Line of abandoned Tesla vehicles near Tesla charging stations in Chicago area
Many Tesla vehicle owners were unable to properly charge their vehicles or even get their vehicles charged. Deep freeze weather impacted the ability of the charging stations to service their vehicles. As a result, many drivers simply left their vehicles near the charging stations in favor of getting rides from others.
From FOXBusiness:
Desperate Tesla owners in and around Chicago were seen trying to charge their vehicles with no luck amid frigid temperatures that have gripped the Midwest.
Charging stations have essentially turned into car graveyards in recent days as temperatures have dropped to the negative double digits, Fox Chicago reported.
“Nothing. No juice. Still on zero percent,” Tyler Beard, who had been trying to recharge his Tesla at an Oak Brook, Illinois Tesla supercharging station since Sunday afternoon, told the news outlet. “And this is like three hours being out here after being out here three hours yesterday.”
Beard and several other Tesla owners were trying to charge their cars amid long lines and abandoned cars at other Tesla charging stations in the Chicago area, the news station reported.
“This is crazy. It’s a disaster. Seriously,” said Tesla owner Chalis Mizelle.
Mizelle said she abandoned her car and got a ride from a friend after hers would not charge.
FOXBusiness as additional information here.
Category: Global Warming, Good Idea Fairy, Society
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!🤣🤣🤣
But, hey, what do I know…just an electrical engineer with 30 years in the power distribution business.
I’m not an electrical engineer, but I do have experience in Teton range winters. If the cold will sap a normal car battery, what in the hell did they think was gonna happen to the batteries in an EV? Go ask Teton county WY how their “green energy” electric shuttle buses worked out.
Let’s keep up the trend; I even less qualified than most but was a trained and semi-experienced automotive and material handling equipment mechanic, specializing in electrical diagnostics and electric fork trucks. There’s a reason why outside equipment is rarely battery powered. A climate-controlled warehouse is one thing, but a frigid lumber yard is quite another. Batteries + cold = bad. Hell, diesel + cold = not so good (hence engine block heaters).
I was a maintenance man at a Wyoming ski area before the Army. Diesel pickups were still a new thing, and sitting in a parking lot for three days was fatal. Couldn’t even jump start them. Dead batteries and gelled fuel.
Washington state has 5 ferry boats out of service while Governor Inslee is trying to get electric ferry boats built to replace them… provided they are only manufactured in Washington. Nobody is holding their breath.
Battery powered ferry boats? What could POSSIBLY go wrong.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cargo-ship-fire-netherlands-ev-electric-vehicle-battery-north-sea-freemantle-highway/
EV’s can be a part of the future, but not the only arrow in our quiver. Like everything there is a time and a place, and a deep freeze and long trips are definitely NOT a place for EV’s. I can’t imagine my car being dead-as-doornail because my “green” EV can’t get a charge from a coal/gas powered power plant.
Forklift, wheelchair etc. but thats about it for now.
Short range electric bikes and scooters
Sometimes the choices we make come with unexpected consequences.
Who knew that batteries were less efficient in extreme temperature differences…oh that’s right the entire fucking world….
I can’t wait for some idiot to try using starting fluid on a dead battery.
This is shocking news.
(rimshot)
I thought you’d get a charge out of that.
NO resistance at all to these cheesy electrical puns!
Resistance is futile!
You’ll be getting a lot of static for that one.
Jeff’s gonna come at me with lightning in his eyes
So much resistance to this subject hertz my brain.
He does have a low capacitance of people trying to be punny.
He does get a bit amped up.
It’s just normal reactance.
Well, my manplug tingles…
I missed all the puns. Just got on the site at 5PM
When the temp gets down to zero point dip shit, thats the time to worry about batteries.
IIRC, reactance is sort of the AC equivalent to capacitance in DC.
Why’re you guys making bad puns? It’s revolting.
What’re ya gonna do, discharge us?
It’s what we do. 🤣
It’s watt we do. Your auto correct is really working well.
I missed it all getting on the site at 5PM. working on my paint by numbers and ignoring todays action puns
Watt you say?
