For nearly a week, frigid temperatures from Chicago to North Texas have made life difficult for electric car owners, with reduced range and hours of waiting at charging stations.
On Monday, television reporters discovered a Tesla that had run out of battery while waiting in a long line to plug in at a Supercharger station in Oak Brook, Illinois, near Chicago. Temperatures reached a low of -9F (-23C).
Six of the eight charging stations in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, suburb were connected to Tesla power on Wednesday amid 7°F (-14°C) and windy temperatures. At least one driver was close to running out of fuel.
It's no secret that EVs lose some of their range in cold weather, especially sub-zero temperatures like those that hit the central region of the country this week. Studies show that range loss varies from 10% to 36%. In extremely cold environments, EVs won't charge as quickly. Some Tesla owners in the Chicago area told reporters their cars would not charge at all.
Experts agree that cold weather can be tough on EVs, but say with some planning and a few adjustments, owners should be able to travel almost normally.
Inside an EV battery, lithium ions flow through a liquid electrolyte to generate electricity. But when it gets colder, it moves slower through the electrolyte and doesn't release as much energy. This may reduce the communication range and cause the battery to drain faster.
The same thing happens in reverse. Due to the slow movement of electrons, the battery cannot receive as much power from the charging plug. This will slow down charging. The problem is that when temperatures plummet, the battery needs to be warm enough for the electrons to move. And fast charging stations like Tesla's have to be even warmer.
“Most things that are chemicals slow down at low temperatures,” said Neil Dasgupta, associate professor of mechanical and materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan. “It's what nature has given us and we have to deal with it.”
At a Supercharger station in Pittsfield Township, Michigan, just south of Ann Arbor, Ankita Bansal's Tesla had just 7% of its battery remaining. She plugged it in, but there was no power to the car. Instead, the display said the battery was heating up. After reaching the right temperature, the display says it will take her 1 hour and 50 minutes to fully charge.
“We have a long way to go,” said Bansal, a graduate student at the University of Michigan. She wanted a full charge because she doesn't have a charging station at her house.
Bruce Westlake, president of the Eastern Michigan Electric Vehicle Association, said most EVs are programmed to warm up the battery if the driver tells the vehicle's navigation system that they are about to leave for a charging station. Ta.
Westlake, who owns two Teslas, said many people who think their cars won't charge are new to EVs and don't know how to “precondition” their batteries.
“They're just learning,” he said. “And Tesla isn't very good at explaining some things.” A message was left with Tesla seeking comment.
In frigid temperatures, it can take 30 minutes for a battery to warm up before it can be charged, Westlake said. Preconditioning the battery takes some range, but typically only a few miles.
Bansal, who has owned the Tesla for just a week, didn't know about preconditioning the car before charging, but now he does.
A few stalls away from her, Kim Barney's Tesla Model 3 was charging just a little slower than normal temperatures. She ended up driving farther than she intended to go to the dentist in Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning, so she wanted to have a near full charge for the rest of the day.
So she told her car she was going to a charging station, and by the time she arrived and plugged it in, it was ready to charge.
Burney, like Westlake, said EV drivers need to plan ahead, especially during colder months. She says the car will tell you where charging stations are and how much range it has left. “The more you drive, the more you know how far you can go and how long you need to charge,” she said. Bernie said that in cold weather, batteries lose about 15 to 20 percent of their lifespan, but in cold snaps like this week's, it worsens dramatically.
In the short term, automakers are likely to come up with better ways to protect battery life and warm up batteries for charging, Dasgupta said. We are also developing new battery chemistries that are more durable in cold climates.
In the short term, Dasgupta said, as more mainstream consumers buy EVs and more automakers enter the market, they will develop models using existing lithium-ion chemistries tailored for colder climates. said. In some cases, it may be necessary to sacrifice a little overall range to improve cold-weather performance, he said.
Dasgupta said millions of dollars are being invested in new battery technology that improves cold-weather performance and will find applications in military, aerospace and undersea applications, as well as electric vehicles.
“You can be an EV driver even in cold climates,” he says. “Be optimistic and be excited about the future because the future is only going to get better.”
