Tesla owner was left stranded when his Model S died in the cold.

[Doctor Amadeus]

'No way to charge this battery': Tesla owner was left stranded when his Model S died in the cold. As EV popularity skyrockets, here's why some enthusiasts might get cold feet.

Domenick Nati from Virginia, for instance, tried to charge his Tesla Model S ahead of Christmas but encountered some problems.

“I tried to charge it at my house, it won’t let me. So there’s no way to charge this battery or let it warm up in the cold,” Nati said in a TikTok video.

He then took the car to a Tesla Supercharger station and plugged it in but it failed to charge again.

The vehicle showed a message that the battery was heating and the car had a range of 19 miles at 1:11 pm.

“3:03, almost two hours later — battery is heating, 19 miles,” Nati read from the vehicle display with frustration later that day.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-wa...140000238.html

So are you going to buy an electric car soon if so do you have your eye on one?

Personally since 2016 I swore my next vehicle would be electric. But the article has been a big part of my fears since I need a truck and live and retire in Alaska.

Getting stranded in the cold would be an obstacle.

My eye was on the Ford Lightening but my wife likes the Hyundai Ioniq.

If you have an electric what one would you recommend and what’s your experience been with them?

[MCMLXXXII]

Nah, I'm a petrolhead. Got an old Dodge Charger for fun rides and a 2 year old Audi for normal transportation. I will only drive electric if petrol cars are banned or gasoline was unavailable.

[Biglog]

I knew someone who became stranded in a snowstorm in a gasoline car in Alaska (they worked on a pipeline there in a very rural area), and he froze to death. The reason I mention it being to show that this tragedy can happen regardless of whether a vehicle is gas or electric. So don't conclude electric cars are bad just from that, because gasoline cars are no savior either against freezing temps if you run out of fuel in the boonies. That risk isn't unique to electric cars by any stretch. Cell phones have definitely helped reduce the occurrences of that, it was quite a bit more common before them.

In the gas crisis in the 70's/80's there was a big push for diesel cars, because at the time diesel was cheaper than unleaded fuel. Over time there were more diesel pumps at stations (supply/demand), but like electric charging stations now they were kind of a pain to find. Eventually gas prices normalized, and the smell, smoke, noise, of diesel cars and the hassle to find diesel pumps killed off the diesel push. In theory the same could happen with electric cars, but more likely they will win out over the next 5-10 years and gas cars will become like today's cd players and cassette decks - things that still work but are a vestige of a prior era.

[Endus]

I knew someone who became stranded in a snowstorm in a gasoline car in Alaska (they worked on a pipeline there in a very rural area), and he froze to death. The reason I mention it being to show that this tragedy can happen regardless of whether a vehicle is gas or electric. So don't conclude electric cars are bad just from that, because gasoline cars are no savior either against freezing temps if you run out of fuel in the boonies. That risk isn't unique to electric cars by any stretch. Cell phones have definitely helped reduce the occurrences of that, it was quite a bit more common before them.

Block heaters are a thing that most Americans have apparently never heard of. Would likely be a fix here, too, you'd just have to shift the heating to the batter rather than the engine block.

[Rustedsaint]

I don’t plan on ever buying an electric unless I win the lotto and can afford to have multiple vehicles. I live in a rural area which can get pretty cold during the winter so I would only drive an electric in the summer.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Block heaters are a thing that most Americans have apparently never heard of. Would likely be a fix here, too, you'd just have to shift the heating to the batter rather than the engine block.

Yeah, it's weird. As someone who grew up in the frozen north of British Columbia, block heaters were ubiquitous.

And yeah, seems like all that is needed is a way to keep the battery from gettting too cold. Since Electric cars have to be plugged in anyway...some kind of block heater type system that can both charge the battery and keep it warm seems to make sense.

[bmjclark]

My next car is going to be an electric one. I want it to be a Hyundai Ioniq 6 but that would involve hyundai getting it's head out of it's ass and delivering electric cars to Canada which seems unlikely.

[Noctiphobia]

"man has problems with his car because it's cold"
How is this a news story? Ah right, because it's about a newer, less popular type of car, so if one of those has problems when it's cold, it's basically a dealbreaker. Now where did I put my block heater?

[Kaleredar]

I mean, "it's too hot/cold/whatever outside, car wont work" is not something exclusive to electric cars.

I'll likely buy an electric car in the future. Currently I don't have a place to charge one at home, and I think electric car charging stations need the standardization and ubiquity of gas cars.

[PACOX]

American infrastructure is too sparatic in quality and we rely too much on highway driving for electric vehicles to be viable for a lot of people. It's bad enough getting stuck in a gas powered car but your chances of roadside assistance being available is a lot higher.


