4 ms·

Newspapers in Sweden are having a field day with Tesla after last week's heavy snow. Seems like all the horror stories about people being stranded in 20F with

Newspapers in Sweden are having a field day with Tesla after last week's heavy snow. Seems like all the horror stories about people being stranded in 20F with a dead car and no heating come from Tesla owners. I'm happy nobody has died yet, but from what we saw it's just a matter of time before whole families are found dead

sokoloff 3y ago
Im no particular Tesla fan, but I do suspect that if 3 ICE cars were stranded with no heat and 1 Tesla was, you’d hear about the Tesla story. In some way, this is actually useful as people need to know the differences and possible new risks with an EV. On the other hand, it’s still biased.
- b112 3y ago
  It's not biased to report "car brand X becomes useless because of temps, unlike all other cars" That is indeed a story, and should caution those in certain environments not to buy that brand. It also shows a lack of testing, to sell cars into a market, where they won't work reliably for part of the year. And a completely different tact, a car breaking down is expected. An entire production model being flawed, and defective, is not. This is not even slightly biased.
- kramerger 3y ago
  There have been multiple stories about EVs getting stuck in snow then running out of battery and being towed. But the particular cases where the car itself has broken down seem to be limited to Teslas. Even in the heavily moderated Tesla Club Sweden forum people have started questioning the reliability of these cars in the winter.
thebruce87m 3y ago
Or… the Tesla ones are being amplified. I spent two hours in my car in 0C last week taking a call with my AC, heated seat and heated steering wheel on and the battery %age didn’t budge a single point. My conservative friends in Scotland are all eager to share “horror stories” of Teslas in Chicago with me. When a Tesla has a problem it literally makes world news. That should tell you how often these things happen.
- edgyquant 3y ago
  0 degrees Celsius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit so we’re not talking about the same kinda of temperatures here. You’re talking about right at freezing, which can be common most everywhere in the northern hemisphere at least. The other is quite a bit colder but still common in the Midwest and actually cold places. This seems like a bad faith comment when looked at in that context.
  - thebruce87m 3y ago
    I’m sure most people on Hacker News are smart enough to realise I wasn’t saying it was equivalent since those are very different temperatures. Heat pump performance doesn’t scale linearly either, but even at 3x worse performance I could last for a long, long time stuck in a snow storm.
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      No I don’t think so, the implication was that you were comparing them and saying it was overblown. These Teslas are having issues at single digit/zero degree Fahrenheit so your anecdotal rebuttal isn’t useful.
      - thebruce87m 3y ago
        I think you’re missing my point. I’ll choose the best faith and assume I didn’t convey it properly rather than you are intentionally missing it. Here it is again: * I live in Scotland * I am subject to Scottish weather * In my Scottish weather the car operates just fine * My conservative friends are sharing stories of a handful of issues people are having in another country as proof of… something. Not sure exactly what but some culture war thing they have been tricked into spreading by their influencers. * Tesla stories are therefore amplified. There were a bunch of ICE cars also having issues but you don’t hear about them.
        b112 3y ago
        There are absolutely zero ICE cars having issues at 0F, let alone -40C, unless they are defective, or poorly maintained. Frankly, you're making a false equivalence here. You're conflating "teslas in perfect factory delivery order" not working at normal winter temps, with "a poorly maintained or defective ICE car" not working. It's not the same thing. At all. I've driven all sorts of cars sold in North America, and -40C? Fine. I've owned VWs, Toyotas, GMs, my neighbours have all manner of cars. No one has problems with -40C. No one. ICE cars, in good working order are fine, and start and work reliability at -40C. Teslas, it would seem, do not. That is not someone picking on EVs. Really, EV tech is very new, compared to ICE.

sokoloff 3y ago

Im no particular Tesla fan, but I do suspect that if 3 ICE cars were stranded with no heat and 1 Tesla was, you’d hear about the Tesla story. In some way, this is actually useful as people need to know the differences and possible new risks with an EV. On the other hand, it’s still biased.

b112 3y ago
It's not biased to report "car brand X becomes useless because of temps, unlike all other cars" That is indeed a story, and should caution those in certain environments not to buy that brand. It also shows a lack of testing, to sell cars into a market, where they won't work reliably for part of the year. And a completely different tact, a car breaking down is expected. An entire production model being flawed, and defective, is not. This is not even slightly biased.
kramerger 3y ago
There have been multiple stories about EVs getting stuck in snow then running out of battery and being towed. But the particular cases where the car itself has broken down seem to be limited to Teslas. Even in the heavily moderated Tesla Club Sweden forum people have started questioning the reliability of these cars in the winter.

thebruce87m 3y ago

Or… the Tesla ones are being amplified. I spent two hours in my car in 0C last week taking a call with my AC, heated seat and heated steering wheel on and the battery %age didn’t budge a single point. My conservative friends in Scotland are all eager to share “horror stories” of Teslas in Chicago with me. When a Tesla has a problem it literally makes world news. That should tell you how often these things happen.

edgyquant 3y ago
0 degrees Celsius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit so we’re not talking about the same kinda of temperatures here. You’re talking about right at freezing, which can be common most everywhere in the northern hemisphere at least. The other is quite a bit colder but still common in the Midwest and actually cold places. This seems like a bad faith comment when looked at in that context.
- thebruce87m 3y ago
  I’m sure most people on Hacker News are smart enough to realise I wasn’t saying it was equivalent since those are very different temperatures. Heat pump performance doesn’t scale linearly either, but even at 3x worse performance I could last for a long, long time stuck in a snow storm.
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    No I don’t think so, the implication was that you were comparing them and saying it was overblown. These Teslas are having issues at single digit/zero degree Fahrenheit so your anecdotal rebuttal isn’t useful.
    - thebruce87m 3y ago
      I think you’re missing my point. I’ll choose the best faith and assume I didn’t convey it properly rather than you are intentionally missing it. Here it is again: * I live in Scotland * I am subject to Scottish weather * In my Scottish weather the car operates just fine * My conservative friends are sharing stories of a handful of issues people are having in another country as proof of… something. Not sure exactly what but some culture war thing they have been tricked into spreading by their influencers. * Tesla stories are therefore amplified. There were a bunch of ICE cars also having issues but you don’t hear about them.
      - b112 3y ago
        There are absolutely zero ICE cars having issues at 0F, let alone -40C, unless they are defective, or poorly maintained. Frankly, you're making a false equivalence here. You're conflating "teslas in perfect factory delivery order" not working at normal winter temps, with "a poorly maintained or defective ICE car" not working. It's not the same thing. At all. I've driven all sorts of cars sold in North America, and -40C? Fine. I've owned VWs, Toyotas, GMs, my neighbours have all manner of cars. No one has problems with -40C. No one. ICE cars, in good working order are fine, and start and work reliability at -40C. Teslas, it would seem, do not. That is not someone picking on EVs. Really, EV tech is very new, compared to ICE.