Comment by thebruce87m | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thebruce87m | Hacker News Reader

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I have no experience with those temperatures but it seems that cars that are exposed to these conditions need a whole host of ways to deal with it, special fluids, block heaters and systems to automatically start the car if it falls below certain temperatures.

Given that I think if we had a -40 snap in Scotland a great many brand new in-spec ICE cars would fail to start.

Or is this all wrong and you can just turn the key on any old ICE and go? Genuine question since I don’t live in conditions like those.

And reading the Reddit thread here suggests that a great many EV owners are doing just fine in extreme temperatures: https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/comments/194yg8x/how_are_yo...

Maybe that’s not -40 and they’ll all fail then?

> it seems that cars that are exposed to these conditions need a whole host of ways to deal with it, special fluids, block heaters and systems to automatically start the car if it falls below certain temperatures

- They don't need "a whole host of ways to deal with it".

- They don't need "special fluids", just normal ones any other car needs, properly selected for the climate.

- They don't need block heaters

- They don't need systems to automatically start the car if it falls below -39 degrees.

Given that, I don't think if there was -40 degree weather, a great many brand-new in-spec ICE cars would fail to start. After all, some places reach that weather, and the cars don't.

Yes, you can turn the key and go, in -40 degree weather. You will be cold while the car heats up, but it will turn over, at least within 2 or 3 tries. The requirements are the ones you have for maintaining an ICE car in any weather: proper oil, proper coolant mixture, and proper battery maintenance. You can admittedly get away with failing at these, in less extreme climate. For example, in the south, it can be hot enough that you can use water, with no antifreeze at all, as coolant.

As for your reddit thread, I wouldn't trust it as an accurate measure of anything, but that's neither here nor there. I'm not interested in a contest between the two, so I'll remain on the topic of whether a properly-maintained ICE car would just work in -40 degree weather (it would).

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