Cost and charger availability are two of the chief concerns of most people considering purchasing an electric vehicle (EV). It turns out there’s another potential speed bump to consider.
Cold weather.
A number of Chicago-area Tesla drivers discovered the downside of owning an EV in a place where temperatures can fall below zero degrees—the batteries can die. That’s what led to several dead Teslas at a charging station at The Evergreen Marketplace in Evergreen Park.
The cold temperatures killed the batteries, leaving the vehicles stuck in the lot. Meanwhile, some of the charging stations weren’t working and the ones that were took longer than usual to charge.
"I've been here for over five hours at this point, and I still have not gotten to charge my car,” a Tesla driver told CBS News Chicago. “A charge that should take 45 minutes is taking two hours.”
At least 10 EVs had to be towed, but Tesla does advise owners to keep the charge level above 20 percent in cold weather, CBS News reports. The manufacturer noted that its vehicles typically use more energy in freezing temperatures because it takes more power to heat the battery and the cabin.
“We have made several updates to improve your driving experience in freezing temperatures, including better overall thermal performance, quicker Supercharging, and improved cabin conditioning,” the company said on its website.
What EV battery weather damage means for commercial vehicles
The cold weather issue isn’t limited to Teslas—many EVs can lose their efficiency as temperatures drop, according to Consumer Reports. Batteries can die faster in the cold, but even when an EV does work, it could lose some of its driving range, Scott Case, co-founder and CEO of Recurrent, a battery research firm, told CBS MoneyWatch. Below-freezing temperatures can decrease an EV’s range by 30 percent on some of the most popular models.
That means an EV that can typically go 200 to 215 miles on a fully charged battery can only make it 150 to 175 miles in the cold, per Recurrent.
The reduced mileage might still work for passenger vehicles, as the average EV owner drives 30 miles a day. It’s a different story for commercial EV drivers, however. They can’t afford for their battery to run out of juice prior to their destination. A customer is most likely waiting for them at the end of their trip.
In the event freezing temperatures does decrease their vehicle’s standard driving range, a charging station with frozen, inoperable EV chargers also does them no good. Commercial EV drivers also don’t have the luxury to wait for slower than usual charging like the Chicago Tesla owners did—their business relies on them getting where they need to be on time. From a safety perspective, the last thing anyone wants is for commercial EV drivers out in the freezing cold looking for a charger because their truck ran out of power sooner than expected.
With that in mind, it is critical that commercial electric vehicle owners and drivers take as any precautions as they can when they know temperatures are going to fall into below freezing territory. This could include warming up the EV’s cabin while the vehicle is connected to a charger prior to taking it on the road.
“This means the car will use energy from the grid [charger] to get warm instead of the battery itself,” Alex Knizek, manager of automotive testing and insights at Consumer Reports, told CBS MoneyWatch. “You can use the vehicle's smartphone app to do this or set a departure time within the infotainment screen in the car.”
Knizek also recommended preconditioning the EVs battery prior to using a DC fast charger. This can be done by pointing the navigation system to a DC fast charger or a button that can start the process.
"This uses the battery energy to heat itself up to the optimal temp, which allows better fast charging performance,” Knizek said. “It costs some range to do this, but generally the payoff is worth it.”
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