It's absolutely foolish to buy an EV if you can't L2 charge at home, both practically & financially. I doubt many of these people were long distance driving in that weather.
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Chicago area superchargers failing in cold
- Thread starter DBeckwith
- Start date
It is -5 below in Omaha, I'm showing 3 of 12 stalls available for charging with 6 stalls down at the Omaha supercharger (and knowing Omaha I'm skeptical 3 cars are charging right now at 10:20 p.m. there too), 5 of 8 stalls down at Council Bluffs, 2 of 8 down at each Lincoln Nebraska supercharger. I'm with you on the EVs can't charge in the cold b.s., but, they're having some sort of issue with superchargers in this part of the country with the weather right now.
in my area a lot of the uber guys have teslas, and in fact there was even some rental/lease program from them. Making a generalization, but probably safer to assume many of them dont have a garage or dedicated level 2 to use, and are more often using DCFC and dropping in at low SOC so they can maximize uptime. Mix this with some SC problems, and new user knowledge issues (preconditioning, awareness of other chargers, ccs adapters), perfect storm.
I actually have a CCS adapter. I have never used it though because every time I check the map where Im taveling there are super chargers in the same town as well. It did cross my mind while I was waiting in line last night but I ended up thinking I have less then 20% and dropping faster then normal. I have never used one and its quite possible they are having even more non teslas trying to charge then the charger I was at. I definitely did not want to experiment last night... I just wanted to go home. It was absolutely miserable. Thanks for the thought though.
I remember noticing this in las Vegas. Lots of ubers, lyftd, and rentals. It would keep chargers busy at all hours when they otherwise wouldn't have been crowded.- several days of continuous negative temps
- holidays weekend
- lots of new Uber drivers (chargers around the city are very busy with Uber drivers, see the fleet plates)
- lots of tesla
- not a lot of new chargers (hope the new 52 stalls at ORD comes soon), need another one for MDW
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It is proving to be a lot harder to get the needed infrastructure work done in cities than in more rural or suburban areas, tbh.
Indeed. https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/vehicle-solutions/hertz/ has a link to rent a Tesla with Hertz. It points to https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/vehicle-solutions/hertz/tesla/.
It is 8F here and I just checked that it is all clear from northern Dallas to south of Kansas City (its 2F in Kansas City now). Anyone from Minneapolis or Denver?
In Rolling meadows last night the guy on the tow truck waiting in line died on the road or at his house. Not sure how. He asked me if it ever happened to me and I said no and was kinda surprised he would think it could be common enough to ask. Besides him, most other people there were in very serious jeopardy of dead batteries just from waiting in line, and from the news report it seems many did end up dying feet from chargers. That could happen to anyone and is disturbing. What would help is a system where you are put in a queue system in the app so you can shut everything down and go in a local business to keep warm while waiting. This would slow everything down while people are getting their cars when it's their turn though, so not surehow well it would work but it would save dead cars in lines. Maybe just use it the extreme cold. Although it would prevent line cutters which I saw at least 5 cars attempt to do last night as well. Just a thought.
Again, just passing what is going along here. -5 below is actually a warm up from the past several nights The high here yesterday was -8. Heading East from Omaha to Des Moines 4 of 8 are down in Shelby Iowa, 3 of 8 down in the West Des Moines supercharger, etc. My only point is whatever is happening here isn't unique to Chicago. It spans multiple construction crews, multiple generations of superchargers, multiple utility providers, and apparently several states. It is going to "warm" up over the next two days here and then get quite a bit warmer comparatively again. We'll see if some of these magically come back on line on their own or not.
Bikeman
Member
Short term temperature-wise, we're not out of the woods here in Chicago. Lows the next few night are:
Monday -12ºF (tonight)
Tuesday -12º
Wednesday -2º
Thursday 8º
Friday 0º
Saturday -7º
Sunday -10º
After that, some relief. This isn't going to get fixed very soon, methinks.
Monday -12ºF (tonight)
Tuesday -12º
Wednesday -2º
Thursday 8º
Friday 0º
Saturday -7º
Sunday -10º
After that, some relief. This isn't going to get fixed very soon, methinks.
Bikeman
Member
Odd that no one has even brought up what will happen next year, or later this year, when non-Teslas are trying to also charge 
at SC's. I sure won't mention it. 
at SC's. I sure won't mention it. Ever since I had a scare with a few nonfunctional plugs at a Supercharger in central IL (Dwight, IL) on a frigid Xmas 2022, I’ve wondered if snow/ice in the connectors might play any role in individual stalls not working in the cold.
If anyone could show that that’s a common failure mode, I’d buy a cordless heat gun and add that to my winter road trip kit.
If anyone could show that that’s a common failure mode, I’d buy a cordless heat gun and add that to my winter road trip kit.
Bikeman
Member
Actually, a portable heat gun is not a bad idea, but I'd also add a can of compressed air as well. Melting snow into water might just let it run into somewhere else where you wouldn't want it to go, maybe actually freezing the charging handle into the charger receptacle. Be careful.
This pic is from 2022 when we also had extended days of negatives in December. I drape a plastic bag over the cover and the handle, and add another over that one tied with twine to keep the whole mess blowing off. It is exactly as you see it here, right now.
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Should begin sometime this year.Odd that no one has even brought up what will happen next year, or later this year, when non-Teslas are trying to also charge
https://media.ford.com/content/ford...n-access-to-12-000-tesla-superchargers--.html mentions Spring 2024. For GM, Site Maintenance mentions "early 2024".
Spring 2024 in the US runs from March 19 to June 20th...
Hopefully this is also a lesson for some of the drivers (as I learned): don't take chances and refuel/charge ahead of severe weather.
Somebody posted that GM had already notified them that their adapter was on order.
Should begin sometime this year.
https://media.ford.com/content/ford...n-access-to-12-000-tesla-superchargers--.html mentions Spring 2024. For GM, Site Maintenance mentions "early 2024".
Spring 2024 in the US runs from March 19 to June 20th...
Somebody posted that GM had already notified them that their adapter was on order.
Not clear if that was some random 3rd-party adapter which may not be approved and likely won't work anyway until the GM side bits for payment (e.g. My Chevrolet app for older EVs like Bolt) are enabled or an official GM one.
Someone posted what's the word on the tesla adapters - tesla to J1772 Dec 24, 2023. Not sure if anything has progressed on that department.
If people are curious about other automakers jumping on the NACS bandwagon, click on Automaker at Tesla NACS Charger Adoption Tracker - EVStation.
But seriously, for anyone in those super cold areas who already has the https://shop.tesla.com/product/ccs-combo-1-adapter and may need to go on an extended drive, bring it along and install Plugshare on your phone. Have it filter for CCS/SAE Combo and explore if there are any reliable ones en route.
You may want to install then login to apps for the respective charging networks in your area (e.g. Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, Francis Energy, Blink, Flo, etc.) as credit card readers are not that infrequently broken or flaky, if even present.
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CBS and WGN at least mention some sort of advice. Keep charge levels above 20 or 30% and use pre-conditioning. And of course, don't go out unless you have to in such bitter cold.
Garage?Actually, a portable heat gun is not a bad idea, but I'd also add a can of compressed air as well. Melting snow into water might just let it run into somewhere else where you wouldn't want it to go, maybe actually freezing the charging handle into the charger receptacle. Be careful.
This pic is from 2022 when we also had extended days of negatives in December. I drape a plastic bag over the cover and the handle, and add another over that one tied with twine to keep the whole mess blowing off. It is exactly as you see it here, right now.
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