Charging is harder in a deep freeze, but a little planning helps

TOM KRISHER | Associated Press – Jan 28, 2024 – Lincoln Journal Star

My cmnt: This pro-Ev article only tells a small part of the truth about EVs and their batteries. You can read any number of articles I’ve posted on this site about the utter environmental, social, cost and usability disaster EVs are. They are not good for the environment in anyway whatsoever! The strip mining and water polluting extraction of rare earth metals from the ground to make EV batteries is far worse than pumping oil from the ground. Batteries will NEVER be a good way to power vehicles other than perhaps small taxis around a small urban area. They are nearly useless in cold (under 28 degrees) or moderately warm (over 78 degrees) weather and in really cold (under 20 degrees) let alone very cold (subzero) they are just worthless. Heating and cooling requires far more energy than these will ever put out for any normal highway driving. And who has the time nor desire to stand around for multiple hours waiting for these damn things to recharge? And once the batteries are shot replacing them will be a prohibitively expensive nightmare. Vapid Libs also ignore the pollution necessary to produce the EXTRA electricity these worthless vehicles consume. Leftist, nature worshiping Libs have had multiple BAD ideas (like communism) over the centuries but EVs are the worst.

The recent frigid temperatures from Chicago to northern Texas made life painful for electric-vehicle owners, with reduced driving range and hours of waiting at charging stations.

In Oak Brook, Illinois, near Chicago, television reporters found Teslas that were running out of juice while in long lines for plugs at a Supercharger station. The temperature hit a low of minus 9 Fahrenheit.

Outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Teslas were plugged in at six of eight charging stations last week as the wind howled with a temperature of 7 degrees Fahrenheit. At least one driver was nearly out of juice.

It’s well known that EVs lose some of their travel range in the cold, especially in subzero temperatures. Studies found that range loss varies from 10% to 36%.

EVs also don’t charge as quickly in extreme cold. Some Tesla owners near Chicago told reporters their cars wouldn’t charge at all.

Experts acknowledge that cold weather can be hard for EVs, but they say with some planning and a little adjustment, owners should be able to travel pretty much as normal.

What’s the problem?

Inside EV batteries, lithium ions flow through a liquid electrolyte, producing electricity. But they travel more slowly through the electrolyte when it gets cold and don’t release as much energy. That cuts into the range and can deplete a battery faster.

The same happens in reverse. Since electrons move more slowly, the battery can’t accept as much electricity from a charging plug.

That slows down charging. The problem is that when temperatures plunge,

batteries have to be warm enough for the electrons to move. And they have to be even warmer at fast charging stations like Tesla’s.

“Pretty much anything that’s a chemical substance slows down when you get to a low temperature,” said Neil Dasgupta, associate professor of mechanical and materials science engineering at the University of Michigan. “That’s just something that nature has given us, and we have to deal with that.”

At a Supercharger station in Pittsfield Township, Michigan, just south of Ann Arbor, the battery in Ankita Bansal’s Tesla had only 7% of its charge left. She plugged it in, but the car wouldn’t take electricity. Instead, the display said the battery was heating up. After it hits the proper temperature, it would take an hour and 50 minutes to get to a full charge, the display said.

“I have a long way to go,” said Bansal, a University of Michigan graduate student who wanted to get to a full charge because she doesn’t have a charging station at home.

How to make it work

Bruce Westlake, president of the Eastern Michigan Electric Vehicle Association, said most EVs are programmed to warm the battery if the driver tells the vehicle’s navigation system that a trip to the charging station is coming.

Many of those who think their cars won’t charge are new to EVs and don’t know how to “precondition” their batteries, said Westlake, who has two Teslas.

“They’re just learning,” he said. “And Tesla isn’t very good at explaining some things.”

In frigid temperatures, it can take a half hour to warm the battery so it’s ready to charge, Westlake said. Preconditioning the battery does cost some range, although it’s usually only a few miles, he said.

Bansal, who has had her Tesla for only a week, didn’t know about preconditioning the car before charging, but she does now.

A few stalls away from her, Kim Burney’s Tesla Model 3 was charging just a little slower than it does in normal temperatures. She had driven farther than she thought on a trip to her dentist in Ann Arbor and wanted to get close to a full charge for the rest of the day’s travels.

So she told the car she was going to the charging station and it was ready by the time she arrived and plugged it in.

Like Westlake, Burney said EV drivers need to plan, especially in cold weather. The car, she said, will tell you where charging stations are and how much range you have left. “The more you drive it, the more you’re comfortable knowing how far you can go and how much to charge it,” she said.

Burney said she loses roughly 15% to 20% of her battery range in cold weather, but it gets dramatically worse in cold snaps like the recent one.