Unrelated to the story

[Muzjhath]

I already have an electric car.
A fist 500e

[Witchblade77]

price need to come down a LOT AND tech needs to improve a bit. I'm not against electric cars but to say that they are way WAY out of my budget that I'm willing to spend on a car is an understatement (according to Kelly blue book, average cost is just under 60k. for comparison, AFTER all the fees, my current car was $10k and that was at the upper end of my preferred budget). last I checked, charging also costs money so even though its cheaper then gas for the equivalent amount of miles I'm currently getting per gallon, it would take a long while before I get anywhere near breaking even overall.

[Jotaux]

The cold does reduce the range of my Tesla but this guy couldn’t even charge. Should have contacted Tesla service and had that fixed.

[Katchii]

With how often I'm driving and the limitations on distance and charging speeds and locations, I just can't think of myself owning an electric car.

It's like having a toddler with a nap time, having to plan your whole day/trip around when and how you'll get to charge it. No thanks.

[Logwyn]

With how often I'm driving and the limitations on distance and charging speeds and locations, I just can't think of myself owning an electric car.

It's like having a toddler with a nap time, having to plan your whole day/trip around when and how you'll get to charge it. No thanks.

And yet....you have to plan around getting a fill up with a gas or diesel powered car. Yeah the range is longer but you still have to plan.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

And yet....you have to plan around getting a fill up with a gas or diesel powered car. Yeah the range is longer but you still have to plan.

It's not really "planning" with gas cars. Gas stations are ubiquitous and it only takes a couple minutes to fill a tank.

[Endus]

It's not really "planning" with gas cars. Gas stations are ubiquitous and it only takes a couple minutes to fill a tank.

That's essentially a sunk cost fallacy; once we get charging stations to be as-ubiquitous, this ceases to be a real concern. And if we're gonna try and shift away from gasoline at some point entirely, those existing stations will need a new reason to exist, like charging stations. DC fast charging techs like Tesla's Supercharger take nominally longer than filling a gas tank, but we're talking 5 minutes for gas vs 15 minutes for a charge, so functionally it's not terrible particularly when it's likely a fully-electric society would have home charges too, so your car's pretty much always leaving home at a full charge, meaning you're only needing a charge on the go if you're exceeding the normal range off a single charge.

Plus, there's upcoming techs like EV-charging roads which could revitalize long-distance travel. You don't need the whole roadway set up to charge; most modern EVs have a range of better than 200km. So a highway with a charging stretch every 100km or so sufficient to charge you up while driving would essentially let you drive until the human driver needs to stop, not the vehicle. Probably don't need this in cities at all because most in-city traffic doesn't exceed the range on EVs to begin with. There's a cost to overhaul highways and do these installations, of course, but at that point, it starts to be just better than internal combustion engines. You can even defray the construction costs by having the price of energy jacked up slightly, as an "electricity toll", intended to pay off the construction costs and, eventually, be a net revenue system for the State.

Combine this with the upcoming tech of AI drivers, and it could end up revitalizing transport completely.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

That's essentially a sunk cost fallacy

It's not really a sunk cost fallacy... it's just a factor a person needs to consider when buying an electric vehicle in 2023. With more investment into charging stations and other infrastructure...that can change.

[Witchblade77]

It's not really a sunk cost fallacy... it's just a factor a person needs to consider when buying an electric vehicle in 2023. With more investment into charging stations and other infrastructure...that can change.

this plus the cost of the car in general.

in 2023 - electric car is a luxury for a lot of us who have to have a car as a primary method of transportation.

all of those things Endus is mentioning, for USA at least? best case scenario - DECADES away. I mean... in my neck of woods, we've been waiting for a passenger train line rebuilt. not built from scratch - restored from previously existing line. for decades now. and its just extending the train line, while repairing already existing tracks and stations.

hell forget that - it takes multiple years to repair regular roads and even then, its patch jobs, not anything truly long lasting. it took half a year to replace a goddamn traffic light at a pretty crucial local intersection. this is out reality right now. in 2023. I cannot see it changing in the next few years, I can barely imagine it changing in the next few decades. which makes electric cars for most people not a feasible proposition. and regular cars not a sunk cost fallacy, but the only viable option for the forseeable future.

[Katchii]

And yet....you have to plan around getting a fill up with a gas or diesel powered car. Yeah the range is longer but you still have to plan.

Not the same. Minutes vs hours to fill up and the difference in availability. Charging stations aren't everywhere like gas stations are.

As @Endus alluded to though, once the availability of charging stations is as ubiquitous as gas stations and the time to charge is significantly lower, this can change. But that's not the case right now.