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There are a lot of cold towns in the US that didn't have the same issues as Chicago. There's more to it than just "Cold weather". TBH, perhaps the more general
by _ea1k 3y ago
There are a lot of cold towns in the US that didn't have the same issues as Chicago. There's more to it than just "Cold weather".
TBH, perhaps the more general problem is that EVs aren't fully ready for dense cities yet. Or maybe dense cities aren't ready for EVs.
- Kon-Peki 3y agoTo be clear, when this problem was happening in Chicago, the temperature was a lot colder than Oslo. Like -30°C with a wind chill approaching -50°C. That's not "cold weather", that's "insanely cold weather". According to Wikipedia, it has never been anywhere close to that cold in Oslo. And yet, due to the climate change effect on the arctic jet stream, Chicago sees this kind of temperature for a few days in 2-3 out of every 5 winters.
- Symbiote 3y agoIs the wind chill more than marginally relevant to a car? People lose heat through evaporation, which is worse if there's wind. Objects don't, and normal wind speeds are usually well below driving speeds anyway.
- emj 3y agoThe magic of water in clay makes objects cold, like the Olla pots for water or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator I have no clay cars sadly, not sure how ordinary cars handle wind chill.
- Kon-Peki 3y agoWhen the car is stopped and trying to warm the battery so it can begin fast charging, the wind makes the vehicle surface dissipate heat better. Which you don't want. But... batteries are fairly insulated so wind chill probably has a marginal effect at best. I was just emphasizing how much colder it was in Chicago than in Oslo :)
- lamontcg 3y agoMy first vehicle in high school was a diesel pickup in Alaska that wouldn't start at -20F.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoWow, that is almost as cold as Harbin!
- engineer_22 3y agoI think it is just people needing to get ready for EVs. Care and maintenance is different from ICE's, and folks are still learning what to do and when.
- _ea1k 3y agoI'm not sure how an Uber driver can solve the Chicago problem for himself. More infrastructure is really needed. Although the amount of additional infrastructure needed isn't necessarily vast. It sounds like they had enough chargers for normal days.
- engineer_22 3y ago-> sounds like they had enough chargers for normal days. Normal warm days. They sold too many teslas for the number of charging stations available for the cold climate. My take is that this is one of the inevitable complications discovered along the energy transition path. Lesson here: Making and selling cars is the first hurdle, and they got over it. Build a factory, build a marketing apparatus, get them out there. Placing fixed assets to support the service needs in individual markets is lagging behind - a process may not be in place to anticipate and support market adoption at current pace.
- GiorgioG 3y agoI think is just that EVs need to get better. I don't care what temperature it is outside, my truck will start just fine.