "chargers didn't work". It's a good, and unusually not very long, coverage of the issue. And, a Mach E owner makes an appearance!

so, while Kyle can't stop talking... he did make some good points

• When an EV battery gets below ~ -15F it wont take a charge... the cold soak waiting to charge can render your car unable to charge at all when it is your turn.
  
  
• Lots of CCS chargers had the same problem that Super Chargers had... Because many people (most?) think Tesla=EV the way that Kleenex=facial tissue it got most of the attention.
  
  
• lots of city dwellers use DCFC for all their charging... This plus more charging needed in the cold, (and "free" DCFC) and we can get to a tipping point in cold cities where the DCFC stations get overwhelmed. A few years ago, only people that could charge at home bought EVs... and DCFC was only used for road trips... now lots of people buy EVs and expect to DCFC for all their charging.

 

[Pedro Diaz]

Just remember that we'll be getting access to Tesla chargers soon™. Let's hope this only happens at v2 chargers!

There's already a bunch of these non-Tesla Supercharger locations. Maryland has some according to the Tesla App

 

[Guss-E 2021]

I just watched the guys on TFLEV charge their Model 3 at 237 kW at -3 degrees F. Too bad those folks couldn't actually charge because it would have been glorious ?

 

[TheSteelRider]

So that was painful to watch. Their story is the Chicago situation is owner error and not infrastructure limitation.

Of course.

A few points they made seemed to say that. Although to be fair one of their "it's owner error" was the example of a Bolt choosing a 350 KWh EA charger. That's really a EV 101 type of thing. Is that owner, or is that the dealer or company not educating them or is that the car or charger software not saying, "Hey dude, you don't need this dispenser maybe try another one first"? Another "owner error" was mentioning that some folks plug in, and just leave it plugged in for hours and "hog" the charger. I mean, that really is the fault of that owner and it would seem like that behavior is socially unacceptable and would also be unacceptable if someone parked at a gas pump for hours as well.

Besides that, Kyle also specifically mentioned vehicle manufacturer culpability in the situation. (timestamps ~13:28-14:00; 20:42-21:15). Here is Kyle's best quote on that topic - "but the thing is your car should never limit you ... you should just be able to plug it in and use it as a normal car"

All that said, I do agree with you here that the real solution is not to expect all owners to be experts, but to improve the tech.

 

[RickMachE]

It seems legit to me. On a city where people depend on Tesla supercharger but can't get to them due to weather. You know the last thing that gets plowed is a charging station. I believe it.

That was sarcasm... lots of posts about how great the Tesla network is, nothing is ever down, etc. So, when an entire location is mostly down, it must be fake news, right?

There's already a bunch of these non-Tesla Supercharger locations. Maryland has some according to the Tesla App

There are about 45 Magic Dock locations in the US and Canada, part of the 3,500 chargers by year end agreed to with the government.

Ford is giving us access to 15,000 SuperChargers by Spring, perhaps Feb, with an adapter we will buy. This is what @ChasingCoral is referring to.

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