Just goes to show that people who drive EV’s are wired differently.
Ohm y y’all are silly 🙃
Watt is love,
Baby don’t Hertz me,
No Morse.
There’s a long line of cars
And they’re trying to get through
There’s no single explanation
There’s no central destination
I’m gonna induct you all into the hall effect of fame.
Fortunately I’m well grounded…
ROFLOLMFAO
The Immutable Law of Unintended Consequences
(but only to those with less than one brain cell to rub together)
Yep, me too, ever since this news popped up on my feeds last Sunday night. In related news on EVs, Hertz is dumping a boat load of rental EVs that are not renting (replacing that fleet with ICE vehicles) and dealerships with lots full of unsold EVs.
The 12 volt battery in my Juke Nismo has been a little sketchy of late, not having been driven since before Thanksgiving, a 3 year old cheap chynessium (emergency) replacement, and temps in the 20s. Went out Tuesday just to try him and barely turned over. Hooked up the jumper cables to my F150 and Little Josey fired right up. Gonna give Him a 60 mile round trip run on Saturday to see if He’ll charge up good and see if he starts up on Tuesday after the next cold snap. If the battery is still acting sketchy it’ll be replaced on Tuesday with a real battery.
Evs have their place in the world but they are NOT for everyone and/or every locale.
We’re scheduled (according to Uncle Sam) to receive a pair of EV pickups sometime before the second coming. Won’t really be a big deal, we take short trips, don’t tow trailers, have plenty of time for charging, and very few days below freezing. Army has spent a fortune on solar charging stations all over post with exactly zero use currently. Are we saving the environment? Depends on who you ask. There ain’t no free lunch and there ain’t no green energy.
Hitchhiking be like all cold and shit.
Were they lined up in series or parallel?
I imagine with that kind of weather they still had their hubcaps.
I see what you did there…
Snickers for every Electric Vehicle owner, since they are not going anywhere for awhile.
Better have some Milkyways on hand in case some of those owners are allergic to nuts.
Meanwhile, my old F150s fire right up.
Flathead, no doubt.
Dagnabitt people, just call The Electric Company.
Electric company Family guy – YouTube
This brings happiness to my cold and black heart.
All of this trouble could be avoided if we just adopted the Amish lifestyle. And they make a pretty good potato salad.
I’ve never had Amish potato salad. Is it mustard-based?
Give it a shot.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/73875/amish-potato-salad/
In other news, despite record demand for electricity in Texas exceeding that of 2021, nothing happened.
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/texas-power-grid-record-demand/269-51176190-9145-4190-ad9e-cfe91dee8e06
Someone learned from experience?
I rocked down to Electric Avenue, but I did not take it higher 😐
Phil Monkress took it higher.
Eddie Grant? Here you go, from his first band, “The Equals”, circa 1968:
https://youtu.be/EmsZhBqICEk?si=PJTFk_79PhS_BBHT
This song is a jam, although those Brit kids can’t dance a lick!
Who says hybrids are completely useless.. I know, the article is about electric vehicles, but isn’t a prius one of the original electric vehicle?
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a46408706/thieves-steal-classic-chevy-impala-by-pushing-it-with-toyota-prius/
Even the career car thieves won’t touch them
I wonder if having a small diesel auxiliary engine on board might not be practical. 30 hp might be plenty to run an onboard charger and power the vehicle when the batteries are not ready for sustainable use.
Diesel…in freezing weather? See fm2176 and SFC D’s comments above. Plus, from the sounds of the issue, it was so cold that the batteries wouldn’t take a charge. At that point, buy a hybrid.
Enough kerosene added to the diesel fuel will keep it from gelling, and a plug-in warmer will vastly help starting the engine, but the cold temperatures will still KO the propulsion batteries.
Oh, I know about the diesels. I used to start up paralleling switchgear for multiple big diesel generators. I’m talking like 4 or 5 Caterpillar 3516 gensets…65 liters of displacement per engine pumping out over 3000 horsepower each. It was something to be around them when they lit off.
I always liked the sound of a turbocharged EMD Prime Mover, especially a 20-645!