Hacker News Reader

Comment by not_the_fda | Hacker News Reader

Its been -10F in the upper midwest the last few days. Lots BEV and ICE vehicles are dead. Its not just an EV issue.

I drove to the UP and back the last few days with a 2019 Model 3 SR+ (mentioning this so people understand the range I was working with) with no issues besides increased charging stops because of road and weather conditions. This issue is a specific issue with this charger and the location. This sucks for all the drivers with dead cars, but I feel like the situation is being mischaracterized by this shallow news article. There were failures on Tesla the company to mark this charger as inoperable so the route planner would not use it and for them to not repair the location in a timely manner. There has been a lot of discussion in the Tesla and Chicago subreddit about what is happening in the area to cause this situation with these chargers, so it would be nice to get more information from Tesla itself.

Oh and yes this is not just an EV issue. Just sharing my experience of my car being totally fine traveling in this weather.

> This issue is a specific issue with this charger and this location

This is contradicted by the article.

I should have said "specific chargers around the area" probably since there were other locations with issues. But still, I had no issues charging in the Chicago area though.

In both cases, it's the batteries in the cars that died. The ICE engines work just fine once you warm them up and jump them.

This! I’ve boosted cars in -30 and it takes a bit of extra crank because the fluids are all thick in the cold. But it works. It’s not a bad idea in really cold weather (-40) to start your car every 4 hours or so to keep it warm.

Edit: the gas cars failing to start are almost always having old batteries that need replacing. In a really cold climate you don’t want to push 7 beyond years. Some batteries are in rough shape after 5.

Would removing your car battery and taking it in over night help? (Gas car)

If you have a garage, your best bet is a battery tender, which keeps the battery charged overnight and warm enough not to freeze.

A lot of people also use engine block heaters. There's different types and they all work a bit differently. Usually you would start the engine warmer a few hours before you use the car instead of overnight.

Easier to get a jumper boost or a new 12V battery than to recharge a high voltage one away from home.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com